USA Today

Today could prove to be a landmark day for the future US national football team?

Not only is a place in the World Cup quarter finals at stake, with millions of countrymen tunning in to watch their new favourite sport, todays game represents a huge chance to inspire the next wave of national players to come.

Although today's side has more than a hint of a chance against a Belgium side that look like they will be weakened through injury' to key defensive players and the growing feeling of confidence coming from the camp what with coach Jurgen Klinsman's rearranging flights home for after the final, winning the World Cup in 2014 is possibly a step to far for the current side, but...

Could the USA win the World Cup within the next 20 years?

It's not a thought many English football fans would want to comprehend at this moment give the state of our own national side, but given the rapid progress US football has shown over the previous 20 years since the 1994 World Cup, you'd have to admit that if that level of progression was to continue at the same pace you could very easily see US hands getting on that famous gold trophy.

True, the closer you get to the top the harder and slower the rate of progression becomes, but what has been done to both expand the popularity of the domestic league and increase participation in the sport has been impressive and there's no doubting the countries ability to train top athletes so failure wouldn't be through the lack of trying or funding.

However, the main doubt that exists in my mind at present is that there has yet to be a top, top, player to come out of the continent of North America, one to match the quality produced by their southern counterparts. 

The US have always had brilliant goalkeepers such as Tony Meola, Kasey Keller, Brad Friedel and Tim Howard to name but a few and in Clint Dempsey and Landon Donavan, they have produced two highly likeable players that have really suited the English game with their industrious work rate mixed with intelligent skill, but you'd be hard pushed to put them in the same class bracket as some of Europe's top players such as a Robben, a Benzema, even a Rooney, let alone a Messi or a Ronaldo. 

Tim Howard - great goalkeeper, awful beard

If the mid 2000 Football Manager PC games where anything to go buy, there was much hope that Freddy Adu had the ability to be a player of that very level following his early promise at a tender age. Sadly Freddy never became the beast that countless laptop managers believed him to be and turned out to be more hype than new hope and very quickly disappeared from view (I believe he is playing in Norway from next season?) but it's the level that Freddy never achieved that America's youngsters need to aspire to.

It also remains to be seen if footballs new found following in the US would remain satisfied by the domestic offerings of the MLS when compared to what has been a very special World Cup or if a lot of these fans will quickly migrate back to America's traditional sports like the National Football League when they come back into focus, but the exposure received to date retains hope that the next wave of Michael Bradley's (certain hoping for more of them and less Jozy Altidore's!) may have already been hooked.

Ultimately time will tell, but what's certain is today's game has the potential to have a big impact on the future of US football. Who knows, this could begin the path to the US team winning in Russia 2018 - and what American wouldn't love winning there first World Cup in the communists back yard!

The Armchair Supporter