One of the things about the World Cup is that it puts the sport into perspective. With 64 games in one month, it’s easy to get a cross-section of where a country is. How well it’s doing relative to the other teams in the tournament. What the level of officiating is. And what improvements are necessary. FIFA, and most countries, know where they stand after a World Cup ends. And they know what work is ahead of them.

But if we take a second to consider what impact that the 2010 World Cup already has and will continue to have over the next 12 months, it’s quite awe-inspiring. Soccer finally got the respect it deserved. Record breaking TV numbers. More media exposure than ever before. Everyone and their grandmother seemed to be following the World Cup or at least aware that the tournament was on. Very few dinosaur sports journalists bashing the sport. The biggest meme of the summer? Vuvuzelas – which got everyone talking about the World Cup. Now comes the challenging part. keeping the momentum going after the World Cup ends.

Here are my thoughts on 7 ways that the 2010 World Cup will change America:

1. More Americans will play in Europe. And those Americans who are already there have a big opportunity to move up the ladder to bigger clubs that they’re at now. There’s been transfer speculation that Liverpool and AC Milan are interested in signing Clint Dempsey. Landon Donovan could leapfrog from Everton to Manchester City, Chelsea or another Premier League club. Meanwhile, back in the States, foreign scouts will be on high alert looking at Major League Soccer and USSF Division 2 for the next big thing.
2. When the bidding for the US TV rights to the 2018 and 2022 World Cup begins, expect some serious competition. During the 2010 World Cup, ESPN has shown how high TV ratings can be. And, if the United States team does even better in the future by hiring someone like Jurgen Klinsmann as coach, expect the TV ratings to go through the roof. The one TV network that could outbid ESPN is Comcast-NBC Universal especially if they don’t want ESPN to get the crown jewels of sport – both the Summer Olympic Games and World Cup.
3. Premier League TV ratings in the United States will climb marginally. While the Premier League is definitely not the only game in town when it comes to soccer on US television, it sometimes feels like that way with TV viewing audiences of more than 500,000 for the top EPL games shown at 4:30am PT on a Saturday morning. With more Premier League games expected to be televised on ESPN this coming season than ever before, ratings can only increase especially with the familiar voices of Ian Darke, Martin Tyler, Efan Ekoku and others forming a perfect bridge from the World Cup to the start of the Premier League season.
4. Bundesliga interest will increase. German soccer has always had a special place in the heart of many Americans after the successful TV show from the late 70s and early 80s named Soccer Made In Germany. But with the Bundesliga stars and Germany team being so impressive in World Cup 2010, especially with incredible players such as Mesut Ozil and Sami Khedira, expect TV ratings (and online viewing numbers) to increase on both ESPN3.com and GolTV.
5. Expect more bars and restaurants to show an interest in soccer. One of the big revelations for many people nationwide has been the success that bars and restaurants have had during the World Cup with venues packed with passionate soccer fans. When business owners see that type of reaction and dollars during a recession, it definitely opens people’s eyes to the relatively untapped commercial aspect of the game stateside. Beginning with the 2010-2011 European seasons, expect to see more bars and restaurants becoming soccer friendly in the United States.
6. Twitter adoption will continue to skyrocket among soccer fans. Twitter’s Biz Stone and his staff got a wakeup call at how popular the World Cup is worldwide after Twitter crashed on numerous occasions from the surge of World Cup traffic. The tournament was definitely a hot topic on tech shows and websites, and deservedly so. But now that the World Cup is almost over, expect soccer fans to use Twitter more often than before during the 2010-11 Premier League season, for starters.
7. More major advertisers interested in sponsoring sport during years between World Cup tournaments. With those TV ratings, how could advertisers possibly ignore soccer anymore?

The success of ESPN’s coverage of the 2010 World Cup has long-term effects that will long outlive the tournament itself. ESPN has raised the bar several levels so much so that Fox Soccer Channel has to invest some serious money into its production and talent in order to come even close to the quality that ESPN has shown. Whatever happens between now and the World Cup Final on July 11, we’ll remember ESPN’s World Cup coverage fondly for many years to come.

