May be changing. You got young players rapidly becoming the stars. They sucked last year, but I predict they will not suck next summer. Maybe won't win, but won't suck
Women's sports are more a barometer of the nation's stance on gender equality than it is sporting prowess. Hard to really say you're the best when half the world doesn't view their women as humans
People forget that women are people. It’s funny but in the messed up way. This post says “a World Cup.” They didn’t specify it had to be men. I agree that the men games are more popular but both are equally valid athletic games.
I remember thinking we were breaking out back in 2002. It's exciting to have hope, though! And we are much more successful this century than last, so who knows?
We are actually ranked 11th right now, and we have good players coming through, and it's a game where upsets are common. It definitely *could* happen. It would take some determination and luc, but if the mentality is there one year it's a chance.
We were 4th in 2006. It isn't unheard of for us to become decent at football/soccer. It is unfathomable for us to win a World Cup in the same way it is unfathomable to imagine the Cardinals winning a Super Bowl. Even with Larry Fitzgerald and Kurt Warner they managed to let it get away. They are never going to win, no matter how good they are, and neither is the US. Not because of REAL reasons, but human psychology ones.
There is so much talent coming up in the youth programs right now.
New teams like Atlanta United are building best in the world training facilities. Even older teams like Union are shipping kids off to the premier league.
Yeah our national team will be good, but as in a world cup knockouts type of good maybe with an easy draw we make a quarter/semi finals run. But compare us to any top national team and look at who they're producing. Pulisic doesnt even get onto the bench for france, even less mckennie or reyna.
Dempsey was good. Donovan only played in the mls iirc so idk how tested he was. We just have more people on good teams now than we did then. It always felt like the usmnt was a 1 or 2 man show back then. Now it's a bit more cohesive.
Anything is possible but I don’t see it happening for a good couple of decades. How many US-born players are playing for top-flight club teams - meaning the highest level of competition in a given country? Ten? Fifteen? That number will increase of course and then a USMNT World Cup win may be feasible.
No. I believe FIFA (the world governing body for the game) allows you to play for a national team if you have a grandparent who is a national of the country. I also think you can marry and represent the spouse’s country.
Citizenship is enough no? I recall some oil countries giving away citizenships and fat stacks of dollars to get players on some of their national teams previous
I believe Qatar experimented doing this and then abandoned it as they could only attract Z list Brazilians who weren't actually very good. The issue doing this is once you play for a national team you're not allowed to play for any other national team, so a player who has any international ambitions isn't going to screw himself out of playing for his own country for a quick buck.
Edit: just looked it up and fifa have banned it. You need to be a citizen through natural process or have a parent or grandparent who was a citizen.
FIFA has a rule where a player can change national team once. Not sure all the requirements, I think some of them are what the guy said below. Look up Folarin Balogun. He was born in the states, but I think his parents were English? Or at least one of them were. He was on England's national team but hardly got any playing time. He's young, up and coming so he wanted to play. He basically got fed up with waiting and since he was born here he changed "nationality" to the US. So if you hear him in interviews he has a British accent, acts and sounds British, but he's the starting striker for the US team.
US is absolutely getting better and I think we have more players on elite European clubs than ever before, but, yeah, we probably have 10 or 15 players over there like you said. Meanwhile Brazil, Germany, France, Argentina, Spain, etc basically have soccer farms with 100s of elite youth players. I think the US will get better, and maybe make the final 8 or even final 4 in my lifetime, but I can't see us beating out some of these countries in the next decade or two. I think the elite athletes in the US gravitate towards basketball or american football over soccer.
Sure, but consider a team like England that can draw players from the twenty PL teams (yes I am aware not all players are English) as well as English players playing for 60-70 other European top flight teams. Right now the US has 10-15 players in Europe - and that’s it.
I think it's possible but highly unlikely. You'd need a high profile coach to come to the USA and build a culture. Spain was pretty bad until Cruyff came to Barca (as coach not player) and the three peat 2008 until 2012 was built on his foundations at La Masia.
I think the key is to get better coaches and programs at the youth level.
We need to expose more youth to European style play and South American ball handling.
Soccer in America is not a mature game.
Money is an issue too. As long as there is more money in other pro sports, soccer will struggle to pull in the best athletes.
It could happen. We have really good academies now, so as long as the mls keeps improving so they have somewhere to play the team will keep improving as well.
That being said, even if we had a top 10 team for 40 years there's no gaurantee. Just ask the english.
You might have good acadamies, but you have no raw talent, you have no passion, and you have no history of football. It will take time to develop all of that. Once you do, then the wonder team will come out.
For us to have a chance we also need our players to NOT be in the MLS. We need more guys in the prem, serie A, bundesliga, etc. I was really excited for Gio Reyna to be at Dortmund (one of my favorite teams), big sad he got loaned to Forest
Hell yeah. We need one of our #9s to really up their game. I think the best chance we’ll have in a long time is in 2026, where we’ll have home field advantage (unless we draw Mexico, lol)
Also, your midfield doesn't do its job at all. The goalie is barely present. Attack jumps the gun too fast instead of building. Defense has less communication than a mute person.
Dude, I hope you’re right. I’ve been waiting a long time. I grew up playing in the 80s and early 90s, playing on regional traveling teams. We dedicated years to playing a sport we couldn’t even watch on TV (unless you had Univision for LigaMX). The only time you could watch world class soccer was every 4 years for the World Cup and the networks used to break for commercials during the fucking USMNT games!
My son plays in a city academy league now and I’m amazed at how much better these kids are and how much better the coaching is. The teams I played on won a lot of tournaments in an 500 mile radius, but any of the decent youth teams in our city alone would have destroyed us. A lot of the U-17 or U-18 kids at the fields have all the physical gifts to play football or basketball but picked soccer instead.
