THE World Cup was supposed to change the US. That was the common consensus for decades. Show Americans soccer at its highest level, the thinking went, and a nation devoted to its own football might finally embrace the world’s game.
Instead, America changed the World Cup.
Spain’s testy 1-0 win over Argentina on Sunday (Jul 19, early Monday morning, Singapore time) closed a tournament increasingly shaped by an American sports playbook – and that may be exactly what the competition needs to grow as a business.
