365: How do you think the United States did in representing itself here at the World Cup?
Carlos Bocanegra: It’s a bit of a disappointment. We wanted to come and have a good showing. We have a lot of support over here with all the fans and the media that came. It was really kind of a big deal back home. It was really kind of a big letdown to the fans all the fans in the country. It was a bit disappointing to us.

365: How about performances in the last two games?
CB: Obviously in the Italy game we played with a lot of heart. I wish we could have kept that rolling for this one. It seems like it was all for nothing. I mean they (Italy) end up winning and if we would have won we would have advanced. It just a lot of emotional ups and downs that was tough to overcome. I think that was a big thing.

365: Are you saying you didn’t feel you played with heart against Ghana?
CB: What’s that?

365: You said, “We played with a lot of heart in the Italy game, I wish we could have kept that going”… do you mean the result?
CB: Yes the result. You know to build on that as a team. Get to win this game and move on. You know we would have played Brazil but we don’t care. It would have been nice to get out of the first round.

365: Now what about you personally? What’s the schedule for the next few weeks and the next year?
CB: Yeah, I got about a month off now and then I’ll go to preseason with Fulham. It’s another season over there. I’ll take some time off and relax. Then it will start getting towards time to go back to Fulham and I’ll get back into the right mindset again.

365: I talked with a couple of the guys about how difficult it is to go back to the MLS after playing in a World Cup. What about going back to the Premier League? I know from a viewer standpoint it can be hard to get excited about the games for the first few weeks of a season after the World Cup.

For the complete Bocanegra interview visit Soccer365