2010 FIFA World Cup: Does U.S. Have Anything to Lose Against England?

It's only a few days away now, and anticipation for the U.S.A. versus England soccer game has reached the proverbial fever pitch. 

A combination of factors, with history being number one and media saturation a close second, have made this THE game of the opening weekend of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.  But, when you get down to predictions and take a look at the two rosters, it looks to be a walkover for the Three Lions. They've got all of those great Premier League attackers and we've got Jonathan Bornstein and Jay Demerit in defense, to take just one example (Check out Ron Furlong's latest article for a better analysis of the two rosters).

So there's no pressure, right?  As Lee Corso says, ad nauseum, "Not so fast, my friend." The Yanks will be underdogs, to be sure, but they also must put up a fight and make the game close to convince their shaky bandwagon to keep rumbling along.  People used to scoff at the idea of soccer making it big in America, but it suddenly seems like more of a certainty than ever.  This game could help to build its momentum.

One prediction that will hold true for Saturday's game: you will not have to tell the bartender to switch away from the Nationals at Indians inter-league baseball game, like you would have in 2006.  Americans are excited about this game, and Americans seldom get excited to lose a game.  The average fan probably does not know about how much better the English team looks on paper, they want to see the Yanks beat the Three Lions at their own game.

ESPN will treat the World Cup like it's the biggest sporting event in the world, which it is, and will try to keep the momentum going with expanded coverage of the English Premier League and Spain's La Liga next fall, not to mention many other leagues in the online affiliate, ESPN3.com.  Fox Sports will also hope for the hype to help them land more subscribers for their two cable soccer channels.

This is not to say that Landon Donovan, Tim Howard, and Clint Dempsey are worried about whether ESPN and Fox make millions of dollars off of their success, but the media, to an extent, can determine expectations and skew reactions.  Put simply: ESPN has made this game a huge event with constant promotion, therefore the reaction must equal the hype.

So how well do the Yanks have to perform against England to keep the average fan from switching to meaningless mid-season baseball?  At worst, they need to lose by one goal.  A tie would be lovely, and a win would solidify soccer's place at the center of American sports for at least the summer, but losing by one goal, as long as they put up a fight, would probably keep people watching. 

What happens if the U.S. team loses by two or more goals?  Major League Baseball will be celebrating their dominance over the beautiful game by providing us with some more horrible umpiring decisions and four-hour games.