The match-up against the U.S. and Germany in Friday's World Cup quarterfinals was the most anticipated soccer game in American history. But whether the U.S. soccer team's amazing run will have a similar impact on Major League Soccer is still unclear.

	Once the World Cup is over, U.S. standout Landon Donovan could be headed to a European team.

Imminent losses of players with suddenly household names like Landon Donovan could hurt a league desperate to capitalize on America's growing interest in soccer fueled by the World Cup.

Donovan, the 20-year-old striker who is in his second year with San Jose Earthquakes, the defending MLS champion, has emerged during the World Cup as America's best young talent. In four World Cup matches, the 2001 All-Star Game MVP has scored two goals and was responsible for the crossing pass that led to an own-goal by Portugal in the first-round upset by the U.S team.

Keeping Donovan will be a struggle since he's on loan from Bayer Leverkusen, the German team that signed him when he was 16. Although the agreement ends in 2004, Leverkusen, which lost to Spain's Real Madrid in the European Champions Cup final, has the option to take Donovan back after the 2002 MLS season concludes in the fall.

On Tuesday, U.S. coach Bruce Arena said he believed Donovan is headed to Germany after the World Cup.

"Landon feels its very important to help build soccer in this country," his agent, Richard Motzkin, said. "He has to decide if he will help America's profile more if he succeeds here or if he succeeds overseas."

Major League Soccer is facing the same dilemma. It wants to help grow the sport by developing more players like Donovan and 20-year-old forward DaMarcus Beasley, but it can't afford to continually lose the battle with European clubs in the future.

"Right now, it's a win-win situation if our players, who have become professionals in the MLS, go on and play in the world's elite leagues," MLS spokesman Trey Fitzgerald said. "But in 10 years, hopefully we won't be doing it as much."

The MLS is fearful the loss of Donovan, Beasley and others could turn fans away from the struggling league much as Ichiro Suzuki's defection to Major League Baseball sapped the Orix Blue Wave of Japan's Pacific League of its marquee player. Since Suzuki's departure prior to the 2001 season, attendance for the Blue Wave has plummeted.

	U.S. soccer fans won't be seeing Brad Friedel's freestyle goalie work during MLS games. He plays in England for the Blackburn Rovers.

The impact of some of the American soccer players is already dulled by the fact they don't play in the United States. While 12 of 24 players on the national team roster currently play on MLS teams, U.S. team captain and midfielder Claudio Reyna plays in England, as does rising star goalie Brad Friedel, who went overseas after one season with the Columbus Crew and recently agreed to a four-year contract extension with Blackburn Rovers.

Clint Mathis, the mohawk-sporting forward who plays with the MLS' New York/New Jersey Metrostars, has a contract with the league through next season. But contracts are not binding. Mathis already has received preliminary offers from Bayern Munich in Germany and Italy's Perugia club, which would have to pay the MLS -- which, under the single entity structure, owns all contracts -- a transfer fee if they want to sign him.

"Clint is our best player and we're not going to easily give him up," said Nick Sakiewicz, the Metrostars' president and general manager. "Our youth and reserve system is too young and we don't have a bonafide replacement for him."

Before the American's World Cup success, transfer fee bidding for Mathis was speculated to be between $5 million and $6 million. The league usually takes 70 percent of the fee, and the player and his agent split the balance. But since the team has advanced to the quarterfinals, even though Mathis played in only three of the five World Cup games, the marketplace should dictate a rise in transfer fees for all American players, according to Sakiewicz.

"It's great for the MLS to sell a player to an overseas club for big money," Sakiewicz said. "But strategically, the league is not dependent on selling our players to make the business work."

From the player's perspective, MLS always will lose the "tradition" argument. Teams in Europe have been playing for more than 100 years, while the MLS is in middle of its seventh season. Financially, it's also hard to argue against players choosing to play overseas. MLS salaries top out at $270,000, while players for top European teams can make between $500,000 and $1 million a year. The U.S. players for their participation in this year's World Cup alone made $213,587.

"Our commissioner, Don Garber, wants to keep these guys, so one of the things we are looking at is perhaps changing the economic model," Fitzgerald said.