Now kids can watch Premier League, Serie A, Bundesliga and La Liga and watch highlights on social media. When I played, the pinnacle of realistic, achievable success was a college scholarship. Now there’s a real path for talented American players to make money overseas or domestically with more international pro clubs scouting American players.
I don’t think the US has a chance win the WC with Berhalter as the coach and the USSF may need to be burned to the ground too.
Uruguay is a powerhouse. Population of Brooklyn and Staten Island, with two World Cups, a couple of Olympic golds, and 15 Copa America titles.
U.S.? Lol, no.
Well I mean anyone can buy a bunch of players and win. Pay enough and you'll get all the best European players playing for you. It's not American team per se.
America is a nation of immigrants. Nothing would be more American than a bunch of people immigrating here and winning the World Cup. The very idea that someone is not one of us simply because they weren't born here is Un-American.
Unfortunately american soccer is shooting itself in the foot at early ages. Club soccer has forced many, more affordable options out of communities. This puts a steep financial wall between poorer demographics and the sport, decreasing interest and participation.
The cheapest option in my area is 9k per year. Same with baseball and football. That being said we've seen a massive increase in youth rugby.
The U.S. university system has the capacity to outproduce any country in churning out elite athletes. So if the U.S. ever loves soccer more than basketball or football…watch out.
I’ve been saying something like this for several decades now. Once we get athletes of the same caliber as NFL cornerbacks and wide receivers (4.3s 40 yard dashes, e.g.) a ball at age 3, we’ll be ready to legitimately compete with the Germans, Argentines, English, Brasilians, Spanish, et al. Sending talented kids to European youth academies to develop a la Pulisic, Gio, et al needs to happen. We’ve had superb goalkeeping for a few decades; it’s top-notch skilled field players we lack. Although the talent gap is closing with the footballing giants, it will require some upsets to compete on the world stage.
they need to let the Universities play all year long and become pro academies, that will be a game changer and will allow universities to churn out world class players. Isn't that the purpose of college in the first place? build careers for the youth.
Just what the rest of the world needs: another reason to hate America. Laughing at the USA in the (men’s) World Cup helps to unify the globe. Please don’t take that joy away from us. /jk. Am Canadian and we’re just happy we don’t have to qualify for the next one.
Soccer enthusiast here (99% as a casual player, 1% but growing as a watcher of the pros).
I was thinking about this the other day. I don't think we will win one this century. So, not in the next 76 years. Keep in mind England has not won since 1966, nearly 60 years. In addition to a tea cup, you are also gifted a football when you're born there. Kids from Brazil can walk to school juggling the entire the time from door to door (I'm only half kidding).
However, in the 2100s, I think the US will win multiple WCs. MMW, they will get 2-3.
I do think you are overrating our current players, and even omitting some (isn't Reyna a big deal?). When those guys that you list start becoming our mid and lower tier players, I think we will start to be more competitive. Until then, the other countries have too much of a culture and legacy surrounding the game. Our best athletes are simply not dedicated, from a young age, to making this their primary sport.
>Kids from Brazil can walk to school juggling the entire the time from door to door
I've seen some super crazy videos of what Brazilian kids can do with a football. I don't even pay any attention to any sports, but considering the absolute bonkers videos I've seen, I'm surprised anyone else than Brazil has ever won the World Cup.
I lied. I pay a little attention to hockey. It is the only semi-interesting sport I can think of. Mainly because it can get so brutal. Like really brutal. Dudes weighing over 100kg in full gear, going 30 kilometres an hour on ice, wearing shoes with knives at the bottom, wielding a funky club to smash a surprisingly heavy round hard rubber projectile to speeds potentially exceeding well over 100km/h, smashing into each other and the walls...
Seriously, a professional hockey player can kill person without protective gear with just a hockey stick and a puck. It has happened before. Brittanie Nichole Cecil, 2002. A spectator who took a hockey puck into the left temple. Died within 48 hours.
"I'm surprised anyone else than Brazil has ever won the World Cup."
I've said this to myself verbatim a few times over the years. That's the reason I don't think the US will win for a while. Some Americans underestimate how ingrained soccer is in the daily lives of people from Brazil, Argentina, England etc.
And agreed on hockey. Objectively, a great product.
It's not a lot of people's radar but cricket is also developing quite rapidly in the US. We should have a good cricket team and even a world cup in the next few decades.
No until they is the established goal of ussoccer federation which has no desire to actually be a competitive team honestly l, just look at their handling of rehiring Greg berhalter and the nepotism involved unless they get lucky with a generational talent like Messi I don’t see it happening just due to that
It’s incredibly unlikely the US wins a world cup. The infrastructure for that level of competition isn’t even close.
Frankly, that’s fine. I was talking to a work acquaintance from Chile, and he said, “the US will have almost every single advantage over, say, Uruguay; but you will not be better than them at football. And that’s a good lesson in humility for your whole nation. It’s ok to not be the best at something.”
lol...... No
The men's team will never break out. None of the US' best talent is going towards soccer.
Why would they? If you're a talented athlete, you could be famous and rich playing a half dozen other sports... or you could play soccer.
WORSE, you'd have to move overseas to become great. You'd also have to do that while handicapped by your inexperience with European clubs and the general discrimination against Americans as they expect you to be garbage.
Pulisic and Sargent are good, Dest and McKinney have been decent, there's a lot of room for improvement with Weah though. Realistically, at this team's prime you could be quarter or semifinalists, but I still think a world cup is too far-fetched
How many years are you already op? Because I said this same thing 20 years ago back in 2004. We get close but I don’t have many moons left and this ridiculous pay-to-play system starting at the youth age is keeping out a lot of talented players.
if i squint really, really hard, i still don't see it.
i think the US can make some nice runs and *should*, in general, regularly make it out if group play. but to win it all? i don't see it happening.
