A CONCACAF nation may never win the World Cup

	Oguchi Onyewu and the U.S. don't appear to be any closer to competing for a World Cup title than they were 12 years ago. Simon Bruty/SI
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Around these parts, a lot of us have a second national team. I'm partial to Germany, having taken Deutsch für zwei Jahren in college. My friends and family have been known to pull for Italy and Brazil in World Cups.

If you are from a CONCACAF nation, a second national team is a must. Everyone needs a rooting interest in the latter stages of the World Cup, and since no team from this region may ever sniff the semifinals, a backup team is vital to remain engaged in the tournament.

Germany 2006 has not just been an affirmation of Europe's dominance. It has also served as a reminder to all that CONCACAF is quite possibly the worst soccer region on the planet.

As my colleague Gabriele Marcotti pointed out, CONCACAF won only one of 12 first-round games. Mexico accounted for the lone victory, but Group D's top seed regressed in each game in the first round before giving a valiant effort and losing to Argentina in the Round of 16. Trinidad and Tobago put forth three valiant efforts but didn't score a goal. Costa Rica and the U.S. were pathetic, combining for five losses and a draw in six lousy games.

A CONCACAF nation will never win the World Cup. It's debatable whether one will even reach a quarterfinal again. Perhaps Mexico stands a chance of advancing to the deep stages of a World Cup, but it would have to be on Mexican soil -- and then El Tri would need to figure out a way to play all its knockout games in the Estadio Azteca.

Numerous theories abound on how to fix the region's ails, on how the U.S. can consistently compete at World Cups, on how Mexico can take a space alongside Argentina and Italy as a true world power. Nevertheless, those theories are an exercise in futility. For no matter what happens this fact will remain unchanged: A CONCACAF nation will never win a World Cup.

Here are some of the more prevalent theories to help lift CONCACAF from a laughable confederation to one that is semi-competitive and reasons why they won't work.

CONCACAF needs to merge with CONMEBOL

On the surface, this appears to be valid. How can the U.S. expect to compete against Italy and the Czech Republic when it spends its time playing the likes of El Salvador and Panama? What better way than to have a merger of CONCACAF and CONMEBOL? That way the U.S. could play Brazil and Argentina in meaningful games, and that would surely toughen the U.S. enough to compete at the World Cup.

Dig a little deeper, however, and reality rears its ugly head. If the U.S. had to compete against South American teams in order to qualify for the World Cup, the Americans would struggle to reach the finals. In fact, if a merger did happen, the only nation north of Colombia to qualify consistently would be Mexico. The U.S. and Costa Rica's chances would be severely diminished while the rest of the region's hopes would pretty much vanish.

But for the sake of argument, consider what a merger would look like. CONCACAF minnows and second-tier nations would eliminate themselves in preliminary rounds, much like they do now. Thus, only the top six teams or so would even participate in World Cup qualifying alongside South America's 10 teams (and yes, they would get all 10 into the final round since that confederation would essentially hold all the cards).