Though still in the shadow of football, baseball and basketball, soccer in the United States has firmly established itself as part of the country's mainstream sports culture. Respect abroad for the American game also continues to grow after the national team reached the quarterfinals in the 2002 World Cup. With several players at clubs in Europe and an improving pro league at home, the United States is no longer being written off as a second-rate footballing nation by the world's top soccer powers. Germany certainly will not dismiss the American squad lightly when the two teams face each other in an international friendly match in Dortmund on March 22. SPIEGEL ONLINE spoke with Dr. Robert Contiguglia, who is retiring this month as president of the US Soccer Federation, about the dramatic changes American soccer has undergone during his eight-year term.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Under your guidance over the past eight years US soccer has made some major achievements. Not just the men's national team in the World Cup quarterfinals, but the women's team success and the growth of Major League Soccer. Have you accomplished much more than you expected you would?

Contiguglia: I've been at this for over 30 years in various positions and at the national level since 1990 when I was president of youth soccer for the United States, so I've got to experience the whole evolution and you could see it coming over time. In '98 (when the US placed last at the World Cup in France) most people wrote us off. What they didn't see was what we had been building over the previous 20 years, particularly with the development of our youth players. Plus our professional league -- Major League Soccer -- was just beginning to grow. So we were optimistic that we had the talent on the field, but we also had to fix the organizational side of things. When we took over in 1998 we had a precarious financial situation. There was a lot of political infighting. We had to clean house. We were in that transition from a voluntary outfit to a professional organization. Our organization had been in existence over 90 years, but we never had a business plan, that was important. Once you have a strong financial basis you can invest in the sport; our first priority was player development and we brought on (US men's national team head coach) Bruce Arena.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: But there is also a conflict between the national team and MLS since the best players need to come to Europe to compete at the sport's highest levels but the league can't afford to send all its stars abroad.

Contiguglia: We showed MLS on the commercial side that if we work together the pot gets bigger and we all win instead of working against each other. The success of the national team has created success in the MLS and that we needed the MLS for the national team to move forward. It's a line we walk and we do what's best for the player. Some players can come out of our academy and go straight to Europe like Gooch (Oguchi Onyewu at Standard de Liege in Belgium) and other players like Landon Donovan go to Europe and don't enjoy it. The most important thing is wherever they go they are playing on a regular basis at a high professional level. If our players have an opportunity to go to Europe and they're going to sit on the bench we tell them to go to MLS, which is improving as a league. Obviously it's not the Premiership (in England) but it's getting better. I see it as the entry level for young American players who could not start in the European leagues but will eventually go over there.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: The MLS may be improving, but what is soccer's place in American sports culture now? Will it ever be able to compete with baseball and basketball?

Contiguglia: We're certainly highly competitive with hockey. In America everything is based on TV because that's the source of revenue and ratings -- and soccer's revenue and ratings in the United States have not been good except for major events like the World Cup. But they're building and as MLS expands to more markets with soccer-specific stadiums -- which the Federation is investing in with MLS -- the product will improve and they'll get a stronger fan base. Will it ever rival the NFL? Who on the planet can do that? They have such a strong league. But soccer is already a mainstream sport and we have more participants than the other sports at every age level. But we're measured by the success of the professional league and the national teams, and the league is measured by attendance and TV ratings and whether you're losing money. By those criteria, we're not there yet.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Did the US team's great showing at the last World Cup in 2002 increase interest from both the American public and media?

Contiguglia: There's so much more media interest. The whole interest in soccer in the United States has certainly changed since 2002. There's more soccer on TV -- there are two cable stations that basically broadcast soccer 24 hours a day. Does it compare to the other American sports? No. But the World Cup draw got plenty of publicity. There was a buzz to it. The media is also helping temper expectations by recognizing we're in a tough group. Before the draw the expectations were very high. It will be interesting managing whatever the outcome is from the World Cup. Even if we don't get out of the first round -- I believe we will by the way -- but if we don't it won't be as devastating as '98 for several reasons. The major one is our team will be incredibly competitive no matter who we play.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: The US group has been called a group of death or near death. Which team poses the biggest danger? Both the Italians and Czechs are tough but Ghana is no pushover.

Contiguglia: They're all dangerous. Every game is very, very difficult. It's going to be a tough battle. I think the team that gets the right bounces and has the right luck will go through.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Should the United States have been seeded as a group leader instead of Mexico?

