The United States of America is dominant in the world of sports. They are dominant in basketball, track and field, swimming, and figure skating. With the most traditionally American sport, American Football, starting to become recognized worldwide, you can see why America is considered one of the powerhouses in the sports world. There is one worldwide sport that has consistently fallen out of America’s grasp for dominance, soccer.
Soccer, also known as football in the majority of the world, first entered American streets in the 1850s and functioned as a popular pastime. At the first World Cup in 1930, the United States is ranked as winning third place. After the collapse of the American Soccer league, soccer declined in popularity as American Football gained popularity. This lead to the national team not qualifying for a single World Cup between 1950 and 1990; that is a 40 year gap and called the World Cup Drought!
Though the US Men’s National team did manage to get to the quarter finals in 2002, they didn’t qualify for the 2018 World Cup, and only got to the round of 16 in 2022. This year, much of the World Cup will be hosted in America, and the United States Men’s National team has automatically qualified. Leaving the question in soccer fans minds’, are they ready or not?
Since the last world cup in 2022, they have had one year of greatness and one year of wild inconsistency.
The U.S Men’s National team has played 51 games, this includes 27 wins, 9 draws, and 15 losses. All of these games spread across 4 different managers. During 2023, the United States was inconsistent. They started out the year with a 1 to 2 loss to Serbia though they weren’t playing their main team neither was Serbia. They did play well offensively, but with no end product. It was still a pretty embarrassing loss for them, as Serbia didn’t win a single game at the Fifa World cup in 2022 and got bottom of the group. The US Men completely turned it around and didn’t lose a single game between then and October 14th when they lost they lost to the very strong German national team. During this invincible streak they pulled off incredible displays against Mexico and Canada and many other smaller countries. That loss against Germany didn’t change their 2023 greatness as they destroyed Ghana 4 to 0. They ended 2023 with only two losses the whole year and as Concacaf nations league winners.
But 2024 was different. Though they started off well with wins against Jamaica and Mexico, things started to dip after they got smashed 1 to 5 against Columbia, even while playing with their main team. This led to more inconsistency; they got a draw against Brazil and a win against Bolivia. They had losses against Panama, Uruguay, and Canada, as well as a draw against New Zealand. Due to their horrible Copa America tournament performance, their manager Gregg Berhalter was sacked and former Tottenham and Chelsea manager Mauricio Pochettino was appointed. He then turned the team around; they won two games against Jamaica, and won yet another Concacaf Nations League, while struggling in other games that year.
In 2025, they started off the year with a 3 to 1 win against Venezuela, as well as winning the next game against Panama, playing their B team in both games. They followed it up with 4 losses in a row against Panama, Canada, Turkiye, and Switzerland. They lost 0 to 4 against Switzerland, and during the game they had 0 shots on target and 0 big chances. Compare that to Switzerland who had 4 big chances and scored all of them. This game, especially during their streak of losses, highlighted weaknesses in both the offense and defense. 5 days after this game ended, the Concacaf Gold Cup started. They did pretty well in this tournament, including getting wins against Saudi Arabia and Haiti, which led them to the final versus America’s greatest rival, Mexico. They went through the whole tournament playing some of their best players such as Christian Pulisic, Folarin Balogun, Sergino Dest, and Antonee Robinson. The final was hard fought including the United States getting the first goal, but Mexico had much more possession time, and was more offensively fluid, which helped Mexico win 2 to 1. After that game, they lost 0 to 2 against South Korea because they missing many big chances to score. Since that game to the present day, they have not lost a single game, which includes great wins against Japan, Australia and Uruguay. Their last game on November 18th, 2025 was one of their best yet! America decimated Uruguay 5 to 1 showing dominance in their last game before the World Cup. Though overall the United States has been heavily inconsistent, they are going into the World Cup with dominant wins under Mauricio Pochettino which could heavily boost morale going in.
Who is on the Roster?
