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The US has loved soccer before, but Landon Donovan and co hope to form a longer-lasting bond

From South Africa to Alaska. U-S-A! From the bars of New York to the suburbs of Wisconsin. U-S-A! From the hallowed halls of the West Wing to the headquarters of ESPN. U-S-A! The results are in â€" all three of them â€" and the news is America loves soccer.

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This means that all or at least almost everything, whether it is Barack Obama, whose meeting with the new commander of the U.S. Army in Afghanistan, the White House, was interrupted by applause from his staff Landon Donovan 'late goal against Algeria, or Members of Congress, which, according to the Wall Street Journal , stopped discussions on the most important financial legislation since the Great Depression to watch Bob Bradley's side progress to the last 16. Even Tiger Woods cares. "That was a nice little gift on the goal there," the world's No1 golfer said of Robert Green's infamous gaffe. "But I hope he gets a chance to play again and is not finished."

Woods, the least sensitive man in sport, in a public demonstration of humanity shocked! What happened to the U.S. and her people during the World Cup?

The answer is that a nation has become gripped by the stylistically limited but undeniably dogged efforts of Bradley's squad and their progress into tomorrow's match against Ghana for a place in the quarter-finals. Where will it end? The most obvious answer is that it depends on tomorrow's result. Victory for the USA and the interest will continue, and intensify. Defeat for the USA, and a pivotal moment beckons for the world's most popular game and its age-old quest to "make it" in the world's most lucrative sports market.

One school of thought suggests that the fervour that has distracted politicians and golfers, that has seen viewing records smashed and packed the pubs of Manhattan, will disappear just as quickly as it appeared. After all, we have been here before â€" twice. In 1994, when the US hosted the World Cup and embraced it like Brazilians, and in 1999, when the USA women's team won the World Cup and were collectively named Sport Illustrated's sportspeople of the year. Both times, the passion lasted about as long as a reality show romance.

The airwaves are filled with shrill voices, talkshow hosts, and NFL and baseball-obsessed callers, who have been making exactly these points but in doing so they reveal only their own conservative prejudices and convinced no one of anything other than they don't know what they are talking about.

Powerful forces are changing the American attitude to football, and none of them is Landon Donovan 's right leg . US Soccer, the American equivalent of the FA, has embarked on a serious and well-organised campaign to host the World Cup, probably in 2022, with the bid's honorary chairman, Bill Clinton, Former U.S. President makes a tour to South Africa this week. Suffice it to say that Clinton says is better than playing David Beckham in making the case that his country would be good for the world championship, and vice versa.

Clinton may be persuasive but even his influence will pall when measured against that of ESPN, the omnipotent sports broadcasting network, which as well as spending $100m (£67m) on the rights to show the 2010 and 2014 World Cups, has invested millions more sending a team of 200 to South Africa to cover the event and has largely turned over its main channel to football.

So far, the returns have been good â€" 6.5 million Americans watched Wednesday's match between the USA and Algeria, a record that will in all likelihood be beaten tomorrow. Overall ratings are up by 64% on four years ago. "I don't think there's any question that there will continue to be records broken in terms of the number of people watching on all our platforms," John Skipper, the network's executive vice-president for content, said.

Skipper would have said that, of course, but $ 100 is a huge commitment that will take some time to recover, and offers the most powerful and financially successful television network in the history of the sport of football business in the long term.

Or to put it another way, this is one summer romance that will not be allowed to fade when autumn comes. ESPN will not allow that to happen.