Can America have its own World Cup fairy tale like Germany in 2006?

In the summer of 2006, Germany did something that still sounds slightly improbable to Germans who remember the country before it. It became pleasant.

For four weeks, a nation more often associated with efficiency than ease found itself smiling in public. Flags appeared in windows and on cars without the old unease. Foreign fans filled railway stations, city squares, and beer gardens. Police officers posed for photographs. Volunteers gave directions. Strangers talked to strangers. The weather helped. So did the sport. But the memory that survived was not a match, a goal, or a final result. …

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