In World Cup, U.S. has tough battle to win games, fans

The World Cup begins in less than a month, and interest is starting to build for the event being hosted by South Africa.
This always reverberates the discussion of the state of U.S. soccer. Many wonder why the sport is the most popular among our country’s youth, but the Americans are lucky to be in the top 10 of the world.
Because there’s such little mainstream interest, the only way the World Cup will get any attention is if the Yanks somehow win their pool, and challenge one of the world’s powers, like the 2002 team that reached the quarterfinals before falling to Germany.
Because it’s summer, people will at least give it a chance. There isn’t a lot of competition for the regular sports fan, and some might stop the clicker long enough to see something different than baseball. But if the Americans play poorly, or get thumped early, a lot of fans will reach for the remote or head for the pool.
The sport has such a ways to go in this country, both in talent and interest. It’s at least fifth on most sports fans’ ranking of favorite sports, and young stars such as Freddy Adu haven’t panned out yet after a lot of hype. Combine that with the overwhelming talent and interest around the world, and this is an uphill climb on a treadmill to make a splash here, even in the summer.