Road to Rio: U.S. looks to shatter glass ceiling

Dignitaries from all over the world will gather in Brazil in early December for the FIFA World Cup draw as the field of teams is divided into groups for next summer’s festivities. As part of its “32 teams in 32 days” series, SPORTSNET.CA will profile each of the nations set to compete at Brazil, leading up to the draw on Dec. 6.

Don’t look now, but the Americans have become one of the World Cup’s most consistent contestants. After a 40-year absence from the big show, an era where the average American respected soccer about as much as they did Communism or the metric system, the U.S. returned for the 1990 tournament in Italy. They haven’t missed one since, reaching the round of 16 three times and the quarter-finals once. While there seems to be a glass ceiling preventing the Yanks from pushing through to the rarefied air of the semifinals, the U.S.—ranked 13th in the world at the moment, for what it’s worth—have undeniably carved out their place in world soccer.

Programming alert: Watch the World Cup draw from Brazil on Dec. 6 live on all four main Sportsnet channels. | TV schedule

How they got here: While their opening round was a cake-walk, the Americans got off to an uncomfortably slow start in the final stage of qualifying, only scrapping four points from their first three games. But an epic run of 12 games unbeaten in 2013— which included several friendlies, a Gold Cup title and several qualifiers—pushed the U.S. to the top of the table.

Key result: “Dos-a-cero” might well be the U.S. teams’ motto. The American victory over Mexico on Sept. 10 was their fourth two-nil win at Crew Stadium in Columbus, OH., over their rivals in a row. Considering it was enough to secure a spot for the Yanks in Brazil (after some help from Honduras in a match later that night), it’s certainly the biggest.

Star player: Clint Dempsey, the man they call Deuce, has found life in MLS unforgiving after his switch from Barclay’s Premier League side Tottenham. But if he struggles playing in the U.S.A, he never does playing for it—the midfielder/forward bagged a team-leading eight goals in qualifying. He’s got top-level experience and the ability to create and score goals.

Player on the bubble: The Norwegian-born midfielder Mikkel Diskerud has skill, decent vision for a pass. His decision-making is still rough, but the Rosenborg player is still young, at just 23, and Jurgen Klinsmann has reason to think he can make a step up in the right conditions. The problem: he’s at his best playing advanced central midfield. The only way he’s getting in there is if at least one of Demspey and Landon Donovan are out. Diskerud’s best chance of success is playing alongside veterans of that calibre, not instead of them.

Team strengths: The Americans are, by necessity, a very strong team mentally. As Canadian soccer fans know all too well, CONCACAF’s road to the World Cup winds and bumps through hot and hostile Central American countries. It takes collective strength to withstand the pressure and do it takes to get results in those conditions—especially for a team drawn from as many as 10 leagues across Europe and North America. They showed the value of that collective confidence by beating both Germany and Bosnia and Herzegovina this summer.

What they have to work on: It may be a task beyond the World Cup, but while American soccer is currently at a very high level athletically, it lags behind technically. Once that gap is closed, the U.S. will be able to compete with the very best in the world—until then their enthusiastic World Cup runs will inevitably flame out, like the bitter loss to Ghana in the 2010 Round of 16.

World Cup history