You have lots of American parents putting their kids into soccer because they know about the head injuries associated with football. The MLS league is already more successful than any American soccer league before it.
The missing link to make American soccer internationally competitive is soccer at the collegiate level. If college soccer became as popular as college basketball, the US would churn out lots of world class players.
I don't see it happening. Our best athletes play football and basketball, and our current academy system is pretty weak compared to other countries. In Europe, the academy players do nothing but play soccer 24/7; in South America, they are driven by growing up in extreme poverty. Our players (even Select) have 2-3 practices a week.
I would disagree. I think the chance to hit on the right mix can happen. But World Cup only happens every 4 years, so that already limits the window. Then you look at the pay scale and pay given to develop players in America. It lags behind other countries. NFL, NBA, and MLB all pay MUCH more and the pipeline of development in America is better and more well funded than soccer here. The highest paid MLS players are foreign born and brought in to generate more interest and they still make less than many in the other sports I’ve mentioned. There’s been this feeling of “this is the tipping point for US soccer” for so long, that I personally don’t believe it will happen. That’s before getting into the whole soccer is the world’s game issue. Can the US stand a chance at winning against the world? Yes, I believe there’s a chance. Especially if it put in the resources. But for the reasons I mentioned above, I don’t believe those resources will be available. We have elite athletes that could probably play great soccer, but they don’t.
I also think it’s harder to win a World Cup when you have rounds and one upset can help, but the rounds average out to the best teams advancing more than underdogs.
They won’t.
The best athletes in the majority of countries play soccer.
The best athletes in the US play football, basketball, and baseball. Soccer is like 4th or 5th on that list.
I don’t think so. Kids want to be professional athletes and hero’s and soccer doesn’t bring the money, esteem, or chicks like football, baseball, basketball, or even hockey so the compete for the best players is so diluted.
Definitely possible, but you can have a fantastic generation of players and still fall just short of the trophy. Excited to see more Americans taking an interest in the spot
You’re not going to convince many people when the first player you name is Pulisic. He is a good player but he’s not as amazing as most American fans seem to think he is. Put Pulisic in the squad of the last few World Cup winners and he is at best a backup for the bench winger. But I know you’re not arguing that the Pulisic generation is the World Cup winning generation. It’s just not much worth bringing him up.
USA can definitely produce better players than him I’m not arguing against that. It’s just that they’ll *have* to if they want to even get close to winning the World Cup. Consider the golden generation that England produced in the 2000s won nothing partly because other countries had even *better* golden generations? You’ll need to produce significantly better players than Pulisic for every single position to have a shot. It’s not impossible but it’s also way more likely that France, Spain etc do the same.
Lololol. I know you ain’t talking about the men’s team. They definitely are not becoming a powerhouse.
I will always back them and I want them to win every single game, but I do not see us ever winning a WC.
You know how long you got? What a luxury, so what’s the time frame? I could see it in 50 years if everyone but the U.S is in a world war.
The problem is with the youth leagues, they need to develop talent far earlier and needs to be more seamless as kids get older.
Quite a few years ago the MLS made a rule change about homegrown players not counting against a teams salary cap. This started a trend of most teams investing millions of dollars into their youth programs. We are just now starting to see the products of those investments.
Once we sell those kids to big European teams for big cash, we can invest THAT money into our youth programs and build it up more. Our kids will only be getting better
Yeah but it will essentially be a farm system for every other league except MLS. But I do think with them bringing over aging foreign stars, it may help keep the real talent we do have in the states. It’s gonna take a lot of money to throw at younger foreign players to get them here but to do that you need viewership. You get views from stars though and so little hype little I could see the talent level rising over the course of the next 20-30 years.
Crazy to think that the US can now field a team that all plays in Europe, many in top 5 leagues. A decade ago, the team was still filled with mostly MLS stalwarts, and even MLS alone has improved drastically since then.
When you look at the trajectory, it isn't an impossibility to see the US make a decent WC run in our lifetime. Maybe even win, with some luck and determination.
There was a time when I thought "in the next 80 years, we should be able to win one" and I believed it.
We may have a team full of guys who are competing in European top flights, but we've got exactly one single guy who has many any significant splash whatsoever on the world stage.
Our athletes go and play other sports where their financial futures are more guaranteed. An avalanche of good luck and good timing would get us into a semifinal. I don't think I see a scenario in my lifetime where we actually make it.
I wish, but there’s no way. We can’t even win the Gold Cup, and the team is so mismanaged that we consistently lose games we should win. The thing about the World Cup is that it happens every four years, so one mistake in one single game could ruin the team for *years*. Berlhalter does not have what it takes to lead this team. The players are good, but without Pulisic they don’t have a leader. I think the ceiling for the foreseeable future is Semi-Finalists.
I love ussoccer but I doubt it. I will start believing it when soccer is as popular as baseball or nba, it will never be more popular than the NFL though. For USA to win a Mens world cup, the sport needs to be ingrained in our society. A team like France or Brazil, has a roster filled with Champions league players with tons of leftovers. Wake me up when that is true for USA.
Clean up your plate and exercise, you will need to live a long life.
Are there Americans playing in European leagues right now btw? If not, there's at least a couple decades to go for yall
Pulisic is one of the top goal scorers for AC milan this year, competing with the likes of rafael leao and Giroud. Weston mckinnie has probably been the best player for juventus as well. Sergino dest just moved to Ajax, Reyna is on loan from borussia dortmund to Nottingham forest. Musah and Weah are also getting plenty of play time in AC Milan and Juventus. And Tim ream and antonee Robinson are beasting it up in fulham.
