U.S.A....Who are they ?

Going into Saturday's game against England, alot of, if not all the attention has been targeted England's way. Whether it be Rio's injury, Rooney's rage or Joe Cole's unemployment, there seems to be a constant neglect of the opponent in front of them: The United States of America.

The U.S, reknowned for being a perennial powerhouse in all forms of sport, heck they invented most of them, but Football (or Soccer as it's aptly named over the atlantic) has never really been embraced the way it has in Europe and South America. It's safe to say, as a collective nation, they don't care for the "Beautiful game". Now, things have been attempted to combat this pure disregard for the world's most popular sport (excluding fishing from being "sport"). Over the years, the top flight in U.S "Soccer" now the MLS has brought over superstars of world football to try to boost the games popularity (Pele, Beckham and now Thierrey Henry), all so far seem to get it a segment on sportscenter for a couple of days then it will fade back to being the middle child who gets ignored for the new born baby.

If the game is going to evolve in the U.S, it needs a national team that consistently be successful at the highest level, something whoch hasn't happened thus far. We've seen this team capitualte at Copa America, and previous World Cups, but we saw the spirited and brave runners-up they secured at last years Confedorations Cup (or the Marc-Vivien Foe Memorial Cup, thats what it should be) beating Spain and narrowly losing to Brazil in the final. For a few weeks this really had the 50 states talking, discussing who was better Clint Dempsey or Jozy Altidore and much more "Soccer talk". However this all died when the NFL and NBA seasons began and "there" sports season was in full swing.

Expectations from optmists is that America can make the quarter-finals, to do this, they will need to beat England or Germany realistically, something the former, something Altidore thinks they will, "3-0". If this team is to be successful he'll need to score the goals, alongside Dempsey and the evervesscant Landon Donovan. Defensively they will be reliant on Watford star JayDeMerit and ex-Fulham left back Carlos Bocanegra to help keep a tight defensive line.

With experience in abundance, the opportunity for the U.S to evolve and become elite is there, they just need to be ready to work for it. We'll see what there made of Saturday night in Rustenberg.

-Adam

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