Even with interest in football increasing in the United States and hopes rising for a successful World Cup, American fans should probably expect a short stay in Germany.
I hope no American soccer fan has seen the Budweiser adverts currently playing on UK television. Despite the USA standing fifth in the official Fifa world rankings, British boozers are still fed the tired nonsense about Americans not being able to get their heads around the offside law, wanting to pick up the ball at any opportunity and tampering with the beloved laws of the game with wacky ideas.
Granted, soccer in the States is still a second-class sport behind the indigenous pastimes of basket, base and American footballing and the Fifa rankings are misleading -- not many impartial observers would claim that the USA are better than Argentina (ninth), France (eighth) or Portugal (seventh).
But the US deserves more respect having qualified for every World Cup since 1990 and made the quarterfinals last time in Japan and Korea (mixed-up, crazy World Cup that it was).
And things are looking up for Major League Soccer (MLS) -- Landon Donovan (widely considered the most talented current American soccer player) is back home plying his trade at LA Galaxy, average attendances are stabilising at around 15,000 and specific soccer stadia are due to be built for majority of the twelve existing MLS teams.
Coupled with the expansion of the league to include Toronto FC from 2007 (and keen interest shown from a number of other US cities) as well as clubs gradually reaching profitability, it looks like MLS is here to stay and America will have a permanent professional soccer league for the first time since the NASL went belly-up. (A documentary on the NASL, 'Once in a Lifetime' , is released in selected UK cinemas this week.)
Things aren't perfect, of course. The ownership structure of MLS would give the European governing body kittens and not just due to the single-entity arrangement where the league owns the rights to the players and shares revenues. The real problem lies in the concentration of ownership between two men: Phil Anschutz and Lamar Hunt.
Between them their companies own 75% of the sides in the MLS. If you remember the fuss caused by Chelsea meeting CSKA Moscow in the Champions League in 2004/2005 (Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich also owns CSKA shirt sponsors Sibneft) you can see that this is quite an unusual state of affairs for the world game.
Admittedly the MLS probably wouldn't exist without the Hunt/Anschutz largesse and the league specifically states that they wish to move to a one club per owner model as soon as practical (probably not any time in the next decade, in that case). More problematic is the state of the game on the pitch.
The standard of play in the MLS isn't bad but it's not great, either. No-one's comparing the relatively new American league to the established (and richer) European competitions in Italy, Spain or England. What is concerning is lack of finesse displayed during games and the calibre of coaches, especially British ones with no real pedigree -- Steve Nicol, Mo Johnston and Colin Clarke spring to mind. Despite their excellent playing careers, no-one could point to any of those having the sort of coaching track record that could nurse a generation of great American soccer stars.
Seeing as a vast swathe of potential MLS supporters and current soccer fans are Hispanic, the prevalent northern European style of play seems a mistake. Even Chivas USA, an American version of Mexican giants Guadalajara chose the Dutchman Hans Westerhof as their first coach. He was replaced this season by the equally non-Mexican (but respected) Bob Bradley.
Despite the rather muscular approach to the game, MLS has produced a number of decent players that have given hope to US soccer fans that the Stars and Stripes can repeat the success of 2002 at this year's World Cup.
The national team do have a number of good players - they will probably have the strongest goalkeeping roster at the finals and a solid defence, but also lack the flair and goal scoring ability to get out of a tough group.
The main problem is that in the last four years not many players have made the breakthrough to true international class. Landon Donovan is seen as failing to make the grade in Europe (with German Bundesliga outfit Leverkusen) and is happy to be a big fish in small pond back in the MLS. DaMarcus Beasley's hasn't had the same impact at PSV Eindhoven this year as he made last season while the only young American player to hit the headlines is much-hyped teenager Freddy Adu, who hasn't even made the World Cup squad.
There is some good news however - in Brian McBride, the USA have the most under-rated striker in England and the emergence of dashing winger Bobby Convey at Premiership new-boys Reading will give the national side a good option off the bench. Claudio Reyna's timely return to fitness will ensure another World Cup is graced by his intelligent prompting from central midfield.
Sadly for the US, European World Cups seem to restore the status quo of the traditional footballing hierarchy and they lack the element of surprise that helped their progress in Japan and Korea in 2002.
They also have a hard group with Italy, the Czech Republic and Ghana. The US have previously faced the two European sides in the group stage at Italia 90 - they lost 1-0 to the hosts and were thumped 5-1 by the pre-Velvet Revolution Czechs. They also lost 2-1 to Austria to finish pointless in that campaign.
Having said that, the Italian game is currently reeling from a massive corruption probe that may have an effect on the concentration of the Azzurri squad, the Czechs are an ageing team that now lack the element of surprise themselves while the Ghanaians are at their first World Cup (their status of traditional African powerhouses notwithstanding). Even so, three difficult games await.
Although the US may not make it to the knock-out stages this time, their domestic league has given the American game a solid platform to build on and their supporters will be able to follow their side on TV in the traditional American way - relaxing on the sofa with a beer. Just don't make it a Bud.