Though as a team the United States has struggled, that doesn’t mean that they don’t have amazing individual quality. The best athlete currently playing for the United States is Christian Pulisic. He plays on the right wing for AC Milan and since he signed for them in late 2023, he has had 40 goals and 22 assists to his name as well as being one of the best players in the Serie A.
Joining him in the attack is Bryan White who has been one of the most consistent strikers in the MLS as well as Patrick Agyemang, Haji Wright and Josh Sargent, who have both been great in the English Championship. Additionally other great strikers like Folarin Balogun and Ricardo Pepi, who have both performed well in top European leagues. Though that is it for strikers, a position that the United States has great quality in is the attacking midfielder. These include Malik Tillman, who is currently playing for Bayer Leverkusen, but last season for PSV he got 16 goals and 5 assists, and is also able to play on both wings. His brother Timothy Tillman is also an attacking midfielder and has been quality for LAFC.
There are many more talents as well such as Brendan Aaronson, Diego Luna and Weston Mckennie. For their wide midfielders, they possess Timothy Weah, who is the son of legendary Liberian soccer player and former president of Liberia, George Weah, as well as Quinn Sulliven, Alex Zendejas and Griffin Yow. All of whom have performed well for their current clubs.
They additionally have a forgotten Wonderkid Giovanni Reyna who was once considered one of the best up and coming wide midfielders in the world. Though things have been rough for his career overall, he consistently shows class for the National Team. The central midfielders include the son of the former national team manager who has been one of the best midfielders in the MLS, Sebastian Berhalter, Tanner Tessmann, and Aidan Morris. This also includes the younger brother of Brendan Aaronson, Paxton Aaronson, who was one of the highest rated players in the Eredevisie at just 21. Finally, there is Tyler Adams who made history at the last World Cup for being the youngest ever captain of the National Team.
For the fullbacks, there is another former wonderkid, Sergino Dest. There are also other up and coming players such Joseph Scally, Max Arfsten, and George Bello. There are also star athletes such as Caleb Wiley, who was bought by Chelsea FC, and Alex Freeman, who is one of the best fullbacks in the MLS at just 21. To round out the fullbacks, there is one the team’s best players, Antonee Robinson. Last season in the Premier League, he got 10 assists as a fullback for a fairly average Fulham team.
For the center backs, there is the current captain of the team, Tim Ream, who has represented the National Team since 2010, as well as the center back duo of Aaron Trusty and Cameron Carter Vickers, who both play for the current Scottish league champions Celtic. Additionally, there is Chris Richards, who recently won the FA cup with Crystal Palace. There is also National Team veteran Walker Zimmerman, Miles Robinson and Mark McKenzie.
Finally, for goalkeepers, Matt Turner, who was the starting goalkeeper last World Cup will likely be starting again, but he might have competition with Matthew Freese. Overall. the United States National Team has many great players so hopes are high.
On December 5th, the draw for the 2026 World Cup took place and the United States is in a group with Australia, Panama, and either Türkiye, Slovakia, Romania or Kosovo. This, on paper, seems like a pretty easy group for America. But, the United States and Panama have played 3 games against each other since the last World Cup, and the United States only won one game. Against Australia, they won their last game, but before that game, Australia beat countries such as Canada that the United States lost to previously.
As for the yet to be decided spot, my prediction is for Turkiye to get into that spot due to the sheer quality of their team. I think that Turkiye will cause America the most trouble due to the fact that they already beat America recently last June. During that game, Turkiye, even though they had less possession time, were so much more clinical in front of the goal than the United States.
Overall Prediction
The United States, going off of their recent good form, will manage to make it out of the group stage by defeating Panama and Australia. They would probably face a more significant challenge against Türkiye, so I am predicting a draw that would lead America to the top of the group and the round of 32.
It truly depends on who they get in the round of 32, but I think they will pull through and get to the round of 16 before getting eliminated. Though I hope they get further, it doesn’t seem too realistic for them to take out top teams like Spain or France. They will do better than some people think, and players like Christian Pulisic will shine. Remember the World Cup starts on June 11th; make sure to watch and see if the USMNT wins their first ever World Cup!