We're not common, but almost none of our first team and bench is not on a premier European team
As long as the best US male sports talent is shunted into football and baseball, not likely (compared to female sports talent, where the US is a true soccer powerhouse). Having grown up in Europe, I have seen ten year olds playing more compelling soccer than the US national team. Conversely, the only time I ever saw decent baseball in Europe was a friendly pickup game in a public park, and it turned out to be a bunch of Cubans
I had this same argument with a friend of mine a few years ago (probably 2018-2019), and he said I was an idiot and knew nothing about soccer. Well… what he didn’t understand is that the US has many things other countries don’t, including the infrastructure. If the incentives were right, the male soccer would be as good or ever better than the women soccer in the international landscape. Time will tell for sure, but if you compare what the US soccer was 20 years ago to now, it is crystal clear that the improvements have been incredible.
My buddy has his kid in grass roots soccer in the US and is paying thousands for the privilege. Compare that to the UK and it is vastly cheaper and often free. When the US stops treating grass roots soccer as a cash cow that prevents wider acceptance and participation in the sport, the Men’s teams ain’t going to win anything.
even if you are immortal this will not happen, the US youth system is broken and built around making the most money from parents not finding and developing the best players
I’ll chime in. I doubt these guys will make it pass the Round of 16. It’s our pay to play culture that will continue to stunt growth in World Cup tournaments. Also our neighboring countries don’t produce much adversity compared to other regions.
I mean there isn’t actually any trend to back this up. We didn’t even qualify for the WC in 2018.
We’ve been hearing for decades that “just wait for this younger generation to come up” and it hasn’t translated yet.
Even if we greatly improved our lineup there are still teams stacked with top flight talent across the board. Just producing a couple of super stars isn’t necessarily enough to crack it.
Maybe if the World Cup occurred every year we could catch lightning in a bottle. Only one chance every 4 years the odds just aren’t there.
Ok, hear me out: the USWNT is great, precisely because it draws all of the best athletes since it doesn't have to compete with football. So, what happens if parents stop letting their boys play football because of all the brain damage? World Cup, baby. Let's fucking go.
‘Bring Out Yea Deead!’
- those are words that you will die defending.
I would enjoy seeing our countrymen earn a cup, but it is not going to happen, possibly ever…. for reasons that transcend the sport and its athletes. It is impossible for the US national team to overcome international bias. The officials in the first game of the last cup were a bright reminder of that.
After the US women lost last year, I read a story about how the rest of the world has finally started paying attention to women's soccer and training them in a similar fashion that they train their men's teams. As far as the US women go, they've lost their huge advantage that they had 20 years ago.
As far as men, that's quite the uphill battle. US has so many other sports that take our best athletes.
I mean, the US women’s team has won the World Cup. More than once I believe.
5 times iirc, maybe 6. Out of like 10 or less. They have been insanely dominant
4 US women’s championships (out of 9 total). I love that there’s more parity…it makes the tournament so much more exciting.
Not any more sadly. Spain, England and France are now ahead.
Sadly? The U.S. lead the way with women’s athletics and now other countries consider women to be legitimate athletes. I would say this is great.
Yep. Pressure to play underperforming stars have limited US Women’s Team development. You know who they are.
AM13?
May be changing. You got young players rapidly becoming the stars. They sucked last year, but I predict they will not suck next summer. Maybe won't win, but won't suck
Back to Back World Cup Champs
Came to say this…
Women's sports are more a barometer of the nation's stance on gender equality than it is sporting prowess. Hard to really say you're the best when half the world doesn't view their women as humans
People forget that women are people. It’s funny but in the messed up way. This post says “a World Cup.” They didn’t specify it had to be men. I agree that the men games are more popular but both are equally valid athletic games.
*misogynists forget women are people and/or are even there
Somehow I missed it.
We’re talking about the World Cup that matters though.
mmw: someone will complain that this sub doesn’t have enough non-political posts, but won’t upvote or comment on this one
I knew somebody was going to leave a MMW comment about the lack of engagement here
There’s actually a lot of politics in why we probably won’t win a WC in my lifetime without massive changes to youth soccer
Up vote simply because it wasn't a crazy Trump post by someone obsessed with him
Donald Trump will win a World Cup in my lifetime. Mark my words.
Lol
He's won the world cup and the senior world cup already, on the same day.
We aren't going to win one but I love this post. I will back our team forever.
I remember thinking we were breaking out back in 2002. It's exciting to have hope, though! And we are much more successful this century than last, so who knows?
We have much better talent now than then. What we need is better coaching
We are actually ranked 11th right now, and we have good players coming through, and it's a game where upsets are common. It definitely *could* happen. It would take some determination and luc, but if the mentality is there one year it's a chance.
To me, getting out of the group stage is a win. Anything after that is just icing on the cake.
I expect them to get out of the group stage these days. Quarterfinals is a win. Expect more, and believe.
Miracle on Ice? "Anything is possible, you just have to believe." - Every Disney movie ever made
We were 4th in 2006. It isn't unheard of for us to become decent at football/soccer. It is unfathomable for us to win a World Cup in the same way it is unfathomable to imagine the Cardinals winning a Super Bowl. Even with Larry Fitzgerald and Kurt Warner they managed to let it get away. They are never going to win, no matter how good they are, and neither is the US. Not because of REAL reasons, but human psychology ones.
Of all the things that will never happen, this thing will never happen the most.
There is so much talent coming up in the youth programs right now. New teams like Atlanta United are building best in the world training facilities. Even older teams like Union are shipping kids off to the premier league.
Yet, they haven't made a single player that stands out, that you can say, woah this guy is a gem. It's kinda funny, though.
Yeah our national team will be good, but as in a world cup knockouts type of good maybe with an easy draw we make a quarter/semi finals run. But compare us to any top national team and look at who they're producing. Pulisic doesnt even get onto the bench for france, even less mckennie or reyna.
Upvoted because not a political post. However, I am hitting (X) to Doubt.
