R-E-S-P-E-C-T ... American singer Aretha Franklin sang about it in the 1960s and four decades later the United States football team deserves it after advancing to the World Cup for the sixth consecutive time.
Long gone is the time when Team USA merely provided novelty value and observers spoke condescendingly about the nation's huge potential. The Stars and Stripes are now very much a force on the global footballing map.
Under poker-faced head coach Bob Bradley, the US are a battle-hardened outfit with a mixture of mature Europe-based professionals and stars from Major League Soccer (MLS). With a Fifa ranking of 11, they know they are capable of toppling any team in the world on a given day.
And when the odds are stacked against them, the Americans seem to rise to the occasion. Falling behind to a Honduras side with eight victories in eight previous Concacaf World Cup home qualifiers last weekend, they found another gear, plus an unlikely hero in unheralded striker Conor Casey.
Casey is an imposing character with a shaved head who looks like he should be playing wide receiver with the NFL's Denver Broncos instead of plying his trade across his hometown with the Colorado Rapids.
Thrown into an intimidating atmosphere at San Pedro Sula, he scored two crucial goals, his first in international football. In contrast to the often under-achieving US representative teams in so-called marquee sports like baseball and basketball, this group consistently punches above its weight. In a culture known for celebrity-worship, these Americans are refreshingly low maintenance and no-frills, even in the wake of adversity.