http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-28025640 Well this article makes you feel good where USA soccer is going.
If I could find the BBC link from 10+ years ago where the BBC referred to the USA as a "minor footballing nation," I'd post it in this thread, as an example of how opinions have changed.
This isn't news; it's just evolution. As an American journalist, I've been writing on this subject for the last decade on and off. The difference? People are actually now reading and agreeing with me. Right there, that should tell you something.
That's slightly selective reading though, as the whole point of the comment wasn't to write them off, but to suggest that having appeared in five straight finals, they maybe deserve a little more credit.
Based on what happened in 2006, and even 2010-2012, I think their assessment was fair enough at the time it was written.
Many people, including myself, are used to reading it that way because traditionally with the English, it was always said in a snide and condescending tone. Obviously, that is now changing, but I wanted to highlight the context.
Had that been the intention then the phrase would have been reversed, to leave the stress on the negative part.