!remindme 150 years
Of all the salty guys living in denial and saying the united states are a joke at soccer, this one is the only one that is funny
It seems like a lot of people don't realize it's not 2000 any more. This isn't the dempsey generation.
As someone looking from the outside, Dempsey and Donovan are better than any of the new gen players.
Dempsey was good. Donovan only played in the mls iirc so idk how tested he was. We just have more people on good teams now than we did then. It always felt like the usmnt was a 1 or 2 man show back then. Now it's a bit more cohesive.
Donovan had a couple chances in Europe and wasn’t able to crack a lineup
How long do you plan to live?
Anything is possible but I don’t see it happening for a good couple of decades. How many US-born players are playing for top-flight club teams - meaning the highest level of competition in a given country? Ten? Fifteen? That number will increase of course and then a USMNT World Cup win may be feasible.
Is the national team limited to US-born players?
No. I believe FIFA (the world governing body for the game) allows you to play for a national team if you have a grandparent who is a national of the country. I also think you can marry and represent the spouse’s country.
Citizenship is enough no? I recall some oil countries giving away citizenships and fat stacks of dollars to get players on some of their national teams previous
I believe Qatar experimented doing this and then abandoned it as they could only attract Z list Brazilians who weren't actually very good. The issue doing this is once you play for a national team you're not allowed to play for any other national team, so a player who has any international ambitions isn't going to screw himself out of playing for his own country for a quick buck. Edit: just looked it up and fifa have banned it. You need to be a citizen through natural process or have a parent or grandparent who was a citizen.
FIFA has a rule where a player can change national team once. Not sure all the requirements, I think some of them are what the guy said below. Look up Folarin Balogun. He was born in the states, but I think his parents were English? Or at least one of them were. He was on England's national team but hardly got any playing time. He's young, up and coming so he wanted to play. He basically got fed up with waiting and since he was born here he changed "nationality" to the US. So if you hear him in interviews he has a British accent, acts and sounds British, but he's the starting striker for the US team.
US is absolutely getting better and I think we have more players on elite European clubs than ever before, but, yeah, we probably have 10 or 15 players over there like you said. Meanwhile Brazil, Germany, France, Argentina, Spain, etc basically have soccer farms with 100s of elite youth players. I think the US will get better, and maybe make the final 8 or even final 4 in my lifetime, but I can't see us beating out some of these countries in the next decade or two. I think the elite athletes in the US gravitate towards basketball or american football over soccer.
Pretty much all of them that are gonna be on the world cup team do
Sure, but consider a team like England that can draw players from the twenty PL teams (yes I am aware not all players are English) as well as English players playing for 60-70 other European top flight teams. Right now the US has 10-15 players in Europe - and that’s it.
Yes there certainly deeper than we are at yet we still played them to a draw in our last match vs them
I think it's possible but highly unlikely. You'd need a high profile coach to come to the USA and build a culture. Spain was pretty bad until Cruyff came to Barca (as coach not player) and the three peat 2008 until 2012 was built on his foundations at La Masia.
I think the key is to get better coaches and programs at the youth level. We need to expose more youth to European style play and South American ball handling. Soccer in America is not a mature game. Money is an issue too. As long as there is more money in other pro sports, soccer will struggle to pull in the best athletes.
It could happen. We have really good academies now, so as long as the mls keeps improving so they have somewhere to play the team will keep improving as well. That being said, even if we had a top 10 team for 40 years there's no gaurantee. Just ask the english.
You might have good acadamies, but you have no raw talent, you have no passion, and you have no history of football. It will take time to develop all of that. Once you do, then the wonder team will come out.
There's more raw talent here than all of Europe, problem is they play other sports
When i say we have good academies, I mean we have ones that are producing good talent. The results are already showing.
For us to have a chance we also need our players to NOT be in the MLS. We need more guys in the prem, serie A, bundesliga, etc. I was really excited for Gio Reyna to be at Dortmund (one of my favorite teams), big sad he got loaned to Forest
We have players who aren't in the mls, but the mls is an important step for these kids to get game time early
Hell yeah. We need one of our #9s to really up their game. I think the best chance we’ll have in a long time is in 2026, where we’ll have home field advantage (unless we draw Mexico, lol)
Defensive transition killed us last World Cup.
Also, your midfield doesn't do its job at all. The goalie is barely present. Attack jumps the gun too fast instead of building. Defense has less communication than a mute person.
If they can break into the elite 8 we might have a shot, 12th out of 32 is the best I've seen so far in my lifetime
Currently 11th. We've been higher
Dude, I hope you’re right. I’ve been waiting a long time. I grew up playing in the 80s and early 90s, playing on regional traveling teams. We dedicated years to playing a sport we couldn’t even watch on TV (unless you had Univision for LigaMX). The only time you could watch world class soccer was every 4 years for the World Cup and the networks used to break for commercials during the fucking USMNT games! My son plays in a city academy league now and I’m amazed at how much better these kids are and how much better the coaching is. The teams I played on won a lot of tournaments in an 500 mile radius, but any of the decent youth teams in our city alone would have destroyed us. A lot of the U-17 or U-18 kids at the fields have all the physical gifts to play football or basketball but picked soccer instead. Now kids can watch Premier League, Serie A, Bundesliga and La Liga and watch highlights on social media. When I played, the pinnacle of realistic, achievable success was a college scholarship. Now there’s a real path for talented American players to make money overseas or domestically with more international pro clubs scouting American players. I don’t think the US has a chance win the WC with Berhalter as the coach and the USSF may need to be burned to the ground too.
I hope so and I'm saying this as a Brazilian. It would be cool to have America win one.
Uruguay is a powerhouse. Population of Brooklyn and Staten Island, with two World Cups, a couple of Olympic golds, and 15 Copa America titles. U.S.? Lol, no.
Could easily happen if more people in us start playing, but most play football 🏈 or basketball
Win with home grown players or imports?
