Soccer U S Mens National Team

The 2006 World Cup is remembered as a tournament where key players fell well short of expectations. It should also be remembered for the play of Clint Dempsey and Jimmy Conrad, the two MLS players who arguably were the only members of that U.S. national team who could be proud of their performances in Germany.

Why is that relevant today? Because both Dempsey and Conrad likely cemented their roles on Bruce Arena's World Cup roster with their play at the 2005 CONCACAF Gold Cup. Neither was a national team fixture before that tournament, but in helping the Americans to their third title, they established themselves as legitimate World Cup options. The U.S. team that takes the Qwest Stadium field tonight against Grenada in their Gold Cup opener will be composed of players with similar status -- on the outside looking in as the next World Cup approaches. History suggests that two or three of those athletes will play their way onto Bob Bradley's team for next summer.

When the U.S. Soccer Federation announced the roster for the upcoming CONCACAF Gold Cup in the midst of the U.S.'s surprising run to the Confederations Cup final, the general consensus was that the lineup was thoroughly a "B" team. After all, the supposed "A" team had done enough work in upsetting then-FIFA No. 1 Spain, and giving newly minted top dog Brazil a run for its money, before losing 3-2 last week.

On Wednesday, CONCACAF said it would allow the U.S. to add seven players to the already 23-man roster for the Gold Cup due to playing in back-to-back competitions barely separated by a week and, more importantly, over 10,000 miles. Thursday the USSF announced those seven players -- all members of the Confederations Cup roster -- upgrading the roster to a solid "B+."

Major League Soccer's marketers, often guilty of a bit of hyperbole, can't be accused of it this time over their 'Summer of Soccer' campaign. Between World Cup qualifying, the recently-completed Confederations Cup, CONCACAF Gold Cup, Superliga, the start of the CONCACAF Champions League and visits by the likes of Barcelona, AC Milan, Chelsea and more, we're in danger of saturation.

The schedule serves to throw a bit of cold water on the argument that the sport isn't growing in this country, as does the U.S. national team's performance over the past week in South Africa. Before looking ahead, it's worth looking back at what we learned from the Yanks' roller coaster ride.

The ecstasy on the faces of the Brazilian players celebrating the go-ahead goal near the corner flag and the tears rolling down that of their captain, Lucio, at the final whistle, demonstrated just how much today's Confederations Cup final meant to the world's most famous soccer team.

That measure of commitment, combined with a lot of talent and the flagging energy of a U.S. side struggling to stay with a superior opponent for the second straight game, was enough to overhaul a two-goal deficit and lift the Brazilians to a 3-2 triumph and the tournament title.

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JOHANNESBURG (AP) -- Lucio scored a late goal to give Brazil a 3-2 win over the upstart United States and a second straight Confederations Cup title Sunday.

The Brazil captain headed in a corner from Elano in the 84th minute to help the five-time world champions hold off a spirited American team that had taken a 2-0 lead at halftime.

The U.S. national team's unexpected victory over top-ranked Spain in Wednesday's Confederations Cup semifinal set off a predictable, but still annoying, flurry of pontification about the growth and relevance of soccer in America.

Mainstream journalists who watch a game or two every four years, political types who wonder if soccer is consistent with American values and sports anchors who asked if a victory in Sunday's final against Brazil would install us as World Cup favorites, all turned up suddenly to offer their well-informed opinions and pile a bit more pressure on Bob Bradley's boys.

The coach and several players admitted they came out "tentative" in the 3-0 group-stage loss to Brazil. Imagine how much more frightened they'd be if they felt the sport's future depended on a single result? Thankfully, the U.S. showed against Egypt and Spain that it can play both aggressively and intelligently while ignoring external distractions and someone else's big picture. A similar approach Sunday could yield a trophy.

The work, apparently, is never over for the U.S. National Team. Fresh off takings its bows after a stunning 2-0 upset over No. 1-ranked Spain at the Confederations Cup Wednesday, the U.S. was back to work Thursday.

In this case, it was naming a 23-man roster for the CONCACAF Gold Cup, which begins on July 4 in Seattle with a match against Grenada. Of note, only six players on the Gold Cup roster have over 10 caps. On top of that, just Michael Parkhurst and Brian Ching were on the 2007 competition roster, which the U.S. won, punching their ticket to the 2009 Confederations Cup in the process.

As a fan of the U.S. national team, you probably couldn't ask for more from Wednesday's Confederations Cup semifinal against Spain, especially considering how the first two games of the tournament unfurled for Bob Bradley's team. In short, the underdog Americans are up against FIFA's No. 1-ranked team, Spain, which has already set the all-time international record for consecutive wins (15) in this tournament and could break the all-time undefeated run (36) by defeating the Americans.

With a win, or even simply a strong performance, the U.S. can garner a boatload of goodwill toward the 2010 World Cup. At the very least it would erase the lingering doubts raised in the opening two games of this tournament.

All in all, the odds are surely stacked against the U.S., but that's why we follow sports, right? To see the chance of a colossal upset. The match kicks off from South Africa at 2:25 PM ET and we'll be blogging shortly before the opening whistle.

Imagine if that famous 1980 Olympic hockey game between the American collegians and the Soviet Big Red Machine had been played in Red Square instead of Lake Placid. Those were the kind of odds facing Bob Gansler and his young U.S. national team on June 14, 1990, when they kicked off against Italy in a World Cup match at Rome's Stadio Olimpico.

The American side defined "moral victory" that day, holding the tournament favorites to one goal and nearly scoring through Peter Vermes in the second half. "The difference between our team in the first game [a 5-1 loss to Czechoslovakia] and the second was psychological,'' Gansler said at the time.

Nineteen years later, Gansler told FanHouse that the psychological again will play the defining role as the U.S. faces similarly long odds against a Spanish juggernaut in the Confederations Cup semifinals Wednesday.

After what must be the most unlikely turn of events in American soccer history, the beleaguered national team with the supposedly incompetent coach and heartless, out-of-form players has survived to play another day. A surprisingly comprehensive 3-0 defeat of African champions Egypt in Rustenburg, combined with Brazil's 3-0 win over reeling Italy, has qualified the U.S. for the Confederations Cup semifinals.

Spain, the European champion juggernaut on the 35-game unbeaten streak, awaits on Wednesday. But let concern over that Herculean task wait until Monday. For the first time since the 2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup final, Bob Bradley and the U.S. national team rose to the occasion and, on this day, certainly deserve passage.