Soccer: US hope homeland notices Cup success

3.00pm

SOEUL - After beating Mexico to go further at the World Cup than any American team since 1930, the United States hope they can conquer an even tougher opponent -- their home country's indifference to soccer.

In a country where soccer is pipped in popularity by almost every other sport, this World Cup in South Korea and Japan has also had to battle time zones and major tournaments in NBA basketball, NHL icehockey and golf.

Even the satirical cartoon show "The Simpsons" has dissed the beautiful game. "It's all here -- fast-kicking, low scoring and ties? You bet!" began a classic episode on soccer.

But the American team who upset Mexico 2-0 in the South Korea city of Chonju yesterday to advance to a quarterfinal against Germany say a new day may be dawning.

"Everybody that I'm speaking to -- I know they're biased opinions because they're my friends -- said they haven't seen coverage like this ever before, even when it was in the States," goalkeeper Brad Friedel said.

The United States hosted the World Cup finals in 1994 and at the last World Cup in 1998 lost all three matches and looked out of their depth.

Forward Josh Wolff, who made a key pass to set up the first US goal against Mexico, said: "It's events like this that really capture audiences."

He said US soccer wanted to "gain new fans" and not just preach to the choir of established supporters.

"Our soccer fans that are already in place, those are the ones that are really tuning in, but you'll start to grab on to some new ones because of a special thing that we're doing here," Wolff said.

Landon Donovan, man-of-the-match yesterday after scoring his team's the second goal, said turning on his homeland was "absolutely critical" for the future of soccer in America.

"If nobody cares about us, we're not going to grow," he said.

"There's probably a lot of little kids going nuts about us right now and that's great," midfielder Donovan, 20, said.

"If we beat a team like Germany, it will do more to open people's eyes to us."

- REUTERS

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