Germany, Argentina, and What Really Makes a World Cup Team

If America wants to become a true soccer superpower, its sports landscape will have to change. One place to start: college.

Only a country that puts soccer first is likely to produce a player like Argentina's Lionel Messi. (Reuters)

No one could be too surprised that the 2014 World Cup comes down to Germany and Argentina. Germany was ranked No. 2 by the FIFA pre-tournament, and Argentina No. 5. These two nations have won five of the last 14 titles, and four of the last nine. Maybe you picked the Brazilians to win it all; not a bad choice, since theyve won five cups, more than any other country.

In any case, the composition of the final match perfectly illustrates an oft-forgotten fact about the World Cup: Its not really the worlds cup. A better title would be The West European/South American Cup, since the eight countries who have won the World Cup have been from those two continents.

And soccer, really, is not the worlds game. Though it has the highest global participation rate of any sport, there are quite a few countries where it is not the most popular game. Those include eight of the worlds 10 most populous countries. On the whole, people in China, India, the U.S., and Indonesiathe top four in populationplay soccer but have other sports they prefer. Only in No. 5 Brazil and No. 7 Nigeria does soccer have a clear edge.

Americans who hope to see the U.S. compete one day at soccers highest level would do well to keep all of this in mind. Our talent pool is immense, but to change soccers status here would mean changing the entire sports landscape. All the countries who have ever won a World Cup have at least one thing in common: Soccer has no real competitor for athletic talent.

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Is the U.S. ever going to win the World Cup? Is soccer ever going to become one of the most popular sports in the U.S.?

Are those two different questions, or are they the same question looked at from different perspectives?

For years, soccer enthusiasts have said that if the U.S. were to finally win the Big One, it might vault the game into the league ofor perhaps even ahead ofpro football, baseball, and basketball. But thats not how soccer became supreme in any other country. There were years of painstaking building of teams and leagues before a national squad could be assembled that was good enough to challenge at World Cup level. (For a brief history, I recommend National Pastime: How Americans Play Baseball and the Rest of the World Plays Soccer by Stefan Szymanski and Andrew Zimbalist.)

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Germany, Argentina, and What Really Makes a World Cup Team