ESPN’s Executive Vice President for Content John Skipper deserves a knighthood. If Skipper was English, he would be in the running to get a MBE medal for the way he put his neck on the line by spending more money on the 2010 World Cup than any other sporting event in ESPN history. He put his reputation on the line by fully getting behind soccer, and his perseverance as well as the hard work of his ESPN team has paid off in a major way. And World Cup 2010 is just the beginning. ESPN has rights to the 2014 tournament too. Expect even bigger and better things in the future from ESPN beginning with the 2012 European Championship which may be the best Euros we’ve ever experienced stateside in terms of coverage.

Speaking of soccer and TV coverage, Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester City and, to a lesser extent, Bolton Wanderers couldn’t have picked a better time to play their preseason friendlies in America. All four teams will be here beginning next week to play friendlies across the country.

When you think about it, it’s incredible what changes will come as a result of just one tournament that’s played over the course of one month. An entire season can be played and it doesn’t have the impact that a one-month tournament has. And that’s just another one of many reasons why the World Cup is so influential both inside and outside of the sport of soccer.

If anyone doubted if soccer is a mainstream sport in the United States, they only have to look at the eyepopping numbers of people who watched the World Cup this weekend to see how ABC and Univision both had record TV ratings for soccer.

Saturday’s broadcast of the United States against Ghana game on ABC drew an outstanding 14.8 million viewers. The U.S.-Ghana game ranks as the most-watched Men’s World Cup game ever, with only the 1999 Women’s Final (U.S.-China) averaging more households and viewers for a soccer game (11,307,000 households and 17,975,000 viewers). Combined with the Univision viewing audience for the USA versus Ghana game, the total viewing audience was close to 20 million people in the States.

Sunday’s broadcast of Argentina against Mexico on Univision drew a record 9.36 million viewers, which is an all-time record for any genre of Spanish-language television programs ever in the United States. The previous record was 6.7 million TV viewers for the 2006 World Cup game also featuring Argentina and Mexico. ABC, meanwhile, drew a 3.9 overnight rating for Mexico vs Argentina on Sunday afternoon, the network’s highest overnight of the World Cup for a match that did not involve the United States.

For ABC on Saturday, San Diego was the top market for Saturday’s Team USA game, delivering a 15.4 rating. San Diego was the top market for all three previous U.S. matches – vs. England (11.5, ABC), vs. Slovenia (8.5, ESPN) and vs. Algeria (8.9, ESPN). Rounding out the top 10 for Saturday’s match were Washington, D.C. (13.8), San Francisco (13.3), Cincinnati (12.9), Las Vegas (11.7), Austin (11.4), Columbus, Ohio (10.6), Norfolk, Va. (10.6), Seattle-Tacoma (10.6) and West Palm Beach (10.5).

Through 50 games of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, the ESPN networks (ESPN/ESPN2/ABC) are averaging a 1.8 U.S. rating, 2,081,000 households, and 2,781,000 viewers. The rating is up 48% from 2006 (1.2), while household impressions are up 54% (from 1,349,000) and viewers are up 60% (from 1,740,000).

Soccer is by far the most popular sport in the world. But there are still two massive continents in this world (Asia and North America) as well as other regions where the sport could be much more popular and where the populations are burgeoning.

However, FIFA continues to make cataclysmic mistakes that severely ruin the chances of new sports fans being attracted to the sport of soccer. The cataclysmic and fundamental mistakes focus on the most important part of the game: fairness. If there is no justice in this sport, then it is poisoned and soccer fans, no matter what country they support, will feel cheated. Not because their team lost, but because a mistake was made. And that ruins the very heart of soccer.

Some of you may feel I’m bitter because England had a perfectly decent goal disallowed. And the United States had two. That isn’t the reason why I’m writing this article (not to count the numerous other blatant mistakes in this tournament; Mexico must feel cheated too, just as one other example). Instead, I’m writing this editorial because I believe that the fundamental essence of soccer is broken. The laws of the game.

