“So how is it that a country as wealthy as the U.S. couldn’t manage to qualify once for those nine World Cups? You start with a sport that for years struggled to escape its ethnic roots and rise above semi-professional status. Then you add governing bodies, the U.S. Soccer Federation and its predecessors, which were constantly flirting with bankruptcy. Put that up against a relatively high-powered program such as Mexico’s, and you had the perfect recipe for World Cup qualifying futility, even in a region as historically weak as CONCACAF.“
As World Cup 2010 fever heats up, ESPN’s Jeff Carlisle offers the institutional argument for USA’s forty-year Cup appearance drought. “Pioneering isn’t always fun, but it needs to be done, and there’s still pioneering work to do,” said Gansler.” As far as 2010 goes: Even with an easy group, I suspect it’ll be hard to pioneer any farther past our quarterfinal showing in 2002 this year, given the current porousness of our defense…