Philadelphia, PA (My Sportsbook) - It's easy to criticize when you're not on the field with the U.S. team.

It's much easier to criticize when you're watching the U.S. disappoint thousands of soccer fans on TV, comfortably relaxed in your office chair. And it's very, very easy to pick out things that head coach Bruce Arena should or should not have done in the days and months leading up to this tournament.

However, as a soccer fan, you have the right to be upset, angered and embarrassed for the U.S. soccer team's showing in Germany. No longer is the expression "well, at least we made it this far" acceptable in normal soccer conversation. No longer is it appropriate to say the team "looked okay at times," or mention to someone that "at least the U.S. scored one goal." The U.S. battled to get to the '06 World Cup and previous world cups. The team deserved to be in those tournaments and deserved to be in this one as well.

Perhaps these expression worked years and years ago, but now, in 2006, they are simple and ignorant cliches that should never appear in any soccer conversation. Ever.

Watching the United States play soccer over the last two weeks has been a frustrating event, needless to say, for myself, and probably for any of you who are kind enough to read this story.

From the start to the finish, nothing appeared to be right, Landon Donovan was out of sorts, Brian McBride couldn't score a goal and Arena's expressions from the sideline made us all cringe.

The U.S. came to Germany representing the thousands of soccer fans who believed that this could be a great World Cup for America and its growing soccer program. The team represented the idea that this could be a year that demonstrated to England, France, Germany, Spain and nearly every other country that soccer in the United States was alive and well -- that soccer was here to stay, that Americans cared about the greatest sport in the world.

Instead, and I'm only wagering a guess, the fans from outside of the United States probably aren't thinking any of the above thoughts after watching the U.S. sputter through this year's tournament.

Again, I hesitate to criticize, but I am struggling to prevent my mind from wandering over every little thing the U.S. did wrong in 2006 -- every substitute, or lack there of, every roster position, every set piece, every scoring opportunity.

The U.S. failed, and it failed mightily after so much was expected. Perhaps its FIFA's fault for its inaccurate and frankly ridiculous world rankings. Perhaps its the media's fault for suddenly jumping on the U.S. soccer bandwagon, claiming this was the year to be an American soccer fan. Maybe it was Donovan's fault, Kasey Keller's fault, the referee's fault, who knows?

Either way, there has to be some changes, because the final whistle that brought a close to the U.S. team's World Cup future in '06 is an enormous eye opener.

SOME THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND

The U.S. had chances in Thursday's match...plenty of them. The team had five more corner kicks than Ghana. The U.S. only had one less shot on goal than its opponent, and 16 fouls compared to Ghana's 32.

Yes, there was a very questionable foul in the box by Oguchi Onyewu that led to the game-winner, but that is no excuse for a team that only found the back once in the entire tournament.

"I'm very disappointed in the judgment of the referee for that penalty kick call and putting our team down at half and having to chase the game for that second half," Arena said.

The set pieces were awful, with one in particular from Donovan, who trashed an opportunity with a kick that soared out of bounds in the second half.

There were problems, stupid mistakes and poor decisions against Italy. There was Arena's failure to use the team's third substitute, Pablo Mastroeni's two- footed red card worthy slide tackle and Eddie Pope's two yellow cards.

There was the loss to the Czech Republic to open the tournament.

There were no shortage of problems with far too few excuses available.

TIME FOR ACTION

Who's to blame for the embarrassing exit in the first round, for the poor offensive effort and inconsistent playing style?

My vote goes to Arena, who probably should step down following the team's return trip to the United States.

The U.S. needs a clean slate ahead of the next round of qualifying, and bringing in a new, perhaps international coach would be a great choice.

Arena has accomplished incredible things for the U.S. National Team and the soccer program overall in this country. He has plenty of experience and a good knowledge for the game, but when it comes to international soccer, the skipper appears lost and outwitted each time.

With that in mind, maybe it's time for Arena to say goodbye to U.S. Soccer and for U.S. Soccer to say goodbye to Arena.

Not even an early and depressing first round exit from the biggest tournament in the world was enough to stop reporters from questioning the coach's future with the team.

"First of all it's not my decision," Arena said. "Secondly, I don't know how I feel with the whole thing, I have some other opportunities I need to examine as well, but i don't think that's important right now."

Whatever those "other opportunities" are, they should probably be given some good thought, because it's time to forget and time to move on.

U.S. Soccer should invest in a coach with more international experience, someone that could offer the team a renovation, complete with a new style of play and new strategies that will better challenge opponents.

Perhaps if Germany fails to get past the knockout round, head coach Juergen Klinsmann will be sent packing. Should this happen, perhaps the Germany skipper would be interested in making a move to the U.S. team. After all, Klinsmann does have a home in California.

I like Arena, but it's time to welcome in a new era of coaching that makes the U.S. a real threat, despite what the FIFA World rankings may or may not suggest.

SO LONG SOCCER

With the close of the U.S. team's future for this year's World Cup, it's unfortunately time to pack up and put away U.S. soccer on the main stage for another four years.

If only soccer was a bigger sport in the U.S., if only Major League Soccer was taken more seriously. Either way, the U.S. is out of the tournament and the rest of the world probably couldn't care less.