The 2010 World Cup tournament is underway, and the United States faces its first match - and will likely meet it - against England. (The United Kingdom doesn't send a single team to the Cup; the three nations that comprise the British state have separate teams.) I hope the the American team will go far, and hopefully reach the top eight, but that long-ago goal (no pun intended) to win the cup this year is pretty much a pipe dream. World Cup by 2010 - it can't be done!
The most amazing thing about the American team is that they're in South Africa for the tournament. This marks the sixth consecutive World Cup tournament that Team USA has participated in. A little over twenty years ago, the idea of any American team in the World Cup was crazy. Reasons that soccer hasn't taken off in the United States that it has in other countries include rules incompatible with American commercial television (hard to have a lot of commercials without timeouts) and scoring incompatible with bookmakers (not enough of a point spread on which to place bets). But Americans play soccer, some of them even like to watch it, and the fact that Team USA is a contender despite the shaky situation at home (Major League Soccer doesn't exactly enjoy a high profile) says something. We're a lot better off than Canada, which sent its team to the World Cup only once, in 1986.
That's astonishing!
Canada has a soccer team? :-D
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