Azzurri Wannabe Rossi Cut from Italy's World Cup Team

What's the Italian word for Schadenfreude?

While we feel sorry for Charlie Davies, David Beckham, Michael Ballack, Michael Essien and every other player missing the World Cup through injury, it's going to be hard to muster much sympathy for New Jersey-born striker Giuseppe Rossi, who turned his back on American soccer only to see his World Cup dreams extinguished on Tuesday.

Admit it. This feels kind of good. Rossi's story is well known. He was born and raised in northeast New Jersey, the son of Italian immigrants. Several players on the U.S. national team are first generation Americans and have been proud to wear the colors of the country of their birth and the nation that welcomed their parents. Rossi, however, had different ideas.

He left the U.S. for Italy as an ambitious teenager, hoping to pursue a pro and national team career in Europe. It worked out for the most part. He played briefly for Manchester United, Newcastle United and Parma before signing with Villarreal in 2007. A year earlier he'd been invited to try out for the U.S. World Cup team by Bruce Arena, but Rossi declined. Apparently the chance to play for Italy was more attractive than a multiple-World Cup sure thing with the U.S.

It looked like he'd get his way. Rossi made his Azzurri debut in the fall of 2008. Then came the Confederations Cup first round match last summer, when he stabbed us all in the back in the 58th minute, then again in the heart deep in stoppage time. The U.S. finally produced a striker who could score goals like that at the international level, and he opted to play for a country that has more talent than it needs.

It just didn't seem fair, and it stung a lot of people involved in American soccer.

But not as much as Tuesday's news must have stung Rossi. In a statement on the Italian federation's Web site, Rossi was named as one of the players who didn't make the defending champion's final 23-man roster. Marcello Lippi opted to bring forwards Alberto Gilardino (Fiorentina), Vincenzo Iaquinta (Juventus), Antonio Di Natale (Udinese), Fabio Quagliarella (Napoli) and Giampaolo Pazzini (Sampdoria) instead.

All of them are older than Rossi, 23. They're also all going to South Africa, while Rossi can sit at home and ponder how his life might be different if he was suiting up to play England on June 12. As good as Robbie Findley was against Turkey on Saturday, we're confident Bob Bradley would have found room on the roster.

There's absolutely nothing embarrassing about being the sixth-best forward in Italy, but we wonder if that stature will make Rossi feel any better as he watches the World Cup on TV. Rossi is by all accounts a good guy, and he recently lost his father. He handed the World Cup setback with dignity as well, tweeting:

"Didn't make it, but I have no regrets...worked hard and showed what i could do..i gues the coach had other plans. good luck Italy"

and

"Can't wait to go back home to my family now.......!! gonna enjoy a beautiful summer."

Classy. But it's still okay to crack a bit of a smile over the news. Rossi thought he was too good for American soccer. Now it appears Italian calcio is too good for him.