Yes, it is. Today's shellacking by Brazil - an entirely justified 4-0 win that could have easily been worse - is a bell-wether moment for U.S. Soccer. And I hope this fiasco in Hangzhou will wake up the suits in Chicago. Don't belive Gulati's glib nonsense that the team hasn't gone south, that others have improved instead. The truth is that that's just ducking responsibility, something USSF is damn good at. (Remember those claims that "we never told anyone that the 2006 men's team was special?" Yeah, right.) Here's the truth: The American WNT has played the same style since 1990 - it's predictable, tactically deficient and over-reliant on athleticism. The truth is, the USA is a bad team for a top-flight pretender, and this entire tournament showed it. It's far past time to teach our players how to trap a ball, how to see the field and how to pass and shoot. It's far past time to end the coddling and enabling that poisons all aspects of American soccer - men's and women's. It's also time to end the nostalgia. Ironically, the best words on that subject came from the keeper who got benched: "The fact of the matter is that it is not 2004 anymore. It's 2007 and you have to live in the present and you can't live in the past," said Hope Solo. "It does not matter what someone did in an Olympic gold medal game three years ago. Now is what matters and that's what I think." Good for her. It's nice to see someone off that team finally say something. How do we fix this? A good step might be hiring competent coaches, with legit international experience. Another step might be blowing up the residency program and forming a true framework to train soccer players in the USA. Another thing that would be nice would be someone with the guts to tell some of these folks they flat-out aren't good enough to play the international game, and to stop listening to their own publicity machines. Finally, it would be nice if the Fed would stop making excuses and start acting. (I'm, of course, dreaming about that last part, but it needs to be said.) Will any of this happen? Not unless you fans demand it. Not unless you scream and holler and start boycotting games, hitting the Fed where it hurts - at the gate. That's what fans around the world do - do American fans have the guts to do the same? I'm not sure, but I'd like to think so.