What's got the rest of the world really worried right now, is that they all know - ALL of them - the world soccer powers, that the only thing that keeps the USA from dominating the world in the sport, is that there has been no organization and structure in place for USA Soccer to build a world class power in soccer, which involves a program that goes from U-8 all the way up through the senior national team.
THere are more than enough world class athletes in a country the size of the United State, and last I looked, soccer is the most popular sport played by youth up through high school ages. Klinsmann, is the first USA coach, to my knowledge, that has complete control of the structure, (i'm not sure of the governing body of USA Soccer has had a coach that was given his amount of control before)
...and Klinsmann is simply installing the same program from youth to senior team, for the USA, that he installed in Germany about a decade ago, that rebuilt the German national team program from an aging, old model, that could never get by Brazil's youth, to what it is now, constantly pumping out new and better 18-20 year old players.
If Klinsmann can repeat what he was able to do with the youth programs for the Germany up through the national team, with the USA? It won't happen in 2014, but by 2018 and beyond, the USA is going to be very powerful in soccer.
THe weak link in the sytem right now, is the professional club teams, in North America, and I don't know anytihing about the jurisdiction/overlap if any that may exist between college soccer and USA soccer, butas the pro soccer programs in NOrth America improve, as they make more money, and can pay better, more players will develop, and look out.
It will be signfiicnat failure if the U.S. fails to qualify for Brazil, but I doubt it, and I think that when we get there, we're going to make some noise. This program has already managed to do two amazing things, in friendly play that were unheard of, and that's win IN italy, and win IN mexico.