Gregory Haft - USMNT and the World Cup
Gregory Haft - The United States have not been known for taking a great team to the world cup. In fact, the country that is often viewed as having the most power in the entire world, is often one of the least powerful on the football, or excuse me, soccer field. If you look at the history of the World Cup, starting in 1930, the U.S. has proven to be quite insignificant on the radar. The reason that the U.S. has fallen behind is that we don’t usually keep up with soccer unless it is a World Cup year. This is in stark contrast to many countries who follow the sport, always like Brazil, the Netherlands, Spain, Germany and Argentina. These countries have built empire around their soccer players and the love of the competition of the sport. Their team really represents their country, unlike the U.S. where many people don’t even know we have a team in the event. Granted, the U.S. does not have a great history with the event. The U.S.A. was in the semifinals in the 1930 World Cup and in 1950 they actually won over England. Since then, there really has not been a great victory for the United States. It means that we really have nowhere to go but up. Around 2011 they took the German player Klinsmann on board to run the team as manager and things have been shaping up. He has been recruiting players and making the team stronger. Because there is nowhere to go but up, the process may be slow, but the team is definitely building and getting better year by year. Some of his choices have been strange like Julian Green, DeAndre Yedlin, and John Brooks. Even so, Klinsmann’s efforts seem to be working, as evidenced by the U.S. win over Ghana. It will be interesting to see if this team can stay in the game as the 2014 World Cup games continue on.
