Halfway through World League pool play, the U.S. men are sitting pretty atop Pool A with a 5-1 record. Currently they are third in points behind Brazil (undefeated) and Cuba (5-1.)

After a shaky opening match loss to the Netherlands, the young U.S. squad settled down and rattled off five wins. They'll see each of the other three teams twice more before the end of pool play and there is no reason why they can't end up with an 11-1 record.

Olympic MVP Clay Stanley rejoined the team in San Jose and played sparingly, but managed to rattle off three service aces in a row at one point against China's libero. He will likely be a difference-maker as the tournament progresses and as the U.S. team fights to defend their 2008 title.

Surely our nation's greatest strength is its diversity. Folks from every nation make the U.S. their home and they add to the fabric of our experience.

But is our nation's greatest strength also our national team's biggest disadvantage? The fact that Americans come from all over the world could be the very reason why we can't seem to get our act together in the fan department the way other nations can. Because when it comes down to it, it seems that you can change a person's location, but you can't change their loyalties.

It is totally understandable to me. If I suddenly decided to make Brazil my home, I would certainly not be able to cheer for the Brazilian team when the Americans came to town. I would make sure the next generation of my family cheered for the American teams as well.

But the difference is that we would be a handful of Americans in an enormous Brazilian arena. Our lone chants of "U-S-A! U-S-A!" would likely go unnoticed under the singing, dancing, drumming and cheering of the dedicated Brazil fans.

We may be the only country where it doesn't matter who we play against or which city we choose to play them in, our opponents will always be able to find a crowd of die hards who will beat the drums and sometimes out-cheer the home team's fans. And chances are, they're more easily reachable and more organized than we are.

This past weekend in San Jose, CA, the men's team played China. With a huge Chinese population in the Bay Area, it is no surprise that our opponent's fans came out in force. The Chinese media pumped the match for weeks beforehand and covered the results afterward. The mainstream Bay Area media? Not so much.

But the ability to fill the San Jose Event Center is likely one of the reasons that the Bay Area was chosen for the match. Men's volleyball in the U.S. is hurting, with many collegiate programs cut and many others on the chopping block. Thank goodness for the gold in Beijing for renewing interest or who knows where we'd be.

The result last weekend was a great bipartisan crowd which was near capacity on night one and sold out on night two. If we had relied on just USA Volleyball fans, our team would likely have played in a half empty arena. Maybe we should be grateful. We may not be able to get an arena chock full of fans who cheer for us, but we can still fill an arena with fans. That's something.

Next weekend when the men's team heads to China, they'll be lucky to see ten Americans in the crowd. The Chinese fans will be making so much noise, they will not be able to hear themselves think. The same will happen in just about every country to which they travel.

Should we be taking notes? What would it take to get enthusiasm and dedication like that within our own shores?

Winning a gold medal at the Olympics does have its advantages. Several World League matches will be televised on ESPN2 and ESPNU in the coming weeks. It will be tape delayed of course, but at least we get to watch! Click here for the schedule.

Paul Sunderland and Kevin Barnett will be our announcers. Let's hope Barnett can manage to be a little more positive than he was during the Olympics. I mean, if you can't manage to be positive when we're winning gold and silver, when can you be?

The men are off to a good start in their World League Pool, securing a 3-1 record after beating Italy twice last weekend in four games.

Coach Knipe is sticking with the line up he created in Game 2, but the majority of the second team is getting playing time in each match which should help them out as the tournament continues.

Up next is China who got smoked by the Netherlands 3-0 twice this past weekend. Our men split with the Netherlands in the first weekend of play, so they should also be able to handle the Chinese. It won't hurt that they'll be playing in the U.S. this weekend, hopefully in front of a big home crowd in San Jose, CA.