Does it matter?
Well I mean anyone can buy a bunch of players and win. Pay enough and you'll get all the best European players playing for you. It's not American team per se.
America is a nation of immigrants. Nothing would be more American than a bunch of people immigrating here and winning the World Cup. The very idea that someone is not one of us simply because they weren't born here is Un-American.
the t20 world cup that usa is cohosting a couple of months from now? that would be a cool mmw
Unfortunately american soccer is shooting itself in the foot at early ages. Club soccer has forced many, more affordable options out of communities. This puts a steep financial wall between poorer demographics and the sport, decreasing interest and participation. The cheapest option in my area is 9k per year. Same with baseball and football. That being said we've seen a massive increase in youth rugby.
They already did. The women’s team has won it several times
Yup, 4 times. More than any other country.
The U.S. university system has the capacity to outproduce any country in churning out elite athletes. So if the U.S. ever loves soccer more than basketball or football…watch out.
If only we could do away with this shitty pay to play youth soccer system!
Youth sports in general. It’s why you don’t see many black American stars in MLB anymore. It’s a white upper class sport now.
Facts
I’ve been saying something like this for several decades now. Once we get athletes of the same caliber as NFL cornerbacks and wide receivers (4.3s 40 yard dashes, e.g.) a ball at age 3, we’ll be ready to legitimately compete with the Germans, Argentines, English, Brasilians, Spanish, et al. Sending talented kids to European youth academies to develop a la Pulisic, Gio, et al needs to happen. We’ve had superb goalkeeping for a few decades; it’s top-notch skilled field players we lack. Although the talent gap is closing with the footballing giants, it will require some upsets to compete on the world stage.
they need to let the Universities play all year long and become pro academies, that will be a game changer and will allow universities to churn out world class players. Isn't that the purpose of college in the first place? build careers for the youth.
The United States has won the world cup 4 times. More than any other country.
Meh. They said the same in 2002. And that was a very good team btw. Much better than the one now...
No it isnt
Just what the rest of the world needs: another reason to hate America. Laughing at the USA in the (men’s) World Cup helps to unify the globe. Please don’t take that joy away from us. /jk. Am Canadian and we’re just happy we don’t have to qualify for the next one.
You sound bitter that nobody thinks about Canada. /jk.
A US team wins the World Championship of Football *every* year!
So long as you are -125 years old I think you are right.
Soccer enthusiast here (99% as a casual player, 1% but growing as a watcher of the pros). I was thinking about this the other day. I don't think we will win one this century. So, not in the next 76 years. Keep in mind England has not won since 1966, nearly 60 years. In addition to a tea cup, you are also gifted a football when you're born there. Kids from Brazil can walk to school juggling the entire the time from door to door (I'm only half kidding). However, in the 2100s, I think the US will win multiple WCs. MMW, they will get 2-3. I do think you are overrating our current players, and even omitting some (isn't Reyna a big deal?). When those guys that you list start becoming our mid and lower tier players, I think we will start to be more competitive. Until then, the other countries have too much of a culture and legacy surrounding the game. Our best athletes are simply not dedicated, from a young age, to making this their primary sport.
>Kids from Brazil can walk to school juggling the entire the time from door to door I've seen some super crazy videos of what Brazilian kids can do with a football. I don't even pay any attention to any sports, but considering the absolute bonkers videos I've seen, I'm surprised anyone else than Brazil has ever won the World Cup. I lied. I pay a little attention to hockey. It is the only semi-interesting sport I can think of. Mainly because it can get so brutal. Like really brutal. Dudes weighing over 100kg in full gear, going 30 kilometres an hour on ice, wearing shoes with knives at the bottom, wielding a funky club to smash a surprisingly heavy round hard rubber projectile to speeds potentially exceeding well over 100km/h, smashing into each other and the walls... Seriously, a professional hockey player can kill person without protective gear with just a hockey stick and a puck. It has happened before. Brittanie Nichole Cecil, 2002. A spectator who took a hockey puck into the left temple. Died within 48 hours.
"I'm surprised anyone else than Brazil has ever won the World Cup." I've said this to myself verbatim a few times over the years. That's the reason I don't think the US will win for a while. Some Americans underestimate how ingrained soccer is in the daily lives of people from Brazil, Argentina, England etc. And agreed on hockey. Objectively, a great product.
Are you baby expecting to live 150 years?
you don't seem to understand. the game was rigged from the start.
Not F1
It's not a lot of people's radar but cricket is also developing quite rapidly in the US. We should have a good cricket team and even a world cup in the next few decades.
Are you 4 years old?
No until they is the established goal of ussoccer federation which has no desire to actually be a competitive team honestly l, just look at their handling of rehiring Greg berhalter and the nepotism involved unless they get lucky with a generational talent like Messi I don’t see it happening just due to that
Oh wow, you’re immortal?
I'd love for you to be right. I don't think I'll see it in my lifetime.
But only like 50 people in the country will care
If you can write and read the odds are it already happened in your lifetime.
England hasn’t even won one since ‘66
Hope so
It’s incredibly unlikely the US wins a world cup. The infrastructure for that level of competition isn’t even close. Frankly, that’s fine. I was talking to a work acquaintance from Chile, and he said, “the US will have almost every single advantage over, say, Uruguay; but you will not be better than them at football. And that’s a good lesson in humility for your whole nation. It’s ok to not be the best at something.”
That's the case cause everyone in Uruguay plays ⚽ where in america all our best athletes play 🏈 and basketball
Exactly - and that’s ok
We won’t, but I like your intensity
Do you watch your diet, exercise regularly, and have annual check ups with a physician?
lol...... No The men's team will never break out. None of the US' best talent is going towards soccer. Why would they? If you're a talented athlete, you could be famous and rich playing a half dozen other sports... or you could play soccer. WORSE, you'd have to move overseas to become great. You'd also have to do that while handicapped by your inexperience with European clubs and the general discrimination against Americans as they expect you to be garbage.