Contiguglia: It depends on the system you choose. The one FIFA chose took into consideration several prior World Cups. If you use that system, then Mexico should be seeded ahead of the United States. If you just look at recent performance, we were the champions of the Gold Cup and we were the number one team qualifying and we beat Mexico several times. By that measure then we should have been seeded first. But you got the result according to the system FIFA picked.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Is there still a lack of respect for the American game amongst Europeans and Latin Americans?

Contiguglia: No. I'm the United States representative at FIFA so I attend a lot of meetings. Everyone, first of all, tells us we should have beaten Germany (in the '02 World Cup quarterfinals) and from (FIFA President) Sepp Blatter on down that we were a better team that day. And number two, they all expressed great respect for the American game. But then they all still comment on where we need to improve and that's the technical side. We're hearing that less and less at the highest levels. Do we have a Ronaldihno? No, but who else does? So I think the respect is there all over the world and we have coaches of the German national team coming to the United States meeting with our head coach to study his methodology.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: German national team coach Jürgen Klinsmann's decision to remain at his home in California during the run up to the World Cup -- and his decision to introduce US fitness training techniques to the German national squad -- has generated a lot of controversy in Germany.

Contiguglia: He's also brought a style back where the manager is truly a manager of key people and delegates responsibility. It's more the organizational aspects of how we do things too. He's doing what Bruce Arena is doing.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: What about on the sporting side? Are there still things the Europeans could learn from the United States?

Contiguglia: To a degree. In 2002, fitness made an incredible difference in performance over the European teams -- particularly for South Korea and the US. Granted, the European teams did not have the full rest and recovery time coming out of the season and we have to make up for lack of technical ability with fitness and athleticism. As we get more technical improvement in our game, we'll already have the fitness and athletic ability and we'll probably do better. We still have a ways to go. You need all those components.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: After the poor showing of the US team in the 1998 World Cup did you set out to find an experienced foreign coach to help out or was Arena just a lucky pick?

Contiguglia: There was a huge debate. A number of coaches were being considered, but I had a number of biases. I thought the European coaches we looked at were very good technically and tactically, but did not know how to handle the American players. The style is different. American players are very highly educated and they ask a lot of questions. The European coaches have a more authoritative style and they expected a treatment somewhat akin to royalty. Bruce was on a short list. The rap on him was his players will die for him and he wins. And there's mutual respect. He treats them like human beings. I believe for the American system we need American coaches. We had had foreign coaches but my interest as president was to bring a coach who was going to build the program and not just win a competition.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: The US men's national team will play twice this month in Germany. Was that a specific part of your preparations for the World Cup this summer?

Contiguglia: Poland was available (on March 1) but they didn't want to come to the United States so we came up with the idea of playing them in Europe. We were mainly planning on using our Europe-based players anyway. One of our staff came up with the idea of playing in Kaiserslautern because of the American (military) presence there.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Many US players at European clubs have said they won't take part in the upcoming friendly against Germany in Dortmund on March 22. Will the match be geared toward giving US-based players more experience on the pitch in Europe?

Contiguglia: The number one priority has to be testing players, but that being said Bruce Arena would always say we always want to win.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Aside from the Germans staying in a leafy Berlin suburb, the US team is the only World Cup side staying in a big city. Why did you pick Hamburg?

Contiguglia: We did the same thing in Korea by staying in Seoul. We're unique in a number of ways. We encourage the players to have their families with them during the competition. In Korea we had a nursery and the wives stayed with the players. Our philosophy is that we want to make it as much like home as possible as opposed to other coaches that want a Spartan environment. Our style is a big family. The players hated being in the rural areas in France during '98. That was a negative factor. They felt they weren't part of anything. The World Cup is about all the celebrations and we don't feel (being in Hamburg) will be a distraction.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: What about security concerns? Coming from the United States that's obviously an issue.

Contiguglia: Whenever we travel there's a huge visible and invisible security presence with our team. From our perspective, it's just part of the environment we're in and the players are very used to it. We, FIFA and the local organizing committee all work together and we feel very comfortable.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Your predecessor as president, Alan Rothberg, in 1994 made a prediction that the United States would win the World Cup in 2010. Now at the end of your term, would you care to offer your own prediction when America will be world champion?

Contiguglia: Well, that was more a goal than a prediction. There are people today who think we could do this now. I don't like making predictions, but I believe one day we will win it. We probably won't see it though until we're more consistent in succeeding against the best teams in the world. And to win a World Cup you need a lot of luck.