Soccer in America: why aren't more black kids playing the world's game?

Despite a US soccer boom, the sport has made barely a ripple in African American communities. Could unlocking this talent base revive the failing national team?

Soccer found Robert Russ when he was in the seventh grade – not that he was looking for it. Like most African American kids at his Washington middle school, he had no interest in the game. Soccer, everyone had told him, was either for white children in the suburbs or Latino immigrants, not kids like him.

Then one afternoon someone waved him on to the playing field. By the end of the day, he was in love with a new sport.

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