Changing the economic model, and being able to responsibly offer players more money, might require a league that contracted two teams in January to generate more revenue.

In order to do that, MLS -- which only has one soccer-only stadium (in Columbus) -- is focusing on building five new stadiums over the next few years. This will enable the league to control game dates and benefit from revenues from parking, concessions and luxury suites.

	Striker Landon Donovan celebrates after the U.S.'s victory over Mexico.

World Cup Endorsements
Although the U.S. Soccer team has surprised many in its trip to the quarterfinals, the Yanks' top players aren't expected to land many national endorsement deals for two reasons: Unlike recent World Cup for men (1994) and women (1999), this year's was held on foreign soil; and many of the U.S.'s top players are expected to head overseas to play in Europe.

"I think, with the wins, at least some of these guys are on the national endorsement radar screen now that they weren't on before," said Richard Motzkin, an agent who represents five U.S. soccer players, including Landon Donovan, DaMarcus Beasley, Eddie Pope, Josh Wolff and Jeff Agoos.

Donovan already has an endorsement deal with Nike and in March he signed to become the U.S. spokesman for the 2002 FIFA World Cup video game made by Electronic Arts. But future deals could be stunted if Donovan skips to Europe.

The two men's soccer players who have capitalized on the World Cup in recent years have been goalkeeper Tony Meola and defenseman Alexi Lalas, who was represented by Motzkin. Lalas earned seven figures during a four-year period between 1994, when the World Cup was held in the U.S., and 1998 by pitching products including Adidas, All Sport, Gargoyles sunglasses and Gibson guitars, Motzkin said. Meola made "close to seven figures" in 1994 and 1995 off endorsements that included Kahn's Beef Franks and "Tony Meola's Sidekick Soccer" video game, said Steve Rosner, Meola's marketing agent. Capitalizing off the 1999 Women's World Cup championship, Mia Hamm now makes more than Lalas or Meola ever did, pitching for Gatorade, Nike, Safeway, Target and Twizzlers.

	Sponsorship scoreboard
	Here are the apparel sponsors for the remaining eight World Cup quarterfinalists:
	Sponsor	Teams still alive
	Adidas	Germany, Spain, Turkey
	Nike	Brazil, South Korea, U.S.
	Umbro	England
	Le Coq Sportif	Senegal

"If the current guys, like Landon and Clint (Mathis) chose to play overseas, they will lose their chance at endorsements," said Rosner, a partner of 16W Marketing, a sports marketing firm. "But they can probably make up the difference in higher salaries abroad."

One person who could be in demand is Arena, the 50-year-old native of Brooklyn, N.Y. who won five titles at the University of Virginia and two with the MLS' D.C. United. "We've had some interest from speaking bureaus," Motzkin said. "He's been a winner at every level and he is an outstanding motivator."

Nothing minor about 'em
There's apparently no problem with baseball in Aberdeen and Brooklyn, where two New York Penn League short-season Class A teams started their seasons on Tuesday.

Cal Ripken's Aberdeen Ironbirds, which had its home opener on Tuesday night, have sold 171,822 tickets, including more than 4,200 season ticket plans, according to Amy Venuto, the team's director of sales. That's more than 90 percent of all tickets allotted for the 2002 season, which the Ironbirds will play in the new 6,000-seat Ripken Field.

The Brooklyn Cyclones, who finished 12th among minor-league teams in average attendance last year have only standing-room-only tickets remaining for this season. The team averaged 7,821 fans in 7,500-seat Keyspan Park last year. "Ten dollars is our most expensive ticket, so it's a far cry from what you have to pay for a major-league game," said Jeff Wilpon, the Cyclones' executive vice president and chief operating officer and son of Fred Wilpon, a co-owner of the New York Mets. Despite being a short-season Class A team, the Cyclones finished first in the minors in team merchandise sales.

"The Dodgers were nice enough to allow us to use their old Brooklyn Dodgers style 'B' and that has helped sell a lot more hats and shirts," Wilpon said.

Darren Rovell covers sports business for ESPN.com. He can be reached at darren.rovell@espn.com.