When sports fans who are not soccer fans but who are trying to give the game a chance during the World Cup come up to me, we often have a discussion that’s based on common sense. Typical questions come them such as “Why doesn’t FIFA allow video technology or add assistant referees behind the goal?” and “Why don’t referees crack down harder on players who are taking fake dives?”

Sadly, it’s very difficult to answer those questions without me throwing up my hands and saying that FIFA refuses to budge on their archaic beliefs. So when casual American soccer fans hear this, they become disillusioned with the sport because (1) it seems that there is no solution coming, (2) the sport is unfair when controversial incidents ruin a game, and (3) it doesn’t make any sense.

While I love the sport of soccer just as much as the most passionate fans do, I can completely understand why soccer isn’t as big as it could be in the United States. As long as FIFA continues to live in the dark ages, soccer will never be as big as it could be in the States.

On top of all of that, FIFA is censoring its own content on its website. After the USA v Slovenia game, the FIFA.com website conveniently didn’t feature any video of the disallowed Maurice Edu goal. And now we learn that FIFA has similarly been up to their old tricks by covering up its mistakes from the England versus Germany game.

The litany of cataclysmic mistakes that FIFA has made over the decades is extremely long. While I don’t expect to see many changes off the field, FIFA needs to understand that changes need to be made on it. At the heart of this is the very essence of soccer. The sport will always be popular, but it could be far more popular if only FIFA made it more fair.

UPDATE: FIFA has decided that it will censor TV replays from being shown within stadiums in the World Cup after Argentina’s disputed first goal fueled arguments on the pitch, according to ESPN Soccernet.

FIFA spokesman Nicolas Maingot said Monday that replaying the incident was “a clear mistake.” ”This will be corrected and we will have a closer look into that,” Maingot told a news conference Monday. “We will work on this and be a bit more, I would say, tight on this for the games to be played.”

Ladies and gentlemen, this is even more evidence of how FIFA is trying to keep control and power to prevent people from seeing the truth. It’s time for FIFA to change, and the change has to happen at the top.

The similarities between England’s devastating loss to Germany Sunday and the United States’s loss to Ghana on Saturday are remarkable.

Here are ten similarities:

1. Both games featured incredible goalkeeping performances. Neuer for Germany. Kingson for Ghana.
2. In both games, the winning team completely outplayed their opposition.
3. Both teams committed disastrous defensive mistakes.
4. Both Tim Howard and David James could have done better to prevent one of the goals scored by Ghana and Germany respectively.
5. In both the United States and England games, the opposition displayed much better technical and ball-handling skills.
6. Both the United States and England are at a crossroads regarding the future of their youth development systems.
7. Both coaches, Bob Bradley and Fabio Capello, made key tactical mistakes before each game. Bradley should have started Benny Feilhaber and Maurice Edu (and possibly Edson Buddle). Capello should have dropped Barry and Upson in favor of Joe Cole and Ledley King (and should have given Peter Crouch a chance).
8. Both England and the United States had to overcome horrible refereeing decisions. The United States suffered from the lousy calls in two first round games. England suffered a terrible call against Germany when Frank Lampard’s goal was disallowed. The big difference is that the United States recovered from the adversity. England didn’t.
9. Fans will call for both Bob Bradley and Fabio Capello to be fired. The sad fact is that neither decision would improve the situation for England or the United States. The soccer deficiencies of both countries ran far deeper than that.
10. Both countries are nowhere near winning a World Cup trophy in the next four to eight years.

Can you think of any more similarities between both games? If so, post them in the comments section below.

No matter what country you support, the pain of losing in a World Cup is a bitter pill to swallow. After a frustrating performance by the United States against Ghana, the United States men’s national team will be returning home shortly after a successful tournament. The team and fans can keep their head held high.

Next up is England and their game tomorrow against Germany. As each game ends in the next few days, a powerful team will get knocked out.