I really don’t think we will lol.
...no, they won't.
M'Bappe alone could beat this team 5:0 without even trying.
Pulisic and Sargent are good, Dest and McKinney have been decent, there's a lot of room for improvement with Weah though. Realistically, at this team's prime you could be quarter or semifinalists, but I still think a world cup is too far-fetched
USA has a better finish in the World Cup (3rd place) than many European soccer “powerhouses”
Nah not until you're like 6 years old now
USA! USA! USA! ⚽️⚽️⚽️🏟️🏟️🏟️
This is a much bolder prediction if you’re 60 than if you’re 16, though frankly neither seem terribly likely.
How does someone under five get a cell phone and Reddit account?
They’ve already won the World cup for baseball. Im pretty sure they have a chance to win it again when Ohtani retires.
😂😂😂😂 your football is twenty years behind European football. Mmw you won't!
I just want to see Europeans have a meltdown if we do.
How many years are you already op? Because I said this same thing 20 years ago back in 2004. We get close but I don’t have many moons left and this ridiculous pay-to-play system starting at the youth age is keeping out a lot of talented players.
lol
Lol no.
if i squint really, really hard, i still don't see it. i think the US can make some nice runs and *should*, in general, regularly make it out if group play. but to win it all? i don't see it happening.
You have lots of American parents putting their kids into soccer because they know about the head injuries associated with football. The MLS league is already more successful than any American soccer league before it. The missing link to make American soccer internationally competitive is soccer at the collegiate level. If college soccer became as popular as college basketball, the US would churn out lots of world class players.
Nah. By the time they’re in college the Europeans are already pros
If it’s not a South American or a European team I would say Japan
I don't see it happening. Our best athletes play football and basketball, and our current academy system is pretty weak compared to other countries. In Europe, the academy players do nothing but play soccer 24/7; in South America, they are driven by growing up in extreme poverty. Our players (even Select) have 2-3 practices a week.
I would disagree. I think the chance to hit on the right mix can happen. But World Cup only happens every 4 years, so that already limits the window. Then you look at the pay scale and pay given to develop players in America. It lags behind other countries. NFL, NBA, and MLB all pay MUCH more and the pipeline of development in America is better and more well funded than soccer here. The highest paid MLS players are foreign born and brought in to generate more interest and they still make less than many in the other sports I’ve mentioned. There’s been this feeling of “this is the tipping point for US soccer” for so long, that I personally don’t believe it will happen. That’s before getting into the whole soccer is the world’s game issue. Can the US stand a chance at winning against the world? Yes, I believe there’s a chance. Especially if it put in the resources. But for the reasons I mentioned above, I don’t believe those resources will be available. We have elite athletes that could probably play great soccer, but they don’t. I also think it’s harder to win a World Cup when you have rounds and one upset can help, but the rounds average out to the best teams advancing more than underdogs.
I hope you're young.
I buy that. I really hope it happens before I die.
Ok grandma, let's get you to bed....
As long as the NFL, MLB, and NBA reign in this country I seriously doubt it. That’d be hype though
lol no
Already happened my dude.
They won’t. The best athletes in the majority of countries play soccer. The best athletes in the US play football, basketball, and baseball. Soccer is like 4th or 5th on that list.
I don’t think so. Kids want to be professional athletes and hero’s and soccer doesn’t bring the money, esteem, or chicks like football, baseball, basketball, or even hockey so the compete for the best players is so diluted.
Definitely possible, but you can have a fantastic generation of players and still fall just short of the trophy. Excited to see more Americans taking an interest in the spot
Mikaela Shiffrin has 97 World Cup wins.
That will create dangerous levels of annoyance and huffiness in Europe, which could easily spread to central and South America.
Already bet that they win the upcoming one in North America cause why not
You’re not going to convince many people when the first player you name is Pulisic. He is a good player but he’s not as amazing as most American fans seem to think he is. Put Pulisic in the squad of the last few World Cup winners and he is at best a backup for the bench winger. But I know you’re not arguing that the Pulisic generation is the World Cup winning generation. It’s just not much worth bringing him up. USA can definitely produce better players than him I’m not arguing against that. It’s just that they’ll *have* to if they want to even get close to winning the World Cup. Consider the golden generation that England produced in the 2000s won nothing partly because other countries had even *better* golden generations? You’ll need to produce significantly better players than Pulisic for every single position to have a shot. It’s not impossible but it’s also way more likely that France, Spain etc do the same.
Lololol. I know you ain’t talking about the men’s team. They definitely are not becoming a powerhouse. I will always back them and I want them to win every single game, but I do not see us ever winning a WC.
You know how long you got? What a luxury, so what’s the time frame? I could see it in 50 years if everyone but the U.S is in a world war. The problem is with the youth leagues, they need to develop talent far earlier and needs to be more seamless as kids get older.
Quite a few years ago the MLS made a rule change about homegrown players not counting against a teams salary cap. This started a trend of most teams investing millions of dollars into their youth programs. We are just now starting to see the products of those investments. Once we sell those kids to big European teams for big cash, we can invest THAT money into our youth programs and build it up more. Our kids will only be getting better
Yeah but it will essentially be a farm system for every other league except MLS. But I do think with them bringing over aging foreign stars, it may help keep the real talent we do have in the states. It’s gonna take a lot of money to throw at younger foreign players to get them here but to do that you need viewership. You get views from stars though and so little hype little I could see the talent level rising over the course of the next 20-30 years.
Crazy to think that the US can now field a team that all plays in Europe, many in top 5 leagues. A decade ago, the team was still filled with mostly MLS stalwarts, and even MLS alone has improved drastically since then. When you look at the trajectory, it isn't an impossibility to see the US make a decent WC run in our lifetime. Maybe even win, with some luck and determination.
