Oh France. You get a bum rap over here. You do. We didn't really rename your fried potato things.

And we know you act like you don't care what we think, that our boorish, cholesterol-distorted opinions and overtly militaristic pastimes are below the truly high culture of the Seine. We get that. But really, France, if you're going to bother sending a team across the pond to match up with a handful of America's top college-bound recruits, if you're going to spend the money in this economy and ship them off under the proud flag of the Revolution, you're going to have to do a little better than this:

That is the kind of 18-year-old killer instinct that makes me proud to be an American. The U.S. squad scored first less than two minutes into the game and led 24-0 at the end of the first quarter. Virginia Tech-bound David Wilson ran for 181 yards and four touchdowns on 12 carries. Local beat writers strained to avoid references to the Ardennes and swastikas. (Although "Worst French beating in Ohio since the fall of Fort Duquesne!" would have been a perfectly appropriate headline.)

Everywhere, the Americans routed the Old World: The young gridiron stars of Mexico smashed Sweden, 41-0, in another quarterfinal game, setting up a U.S.-Mexico showdown on Wednesday night that should have some scouts out to see what kind of reclutas they're bringing from south of the border, and whether Mack Brown should move forward with those invasion plans.