Go ahead, try to make believe you’re not at least a little excited about World Cup Soccer this year. If you like sports at all, especially sports involving a ball, you’ve just got to take note of what the U.S. World Cup team has accomplished.

In case you missed it, (you had to make some effort to not hear about it this past week) the U.S. defeated Mexico 2-0 early Monday morning, our time, to get into the quarterfinals in the biggest tournament in the world.

Biggest, that is, by virtue of having the largest fan base on the planet. More people watch, live or by TV, or listen to, soccer matches than any other sport.

The U.S. team now is one of the best eight of 32 teams which started the tournament. They were to play Germany Friday morning, our time, to get into the semis … the Final Four. They will play at Jeonju Stadium in Seoul, South Korea. The results will be known when you read this.

It also was easy to remain excited about hockey this past week, as the Detroit Red Wings won the Stanley Cup for the third time in the past six years. The bad news is that the team probably is going to be broken up.

Head Coach Scotty Bowman announced his retirement immediately after the game five victory over the Carolina Hurricanes. Bowman has one nine Stanley Cup titles, three of them with the Red Wings. He won five with the Montreal Canadiens and one with the Pittsburgh Penguins.

That makes him one of the most successful coaches in professional sports.

Goalie Dominik Hasek has been considering retirement. He is getting on in years too, at least as hockey goalies go, at the ripe old age of 37.

And Chris Chelios, at 40, may play a few more years, but his contract with Detroit has ended and he is a free agent.

Some thoughts while watching the Wings’ celebration on winning the NHL championship.

I don’t think there is any trophy in sports like Lord Stanley’s Cup. Not the Lombardi Trophy for Super Bowl winners, not the World Series trophy, not even the Borg-Warner Trophy, awarded to the winner of the Indianapolis 500.

The Borg-Warner probably comes closest, since there is only one and it bears the names and likenesses of all who have won it.

The Stanley Cup, in kind, contains on its various pedestals the names of the members of each team which has won it.

But when you watch a team which has just won the Stanley Cup, it’s obviously special. There is a certain ceremony, developed over the years and based on tradition, which determines who lifts the trophy first, to whom he hands it, how it is carried around the arena and shared with the fans … what other sport does this?

If you are a professional hockey player you don’t even try to touch The Cup unless you’ve earned the right. It’s unique … there’s nothing like it.

There’s a saying which goes something like, “You’ll never go broke underestimating the taste of the American public.”

It looks like NASCAR and Britney Spears’ movie production company are going to bank on that statement and expect us all to shell out money to see it.

Espn.com reported on the announcement this week that Spears will co-star in the movie, which is in the preliminary writing and development stage and has yet to be titled.

It will be written by Jim Hart, who penned such notable screenplays (gag) as “Contact” and “Hook.”

Spears will play the daughter of a NASCAR team owner who, quoting the article, “Uses her knowledge and experience in the family business to inspire a former NASCAR driver to regain his desire to return to NASCAR racing.” (We’ll always have Paris … Kentucky)

With Britney’s navel and car wrecks in the same movie, how can it miss?