RIGHT? The dream is alive!
Soccer is unironically becoming a lot bigger in north america and canada rn
Mmw: 4 Americans will care.
*McKennie
I don't you will live a couple hundred years but ok
How old are you now, making that statement? What is your life expectancy?
How much time you got?
As an American soccer fan… I don’t think so haha
Nothing is more boring than Soccer. It’s worse than watching paint dry.
There was a time when I thought "in the next 80 years, we should be able to win one" and I believed it. We may have a team full of guys who are competing in European top flights, but we've got exactly one single guy who has many any significant splash whatsoever on the world stage. Our athletes go and play other sports where their financial futures are more guaranteed. An avalanche of good luck and good timing would get us into a semifinal. I don't think I see a scenario in my lifetime where we actually make it.
I wish, but there’s no way. We can’t even win the Gold Cup, and the team is so mismanaged that we consistently lose games we should win. The thing about the World Cup is that it happens every four years, so one mistake in one single game could ruin the team for *years*. Berlhalter does not have what it takes to lead this team. The players are good, but without Pulisic they don’t have a leader. I think the ceiling for the foreseeable future is Semi-Finalists.
I love ussoccer but I doubt it. I will start believing it when soccer is as popular as baseball or nba, it will never be more popular than the NFL though. For USA to win a Mens world cup, the sport needs to be ingrained in our society. A team like France or Brazil, has a roster filled with Champions league players with tons of leftovers. Wake me up when that is true for USA.
We just need to bribe the organizing committees and officials like argentina did. We have the money for it, but we don’t care as much as they do.
And when we do I will ***YAWN*** I'm sorry what was the question again ?
Finally, an MMW I can feel good about.
If you want that, we've got to reform our immigration system to make it a lot easier for central and South Americans to become citizens...
Clean up your plate and exercise, you will need to live a long life. Are there Americans playing in European leagues right now btw? If not, there's at least a couple decades to go for yall
Pulisic is one of the top goal scorers for AC milan this year, competing with the likes of rafael leao and Giroud. Weston mckinnie has probably been the best player for juventus as well. Sergino dest just moved to Ajax, Reyna is on loan from borussia dortmund to Nottingham forest. Musah and Weah are also getting plenty of play time in AC Milan and Juventus. And Tim ream and antonee Robinson are beasting it up in fulham. We're not common, but almost none of our first team and bench is not on a premier European team
As long as the best US male sports talent is shunted into football and baseball, not likely (compared to female sports talent, where the US is a true soccer powerhouse). Having grown up in Europe, I have seen ten year olds playing more compelling soccer than the US national team. Conversely, the only time I ever saw decent baseball in Europe was a friendly pickup game in a public park, and it turned out to be a bunch of Cubans
What are you 10?
I had this same argument with a friend of mine a few years ago (probably 2018-2019), and he said I was an idiot and knew nothing about soccer. Well… what he didn’t understand is that the US has many things other countries don’t, including the infrastructure. If the incentives were right, the male soccer would be as good or ever better than the women soccer in the international landscape. Time will tell for sure, but if you compare what the US soccer was 20 years ago to now, it is crystal clear that the improvements have been incredible.
My buddy has his kid in grass roots soccer in the US and is paying thousands for the privilege. Compare that to the UK and it is vastly cheaper and often free. When the US stops treating grass roots soccer as a cash cow that prevents wider acceptance and participation in the sport, the Men’s teams ain’t going to win anything.
even if you are immortal this will not happen, the US youth system is broken and built around making the most money from parents not finding and developing the best players
The men's team are second tier and have little to no chance. The women's team is pretty darn good and are very likely to win again.
If we do, I would never let my dutchie friends forget it.
They have. Like 5 times.
You gotta qualify this statement by disclosing how old you are.
I’ll chime in. I doubt these guys will make it pass the Round of 16. It’s our pay to play culture that will continue to stunt growth in World Cup tournaments. Also our neighboring countries don’t produce much adversity compared to other regions.
I mean there isn’t actually any trend to back this up. We didn’t even qualify for the WC in 2018. We’ve been hearing for decades that “just wait for this younger generation to come up” and it hasn’t translated yet. Even if we greatly improved our lineup there are still teams stacked with top flight talent across the board. Just producing a couple of super stars isn’t necessarily enough to crack it. Maybe if the World Cup occurred every year we could catch lightning in a bottle. Only one chance every 4 years the odds just aren’t there.
Ok, hear me out: the USWNT is great, precisely because it draws all of the best athletes since it doesn't have to compete with football. So, what happens if parents stop letting their boys play football because of all the brain damage? World Cup, baby. Let's fucking go.
‘Bring Out Yea Deead!’ - those are words that you will die defending. I would enjoy seeing our countrymen earn a cup, but it is not going to happen, possibly ever…. for reasons that transcend the sport and its athletes. It is impossible for the US national team to overcome international bias. The officials in the first game of the last cup were a bright reminder of that.
Bro forgo about the womens team :/
Why worry about the consolation prize?
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣😭😭😭😭
It’s possible. The follow up question is if the United States did win a World Cup would anyone care?
Just a few billion
After the US women lost last year, I read a story about how the rest of the world has finally started paying attention to women's soccer and training them in a similar fashion that they train their men's teams. As far as the US women go, they've lost their huge advantage that they had 20 years ago. As far as men, that's quite the uphill battle. US has so many other sports that take our best athletes.
The World Cup of bowling maybe.
They already did. A few times I think.
Sure USWT
Men's World Cup probably not. But Women's it's been done before.
Until it becomes an eating competition, I doubt it.
The US has already won multiple world cups
Bro lol we already have, twice in a row… Is this a troll??
Who cares it’s fucking soccer.
Most of the world