But as much as some United States soccer fans may want to disassociate themselves with the rest of the World Cup, this is now their opportunity to sit back and watch games for the pure pleasure of it. Watching your country play can be a difficult experience. But when it’s a country that you have no connection with, it’s easier to sit back, relax and take in some of the best soccer that the world has to offer.

The other opportunity it presents us is that we have an opportunity now to support another country other than our own. What about you? Which country will you support between now and the end of the World Cup in the hopes that they do well?

It’s another massive weekend of soccer for all of us around the world. On Saturday, the United States plays Ghana (2:30pm ET) while on Sunday, England takes on Germany (10am ET). Plus, in addition to that, there’s the mouthwatering clash between Argentina and Mexico (Sunday, 2:30pm ET) and last, but not least, Uruguay versus South Korea (Saturday, 10am ET) which should be a very entertaining game.

The question is, no matter where you live in the world, how and where will you be watching the matches this weekend?

If you still haven’t had a chance to go out and watch the game in public, I highly encourage it. I’ve watched every game so far this tournament. Some of them have been at home. Some at work. Many of them have been at a local sports bar. But without a doubt, the most incredible experiences for me have been when I watched them at the sports bar, where I partied with friends, family members and total strangers. The level of enthusiasm for a game increases tenfold when you watch it with other passionate soccer fans. There’s the banter, camaraderie and the sense of all being together on a journey to celebrate the beautiful game. There’s no way that can be replicated in your home or office.

I’m very interested in hearing from you, the readers, how you’ll be experiencing the games this weekend and who you’ll be rooting for. Personally, I’m looking forward to a wonderful weekend of matches, but I’m most looking forward to seeing the United States play Ghana in a game where the USA team has a much better chance of beating the same Ghana side that they played in 2006.

Contrary to what some of the England fans may think, I’m also looking forward to watching Sunday’s game between England and Germany. I have a sneaky suspicion that England will win this one especially because their poor record against Germany at major international tournaments has to end sooner or later. Psychologically England has an advantage over Germany in that they’ll be more desperate to beat Germany than the other way around. It’s a similar feeling to how Chelsea felt last summer where you could sense a strong desire to try to win the Premier League title in the 2009-2010 season. They had a lot to prove and they did it with incredibly hard work.

Whether England can step up their game several levels depends on the team that Capello picks. Significant changes will be necessary to quell a strong German side.

As for experiencing the World Cup games this weekend, I’ll be at Wowies in Boca Raton for all four. So if you’re in the area, I’d love to meet you to talk about soccer. Plus, we’ll be giving away a ton of prizes including an England home jersey autographed by John Terry, several ESPN World Cup mural posters, three brand-new FLO TV devices (the one I have has been a godsend this tournament) and more.

One more thing. If you do go out and watch the games this weekend, be sure to wear your soccer jerseys and colors of your country with pride. This is a golden opportunity to get behind your country but to also send a message to the soccer non-believers out there that we all love the beautiful game.

It’s incredible how one goal can make such a difference. With the game between Algeria and the United States still at nil-nil in the 90th minute Wednesday, the USA men’s national team was on the precipice of getting knocked out of the tournament. But the last-gasp winner by Landon Donovan changed everything in so many ways.

Donovan’s goal was so decisive that it meant that:

1. The United States finished first in the group,
2. England finished second,
3. As a result, the United States finished above England so the bragging rights for Group C go to the USA, not England,
4. Over the course of the three games, the United States scored four goals compared to England’s two,

And fifth, and most importantly of all, with the United States finishing in first place, they go into the easier route to the final than England. And this is a massive difference. When the United States plays Ghana on Saturday, a win will help them play either Uruguay or South Korea in the quarter-final. And if they can beat either team, they’ll be in the semi-final and may play – depending on how the teams do – Brazil or Spain, both of whom are definitely beatable based on how the US did against last summer in the Confederations Cup.

On England’s side in the bracket, they’ll need to overcome Germany. Next up, if they beat Mexico, would be Argentina. If they managed to beat Argentina, which would be a massive task, England would play possibly either Italy or Holland, two teams that are always very difficult to beat.

