Soccer Growth in America Poll - How long until it becomes the #01 Sport?

[elprincipe]

Slimebeast said:

elprincipe said:

Slimebeast said:

tombi123 said:
Around the same time the USA wins a World Cup which I think will be between 2028-2040.

lol...

In less than two decades?

How much has the USA progressed in the last 18 years (since 1992)?

We've progressed quite a bit, actually, although the national side is not on the level of the top teams in the world of course.

- every World Cup finals from 1990 onward

- 1995 Copa America: USA 3-0 Argentina

- 1998 Gold Cup: USA 1-0 Brazil

- 2002 World Cup quarterfinal (only lost because of missed handball call on Germany)

- 2006 World Cup: USA 1-1 Italy (eventual champions)

- reached first major final just last year (Confederations Cup), defeating arguably the best team in the world (Spain) 2-0 and taking a 2-0 lead over Brazil in the final

- take it from someone who's watched MLS since its inception in 1996: it's a much, much, much better league now than 14 years ago.

- more and more top American players able to play effectively in Europe (Howard, Dempsey, Donovan, Altidore, etc), although there hasn't yet been a breakthrough at one of the really big clubs.

A bit of cherry picking, but okay.

Is the USA national team better than the Swedish in your opinion?

Sure, it's cherry picking, but if I'm going to offer evidence of progress I'm hardly going to point out bad defeats, am I? 

Anyway, I think at the present time the US team is better than Sweden, but only because you are in a down phase.  Ibrahimovic is world class, but there aren't many great supporting players.  I'm sure you'll agree.  Sweden has a great tradition and I'm sure they'll be back up and present at major championships again in a few years.