With still nearly 3 weeks to go until the next World Cup qualifying match, and with 7 months to go until the World Cup actually begins, the US Soccer Federation is finally starting to act like it cares.  Don’t get me wrong, other world soccer organizations (I’m looking in your direction UEFA) are foolhardy and borderline incompetent, but the governing soccer body in the US has always been a special breed- like the kid in class who you knew could get an A if he actually tried but he’d much rather scribble in his textbook.  However, this past week the USSF did something amazing- twice: they acted like they were serious about the World Cup. 

Pretending the rest of the world doesn’t exist is a quintessentially American quality, but the US Soccer Federation seemed to take it to extreme levels.  For years Major League Soccer hasn’t bothered to change their schedule during World Cup years, even when the majority of the US team played in the MLS.   I can’t even fathom what would make them think this is a good idea- this would be like scheduling Bingo night the same time as Two-and-a-Half Men is on TV, or like a DC strip club not changing their hours when Congress isn’t in session- you know your audience is going to be somewhere else and you need to account for it. 

The European soccer schedule has a two-month break in June and July so that they can squeeze international tournaments in there, because after all why would world-class athletes- who run seven miles every game- need some time off?  However US soccer saw the summer months as their opportunity, so that is peak MLS time, a decision I don’t disagree with.  But that has some negative consequences for MLS fans: for years, fans that paid full price for MLS tickets happily stayed home to watch the World Cup rather than watch an MLS game without their favorite players.  Could you imagine paying Laker-ticket prices and then going to a game while Kobe was playing for the US and Pau was playing for Spain?  You’d be outraged and feel gypped, and yet American soccer fans have lived with that possibility for their entire existence.    

So the USSF finally tried to right that wrong by announcing this week that during next Summer’s World Cup the MLS will take two weeks off.  That only covers the Group Stages and not the actual Knockout Stages of the World Cup, which frankly is a disappointing statement on what the MLS expects from the National Team but at least it’s a subtle acknowledgement that the World Cup is the pinnacle of soccer and the MLS should not force Galaxy fans to go when they know Landon Donovan will be in South Africa.  

The second thing the USSF did this past week was step up their efforts to host another World Cup.  The 2018 and 2022 World Cups will be awarded soon and the US needs to get one of those Tournaments.  I have never been to an Olympics or to a World Cup, and I can only assume that they are crowded, loud, and uncomfortable, but I really want the US to win- and not just because I want a ton of hot Brazilian chicks to come to the States.  I want the Cup here not only because of the huge economic boost, but also because it will further soccer in the US.  The atmosphere of soccer is quite possibly its biggest selling point, and to have US fans witness it first-hand will only help the sport. 

What’s most impressive about the attempt to get the World Cup is that the USSF actually has made a real, concerted, and coherent effort to get the games here.  They have started an online petition (which you can get to at ) they have also started giving out bumper stickers “The game is in US,” and even started a competition to see who can put the stickers in the most-public place (which Drew Carey got an early lead in when he went on Craig Ferguson’s talk show and stuck the sticker on the front of his interview desk.) 

Of course if the US is going to get the Tournament they are going to have to do something amazing because the competition is fierce.  Europe is still the hub of the soccer world and therefore it expects to host more World Cups than any other continent, and right now they are on an every-other-Tournament schedule (Europe –Italy ’90, North America ’94, Europe- France ’98, Asia ’02, Europe- Germany ’06, South Africa ’10.)  The ’14 World Cup is going to South America, so that means that FIFA will feel heavy pressure to award the ’18 Tournament to England, Spain, Russia or the Netherlands (all of whom have put in bids.)  The fact that the US feels they can compete with Europe for such a prestigious honor is a sign that either they are shockingly brazen or blissfully naïve, or of course they could just be asking for the ’18 Tournament so that when they don’t get it they guilt FIFA into awarding the 2022 Tourney instead- like your mother asking you to come home for Thanksgiving and Christmas so that you will definitely have to go to one of them. 

And if they get the ’22 World Cup, it will be a mere 28 years after the ’94 games were held here.  The US soccer landscape has changed dramatically since then- for one thing, the MLS didn’t exist at that time, so most tournament games were held at football stadiums.  Now, thanks to the MLS, there are a great many soccer-only stadiums.  But that itself is the problem, and the sign of how far soccer in the US has left to go, most soccer stadiums in the US hold less than 20,000, a fraction of what World Cup games demand.  The US Soccer crown jewel, the Home Depot Center, would have to be left empty in favor of the Rose Bowl. 

And that dichotomy- between the number of people that watch US Soccer and the number of people that would watch a top-level international match- is still the US’s biggest hurdle.  But the best thing the US could do for its bid would be to play at a high level internationally.  Another victory over an elite team like Spain could boost the US into the “we’re scared to play them” level.  Although if the USSF were actually serious about getting the team to that level, maybe they’d make the MLS take a longer break; to put it another way, maybe they’d begin to expect the US to survive the group stage.