When the game was nil-nil against Algeria and hit the 90th minute mark, it was a strange situation. England was still leading 1-0 and were in the driving seat. However, an equalizer by Slovenia would have sent the United States and Slovenia through, so I’m sure many US fans were hoping for England to slip. At the same time, England fans seeing that the USA scoreline against Algeria was still 0-0 were licking their chops at the prospect of the United States getting knocked out of the tournament.

As it happened, Donovan’s goal changed everything. For me, it put the United States back on the soccer map. Not only because they finished the group above England but because they did it in such style and against such adversity. In two of the three games, the United States had to come back from being a goal down to tie the game. In both of England’s games where they scored, they scored first. So we haven’t seen evidence of how England does when they go a goal down. Plus, the United States were robbed of two genuine goals that should have been allowed. Even against such adversity, the United States raised their game and ended winning the group which is testament to the character of this team and country.

But most important of all, the United States gained the respect of the world. In their first game, the US got lucky against England. But in their second and third games, they raised their game and played in two of the most exciting games of this World Cup. The first one against Slovenia because of the comeback and the controversial ending when the goal was disallowed. And the second, the game against Algeria which was a tense one to watch, but featured an unbelievable ending that sent US soccer players (and fans) into raptures.

So, Landon Donovan’s goal against Algeria wasn’t just a win against the North African team. It was, in a weird way, a win against England. A win that garnered more respect for the US team. A win that catapulted the United States over England and into a path that could advance the United States further into this tournament than England. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. There’s still a long way to go yet.

If you live in South Florida, there’s only one place to be this weekend to watch your World Cup games and that’s Wowies Sports Grill in Boca Raton, Florida. EPL Talk is hosting all of its official World Cup Viewing Parties at Wowies, a modern sports bar featuring 31 big screen TVs, three full-liquor bars, excellent food and the lovely Wowies Girls. And this weekend is going to be absolutely huge in terms of everything we have planned for you.

Some of the features include a chance for you to win an England home jersey autographed by John Terry, three chances to win a FLO TV Personal Television (valued at $199), several chances to win World Cup mural posters and the 2010 FIFA World Cup video game.

Plus, on top of all that, we’ll have professional soccer players from Miami FC making an appearance during the USA game Saturday to meet the soccer fans in South Florida.

Here’s the schedule for this weekend’s games including what prizes you can win:

• URUGUAY v SOUTH KOREA (Saturday, 9.30am) - Win the 2010 FIFA World Cup video game for the X360 or PS3 (courtesy of EA Sports). The videogame is in stores now and it enables you to take your favorite nation to World Cup glory. It is available on Wii, PS3, x360 and PSP.
• USA v GHANA (Saturday, 2pm) - Win a FLO TV Personal Television (valued at $199, courtesy of FLO TV) or a USA mural poster (courtesy of ESPN). PLUS, professional soccer players from Miami FC will be making an appearance during the game to sign autographs, meet with soccer fans and have your picture taken with them.
• ENGLAND v GERMANY (Sunday, 9.30am) - Win an England World Cup home jersey autographed by John Terry (courtesy of Umbro), or an England mural poster (courtesy of ESPN), or a Germany mural poster (courtesy of ESPN), or a FLO TV Personal Television (valued at $199, courtesy of FLO TV).
• ARGENTINA v MEXICO (Sunday, 2pm) - Win a FLO TV Personal Television (valued at $199, courtesy of FLO TV) or a Mexico mural poster (courtesy of ESPN)

Before each game, we’ll hand out free raffle tickets. And then, at the end of the game, we’ll call the winning raffle ticket numbers.

Happy hour is every day at Wowies from 12-7pm. Plus, they offer a special lunch-menu for $7.95. On top of all of that, you can get a free Red Stripe or Sierra Nevada beer (courtesy of EPL Talk and Wowies) by printing the flyer from our sister site World Cup Buzz and giving it to your waitress or bartender during World Cup games.

