Can US repeat their Confed Cup success?

The USA have happy memories of South Africa. Last summer they were losing finalist in the test tournament for the World Cup, Confederations Cup 2009.

USA lost their first matches (1:3 to Italy & 0:3 to Brazil), but managed to sneak through from the group thanks to goals scored, edging Italy's 3 out with 4. Spain, who at the time were leading the FIFA rankings, was the opponent in the semis. Surprisingly USA advanced thanks to a relatively easy 2:0 win. In the final they lost 2:3 to Brazil after having a 2:0 lead at half-time, so a mark was made and the side might be possible dark horses in the World Cup.

USA have been part of the World Cup finals ten times. Best position being 3rd in the very first in 1930. Like Asia, the US is seen with huge potential. The local league, Major League Soccer (MLS), is improving all the time, managing to lure better players to the continent (of course David Beckham being the most notable).

The rise of popularity began in 1990's. USA was picked as the host nation of World Cup 1994 and MLS was formed as the first outdoor league, since North American Soccer League (NASL) died out in the 80's. Even though World Cup 1990 in Italy was pretty much a catastrophe, with the US losing all of their games, the side managed to win the North American Cup a year later, as well as the Gold Cup.

1994 World Cup was a huge success. This not only brought attention to US as a whole, but popularized football in the country itself and also the national team got past the group stage for the first time since 1930.

1998 was the opposite, mainly due to poor manager-player relationships, but the game slowly grew in the nation and player selection widened. Also the managerial level got better with a number of specialist no involved with the team.

The 2000' arrived with another Gold Cup success and USA was involved in the "Group of Death" of World Cup 2002, where they managed to get a respectable draw versus Italy and only narrowly losing to Ghana.

2006 also turned out to be a bit of a failure. Notice a pattern? By that it looks like it's time for some success again in 2010.

Landon Donovan, who seems to have been around forever (120 caps), is now reaching his career's peak at 27. From the same age group, Clint Dempsey and DaMarcus Beasley are getting great experience in Europe at Fulham and Rangers respectively. Goalkeeper Tim Howard is one of the best in the World. And there's also the curios case of Freddy Adu. Can the one time wonder kid, who's still 20 years of age, finally make a mark in World football?

Adu has been off the radar for the past few season after coming to Europe and playing for Benfica and Monaco, but there's no doubt about his talent. I mean, there's only a limited amount of Djemba-Djemba's Alex Ferguson can take notice. And the Scot praised Adu, when he was on trial at Manchester United. Adu's now at Belenenses in Portugal, on-loan from Benfica. A more relaxed environment for the attacking-midfielder, who'll be hoping he gets enough first-team football to be in contention for a place in the US side for the World Cup. The competition is getting more fierce every year.