LAUREL COUNTY, Ky. — The World Cup is still two years away, but it could be a long two years if the United States doesn’t get its act together.

Sunday’s 0-0 draw with Canada (!) speaks volumes for Jurgen Klinsmann’s squad.

The Canadians are ranked 75th in the FIFA World Rankings, while the United States currently ranks 29th. Yet I really saw no difference in either squad Sunday. Both labored to find any offense.

That seems to be the Achilles heel of this team since Klinsmann took over: A lack of offensive firepower. Sure, the U.S. just beat Scotland 5-1, the most goals put up since Klinsmann took over. Surprisingly, the Scots are ranked higher than Canada (48th). Maybe it was the fact that Sunday night’s game was the 100th anniversary of Canadian soccer and that made the Canucks battled harder.

But that impressive showing against Scotland was followed up by a dismal 4-1 loss to Brazil, the country which will host the 2014 World Cup. Now, that result didn’t surprise me. What did surprise me was what happened on Saturday, when Mexico beat the Brazilians, 2-0. Remember, Mexico is in the same qualifying region (CONCACAF) as the United States.

Last year at this time, the U.S. was 24th. In October 2009, the Yanks were 11th. In 2006 they made it all the way to No. 4 in the world. Of course, I always thought that ranking was a little too generous, as the U.S. flamed out of that year’s World Cup, failing to win a game in the first round.

Sunday night was the first time since Klinsmann took over that he had both Clint Dempsey and Landon Donovan on the pitch at the same time. But that still didn’t help the U.S. find the back of the net.

America stills needs to develop pure strikers. It’s as plain and simple as that. Dempsey is really a midfielder. Jozy Altidore has the size, but he still hasn’t shown me he can physically take on the world’s best defenders. Donovan has finally started to show he can step up on the world stage. There are currently five forwards on the U.S. five-game series travel roster. Those five have a combined 65 goals in 210 caps (appearances) for the national team. In comparison, the German National Team roster for Euro 2012 (which starts Friday) lists four forwards with a combined 279 appearances and 135 goals.

If you can’t score on against the big boys, you can’t win. It’s as simple as that. The U.S. needs to work on its youth system and develop players with a nose for the goal.

Until it does, any hopes of winning a World Cup will remain just that. A hope.

sports@sentinel-echo.com