Kaka's Orlando deal another Brazilian boost for football in USA, says Simon Veness

Brazil giveth, and Brazil taketh away. And, while the taking away bit was massively painful for pretty much the whole of USA, there was definite hope for the future in the giving part.

So let me walk you through 24 hours in the soccer history of a nation that had fallen so totally in love with the World Cup you feared for their mental stability when it all, inevitably, hit the buffers with an almighty crash.

There was certainly hope that they might have extended their stay in South America beyond the round of 16. There was even a great deal of belief they could at least equal their previous best Copa Mundial performance, in 2002, by reaching the quarter-finals.

And, to judge by the truly massive nature of the talk-radio shows, TV coverage, social media and other Internet phenomena, there was a blazing sense of passion that this could well be Their Year to do something spectacular on soccer’s global stage.

You see, this is a country that has yet to experience the true pain and misery of a penalty shootout exit; or of having a perfectly good ‘goal’ wiped out by the pathetic lack of goal-line technology; or of seeing an outrageous cheat punch the ball into their net and claim it as ‘the hand of god’ (the hand of a little sod, more like); or even of knowing you had a decent team but the manager just couldn’t put it all together.

No, the USA has never had to suffer through the myriad of genuine heartbreaks that England fans of the past 40 years have come to know as part of their sporting DNA. The World Cup isn’t something you’re supposed to fall in love with.

Well, it is, but then like the girlfriend you know is just too good-looking for you, she dumps you for another guy, who just happens to come from Germany, or Argentina, or Brazil, or Italy, or France, or Spain.

Well, it is, but then like the girlfriend you know is just too good-looking for you, she dumps you for another guy, who just happens to come from Germany, or Argentina, or Brazil, or Italy, or France, or Spain. Because there are only ever six countries capable of winning this tournament every four years, and England certainly isn’t one of them.

But America doesn’t know that, at least not yet, and perhaps it never will. First of all, their teams never seem to under-perform, and they always give their fans hope that they are still making progress in world terms. They might not be the most talented bunch, but by Uncle Sam, they will sell their defeated souls dearly and with maximum effort.

And that is the wonderful simplicity about the USA’s national support; they wear their heart on their sleeve as much as the team does, and woe betide anyone who so much as whispers, “Er, I don’t really fancy us to win this one today.”

Beginnings

But hold on a minute. I am getting to the end of the story before the start, and everyone knows a good tale always starts with ‘In the beginning…’ And, in this case, the beginning was 1996, when Major League Soccer first announced its presence with 10 teams and a handful of big-name stars like Mexico’s Jorge Campos and Colombian Carlos Valderrama.

It wasn’t a particularly auspicious opening few years, as teams struggled to draw fans, the Miami Fusion went bust and the national team staggered to a last-place finish in the 1998 World Cup (losing all three games, including to Iran). At least they avoided the inevitable pain of another penalty shootout defeat, as England didn’t against Argentina.

But from that nadir, US soccer almost literally pulled itself up by the boot-straps and began a 16-year march, first to res