When one talks about football, at least in the United States of America, it is normally associated with helmets, cheerleaders, coaches with their precious playbooks and most of all touchdowns, which ironically has nothing to do with what the world refers to as ‘the beautiful game’.
Blame it on the differences between the English and the Americans or even how they use the language of English due to the sociolinguistic diversity present in the country, but football as the rest of the world calls it is known as ‘soccer’ in the United States.
However, this has nothing to do with the way they approach the game with a scientific and disciplined manner just as they do in almost any other sport that they have stamped their mark of authority over.
Their rise to the number one spot in the sport, that is the most watched on in the world, has already begun, with their prowess of the game amply displayed by their standing in CONCACAF, an acronym for the body known as the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football.
However, things are going to be a bit different since they will be playing with nations such as Argentina, Brazil, England, France, Germany and so and so forth, who have left football fans with so many pleasant memories that will remain immortal despite the continual change that the game of football goes through.
Finishing the World Cup qualifying rounds at the top of their table with 20 points by just pipping Mexico to the post, there is indeed no doubt that they have earned the right to pit their wits and talent in the ‘big leagues’.
While the 1990s did nothing much for U.S soccer, the 21st century saw a resurgence in the way their national team has performed in the 2002 World Cup that was held in Korea and Japan where surprising quarterfinal berth.
As promising as their 2002 performance was, their 2006 campaign took a nosedive as they dropped to the bottom of their group with not even one win. As a result, the team’s manager Bruce Arena was replaced by the accomplished Bob Bradley who achieved success at the college level and in Major League Soccer, and remains the team’s manager to date.
Slated as the most experienced manager, the U.S National team has won most events under his tutelage and are pumped up due to their last performance at the Confederations Cup just a year stopped Spain’s 35-game winning streak while leading Brazil by two goals, until the Samba Kings put on their ‘game face’ and showed the world why football is truly a national passion in South America.
However, with a young team that has found their World Cup 2010 grinding to a halt, thanks to injuries to several of their key players such as Charley Davies, Clint Dempsey, Oguchi Onyewu, Steve Cherundolo, Ricardo Clark, Benny Feilhaber and Stuart Holden one wonders whether their hiatus will impact the way they take their team’s performance to the next level.
What does compensate for this setback is their placement in Group C, which does not have stiff competition like some of the other groups, and just as the popular saying, it isn’t over until the fat lady sings, we’ll have to wait and watch how the glorious uncertainty that is football, plays itself out.