Despite Ouster, Robbie Russell Says US Soccer Is Still Surging

The World Cup set off two hopes for U.S. soccer fans: 1) that the U.S. team would go all the way, like Real Salt Lake did to win the 2009 MLS Cup, and 2) that soccer fever would grip America and soccer would suddenly be a top national sport.

Hopes were dashed -- or were they?

Not according to Ghanian-born Robbie Russell, the defender who scored the winning goal for Salt Lake in the 2009 MLS finals. "I would say the U.S. is an up-and-coming soccer power. I think more and more, people are caring. It's one of those situations where we have a lot of resources and we've never put them together in a solid piece."

So yeah, it will happen. It just won't happen quickly.

The U.S. got to the round of 16 before being eliminated -- one of the best American results since 1930, when the event first began. That was 80 years ago. World Cup history tells the story. The U.S. took third in that first World Cup, and qualified for the second in 1934, but they were quickly eliminated. Then the drought years began. The U.S. didn't make it to the big bash again until 1950. Worse, 40 more years would go by before the U.S. got there again. They made it in 1990, 1994 and 1998. Then the pace, and the placings, began picking up. The U.S. team qualified in 2002 -- when they made the quarterfinals -- as well as 2006 and 2010.

Meanwhile, take a look at the MLS Cup champions. Russell says, "We got off to a rough start, but since then we've kind of picked it up a little bit. Our season has been pretty strong, we're pretty high up in the standings."



Share Currently, RSL is second in the Western Conference, out of eight divisional teams. They trail only the unbeaten L.A. Galaxy 33 to 24. Second place in the Eastern Conference is Columbus Crew, also with 24 points. No one in MLS is laughing at the Americans any more.

In fact, the entire soccer world as fans know it, is crashing. In all the World Cups held in the past 80 years, only seven teams have won. Brazil took it five times, Italy four, and Germany three. Argentina and Uruguay have each won it twice. England and France have won the WC once.

This year's World Cup shows that the traditional soccer powers are losing their dominance. "It's been a wide-open World Cup. It goes to show that on any given day, any team can beat any other team, there's no sense of the powerhouses that were. The level of football now varies all over the world. This list goes on and on with the upsets that have happened in the tournament," Russell said, just before heading off to Utah's Rio Tinto Stadium to play to a scoreless draw against the San Jose Earthquakes.

Russell is just one of the crystal-ballers predicting that the time for U.S. soccer domination is coming. With it will come U.S. interest in the game, and that will bring in the money and the sponsors. Until now, there's never been any real American interest in soccer, despite millions of kids who play growing up. That's because aside from having an occasional good game, or even a good season, the U.S. team would go for years without getting close to a win. It did not sit well with Americans to be the worst team in the world, the international losers. But that's about to change.

Russell says, "Europe is the defender of the soccer world at the moment. But the quality of our players and our development has been increasing steadily, and I think that's resulted in better results for the national team."

Making the round of 16 was big. If Salt Lake wins the MLS Cup again this year, it will be huge. Russell says, "It will also be incredible for the U.S. sport mentality, because everyone loves a winner," He adds, "The more attention we get for being successful on the world stage, the more popular soccer will become here."

As American fans multiply, and major money starts flowing, U.S. teams can afford to buy up the best players in the world and provide them with everything they need and want. Let Europe and South America look to their laurels. The Americans are coming.