I wouldn’t compare rooting for Italy instead of USA with rooting for the Yankees instead of the Red Sox. Club and national team analogies just don’t work, because of the utter rivalries that can exist between clubs. By the same token you can’t expect a Man Utd fan to cheer for City, or an AC Milan fan to shout “Forza Inter”. Not gonna happen.

National teams are another thing. If your own team isn’t doing too well in a competition (or worse, has been eliminated), and for the sake of argument let’s the take the World Cup as an example, it’s not at all uncommon to find a 2nd-favorite team to root for. When Italy got knocked out of the World Cup in 1998, I was rooting for France (despite they eliminated Italy to PKs in the quarter-finals), because I liked the way they were playing & the heart the were putting into each game. In 2002, after the Round of 16 (and that disgraceful Azzurri match against South Korea… burn in hell Moreno) I went with Brazil.

Now that’s assuming that, right from the start, you’ll be cheering for your own national team, and if by misfortune they should get eliminated, then you’ll ‘revert’ to your 2nd choice. What you were talking about though, is the fact that Americans seem to cheer directly for another team (at least in your case) instead of the Stars & Stripes… Let’s address that issue.

You said “When the U.S. doesn’t, or can’t dominate competition, we sort of tune it out“. While that is certainly true (and not only in the case of USA, but several other nations as well… because it’s not fun to cheer for a losing team), I don’t believe it’s the only reason the US Soccer team isn’t popular. I think it’s essentially because of the sport: soccer by itself, isn’t popular in the US.

You mentioned Lance Armstrong: when he was winning, part of the American public was cheering for him, glad that an American good at cycling was collecting trophies in Europe. But the emphasis here is on the word “part”, because I don’t believe cycling is ranking very high in the sports popularity charts in the USA. Not only that, but as soon as Armstrong retired, was the American public’s ‘new-found’ interest for cycling kept intact? Not really… (well I guess partially, after Floyd Landis won the Tour after Armstrong, but now we all know that he cheated).

Now, I agree with you that “In order for the U.S. national team to reclaim its rightful spot as the prime object for support among U.S. soccer fans, it needs to tap into our feelings of nationalism and national character”. However, that will not come easy. My belief is that until the US Soccer team accomplishes an exceptional feat. in an international tournament (and no, winning the Gold Cup doesn’t count), soccer popularity in the USA will remain low.

The evidence of the ‘victory effect’ simply lies in the World Cup wins of the Women’s team in 1991 and 1999 (who can’t remember that shirtless Brandi Chastain picture after she scored the last penalty shot): those victories literally produced a giant bang for US Women soccer, who then flourished in the years to come.

It may sound as if I’m saying the US Soccer team and its popularity will remain what it until the Men win the World Cup. That’s not necessarily true, but they need to reach a sufficiently high stage of the competition so that the American public will find interest. Of course, it doesn’t help the World Cup is held only every 4 years.