Can United States Men’s National Soccer Team Continue Cinderella Run At World Cup?

For the United States Men’s National Soccer Team this has been a Cinderella World Cup, reaching the round of 16 for the first time in their young history. In the U.S. soccer (football to the rest of the world) is not the most popular sport, however, coach Jurgen Klinsmann’s guys have brought the country to a level of excitement never seen before.

Viewing parties — there’s one today at Chicago’s Soldier Field if you’re in the area — are happening all over the U.S., as fans can’t help but be glued to their television sets for the matches where the red, white, and blue play. Klinsmann even asked employers to let their employees out for the game against Germany.

This United States Men’s National Soccer Team has made the entire nation pay attention to a sport that has seen massive growth in the last few years. At every World Cup, the Americans seem to get just a little better, it’s a long process to compete with countries in which many little kids can kick a football as soon as they can walk.

In the United States, the national passttime is baseball, not soccer, but the Men’s Soccer Team has proved that there are a lot more people interested in the sport than most believe. It is true that the majority of Americans don’t live football as other countries, but that doesn’t make them less passionate about their team.

But can Klinsmann carry this particular squad into the quarterfinals of the 2014 World Cup? On paper, they have a very good shot at moving forward, as the Belgians are not considered to be one of the strongest teams playing in Brazil — even though they haven’t lost a match yet — and had a relatively easy group in the initial stage.

The United States Men’s National Soccer Team, on the other hand, has a much harder time and had to play in the so-called “Group of Death”, along with Germany, Portugal, and Ghana. They managed to qualify, in part thanks to the fact that Cristiano Ronaldo was suffering from an injury and was not 100 percent.

Even though the United States Men’s National Soccer Team lost to Germany in their last group match, they advanced to the round of 16. Now, Klinsmann has the opportunity to show what his team is all about and that they are ready to play with the big guns in the biggest stage of them all. It’s do or die time, literally, and the loser goes home. This is it USA.

Do you think the United States Men’s National Soccer Team can move past Belgium at the 2014 World Cup?

[Images via Twitter]