This is the perfect weekend to get out of the house and go watch World Cup games with passionate soccer fans. Nothing beats being with a big crowd of fans cheering for their team and the uncontrolled passion when your country scores a goal.

And Wowies opens at 9:30am for all of the World Cup games between now and the World Cup Final on July 11.

In addition to that, I’ll be at all of the games this weekend and I’ll be interviewing many soccer fans to get your thoughts about the game. The best clips will be published on EPL Talk and other sites in the EPL Talk Network.

I hope to see you there. But if you don’t live in the area, no worries. We’ll be live streaming from many of the games this weekend so you can see where the diehard soccer fans in South Florida are going to watch their World Cup games.

Wowies is located at 7036 W. Palmetto Park Road, Boca Raton, FL 33433. More information about Wowies (including directions) can be found at our sister site at http://www.worldcupbuzz.com/wowies

When the draw for Group C was named in December, little did we know how difficult it would be to predict who would advance and how close the race was going to be on the final day of the first round games in Group C.

The beauty of World Cup Group C is that it’s in the hands of all four teams.

But which two teams will advance? Vote now.

If you support England, how are you feeling right now? The next 24 hours or so are a test of everyone’s bottle. Some England fans tend to think this is a unique condition that afflicts them only but it’s the same for many countries supporters in the coming days. It’s all part of life’s rich tapestry as a football fan; the grit that makes the pearl.

Personally, I love these times the best – when there’s a real and palpable tension in the air; a sense of anticipation – like that moment when the roadies flick the amps on and you can hear the hiss and crackle of electricity in the PA for the first time. Actually, in these days of noise gates and advanced PA tech that probably doesn’t happen any more; gone are the days when some hairy bloke would walk on stage and turn on the Marshall stacks, it’s probably all digital now.

All is still possible. That is something to still relish. It may be different after tomorrow’s game, its impossible to call. It seems to me that the criticism England have received has been based around the notion that ‘we should be beating sides like USA, Algeria.’ Yes they have played poorly against Algeria especially, but this ‘we should beating sides like this’ concept is one which England fans seem to lapse into by default based on not much at all.

Do they look at the rankings and see these team well below England, therefore assume we should beat them, right? I doubt it. More often it’s just a gut reaction – they don’t sound like they’re a good side so we should beat them; its no more sophisticated than that.

But this totally fails to understand both the quality of the players and also how many sides perform in a tournament, regardless of their form outside of it. Many sides, as we have seen, substantially raise their game in the same way that a lower league side does in the FA Cup.

While the more blinkered England fans still seem to think that We Are England and therefore better than most, the more informed observer knows this is spurious nonsense. Time and again we see sides that may be lower ranked but who have tremendous first touch, and organisation the like of which should be the envy of England.

It seems the England fan base, still so critical of its side, are slow to learn our real place in world football as one of many ‘also-rans.’ There’s no shame in admitting our real position because until we do that, we can’t free ourselves from this idea that ‘we should be beating teams like this,’ whoever teams like this are.

It’s also rather disrespectful to other nations that we so lightly judge their skill and talent. You’d think in the globalized world of football, this wouldn’t happen any more but it still does time and again. If its not Brazil or Spain we’re playing many think we should just roll over any team, especially an African or East European side. No wonder they’re so shocked when it turns out they can actually play!

But if they stopped to think for a moment, there’s a reason that there’s been a big influx of African born and East European players into the Premier League – it’s because they’re better than the home-grown talent available. So you’d think by extension, the majority of people would have learned by now that if a player hails from some distant land you’ve never been too or possibly can’t find on a map, that doesn’t mean he’s some sort of hick who doesn’t wear shoes, who can dazzle with our fabulous football.

The World Cup should inform us of this truth but many seem blinkered to the reality and will go on bleating about England being able to beat sides like this based on little more than basic ignorance and misunderstanding. If we just replaced the word ‘should’ with ‘hope’ we’d have a much healthier attitude.

C’mon England!