Unlike the rest of the world, Americans do not care about soccer.

Not many people know or follow soccer enough for the national team to gain recognition in the United States.

However, soccer has a  foothold in areas around the United States and Canada thanks to Major League Soccer. The San Jose Earthquakes is an example of that.

But soccer will never be at the same magnitude and level as the NFL, NHL or NBA.

These sports far outweigh the significance of the U.S. soccer team and their involvement in the World Cup.

According to the FIFA, Coca Cola world rankings, the U.S. is 14th in the world. Don’t let the rankings fool you.

For the 2014 World Cup, the U.S. is in a group with Portugal, Germany and Ghana. Many experts are calling it the “Group of Death” simply because Portugal and Germany are second and third in the rankings while the U.S. is 14th. Ghana is 38th.

Rankings do not matter in the World Cup and Americans will soon know why. The chances of the soccer team getting out of its group are slim. They have to beat Ghana on Monday, June 16 to have a chance.

Ironically,  Ghana is the opponent who has eliminated the U.S. in the last two World Cups.

When the U.S. defeated Mexico to reach the quarterfinals in the 2002 World Cup in South Korea and Japan, soccer started to be a significant entity for the nation. Although the U.S. lost to Germany 1-0  in the quarterfinals, the success the team gained in the tournament helped people encourage soccer in the U.S.

The best performance for Team USA is in regional play when they beat Mexico (2007) and Panama (2013) in the CONCACAF Gold Cup final.

On Thursday, May 22, U.S national team manager Jurgen Klinsmann made a bold decision to leave off midfielder Landon Donovan from the 23-man roster  that will go to Brazil.

This will be a huge mistake. Not having Donovan on the team will further hurt the team’s chances of succeeding in Brazil.

U.S. soccer accomplishes a lot outside the World Cup, but don’t bother watching if you don’t have interest. There will not be any history made in Rio nor shall you expect it.