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Built to Grow, Still Waiting to Win: USMNT as a Crossroads

With the World Cup only two months away, many fans wonder how the United States' National Men's Team will perform. While the USMNT is not considered a heavy favorite, fans remain hopeful that the team is capable of making a deep run and helping usher in a new era of soccer in the US. Since the 1994 World Cup and the launch of Major League Soccer,  soccer's visibility in the United States has grown exponentially.  So, how can the USMNT make the most of this increased level of attention as host nations, and are they up for the challenge? A lot of experts consider this crop of players to be the most talented that the US Soccer has ever produced.  Current players like Christian Pulisic, Weston McKennie, and Tyler Adams, often dubbed as part of the golden generations,  are products of a soccer infrastructure built post 1994–an infrastructure that now develops talent capable of competing at the highest levels, even if that development is often completed in Europe. The USMN...
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Two Teams, Two Legacies: What Makes a Soccer Nation? Pt. 2

  When it was announced that the United States would host the 1994 World Cup, it was quite shocking. First, there was no stable professional soccer league in America.  There have been several attempts to capitalize on soccer in the US, but none of them really caught on or were poorly managed. Plus, the United States did not have a global presence in international soccer.  Before 1994,  the men's national team was nearly invisible on the world stage.  The USMNT went 40 years (1950-1990) without qualifying for a single World Cup. When it was announced on July 4, 1988, it was announced that the United States would host the 1994 FIFA World Cup. At that point, they had not qualified for a single World Cup since 1950. The US beat out Brazil and Morocco, and it only took one round of voting, with the US receiving a little over half of the votes from the FIFA Executive Committee. FIFA hoped that by granting the United States the opportunity to host the most prestigious ...
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How To Build a Team: From Underdogs to Contenders

   In the early days of women's international soccer, the USWNT and Germany were the dominant teams in international soccer. For a while, they both tied for the most World Cup titles, until the USWNT won its third title in 2025.   While the usual suspects kept winning at the international stage, this encouraged many countries to start funding their women's programs, and of course, made the game far more competitive.  Using the USWNT as a benchmark, there have been several times where the women's team has been outmatched during their storied career. As a USWNT fan, it hurts when they lose. As a fan of the game, it's nice to see the women's game grow.  What I love about the women's game is that different countries, which may not have success in the men's game, are competitive in women's soccer. In men's soccer, the power is concentrated. You may not know who is going to win the World Cup, but you do know it'll most likely be a team from Europe or ...
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Two Teams, Two Legacies: What Makes a Soccer Nation? Pt. 1

This summer, the entire world will gather in North America for the biggest sporting event globally. The FIFA World Cup will be jointly hosted by the United States, Mexico, and Canada. The biggest question going into this competition, if you are a USMNT fan, is whether the US takes it all, and can we finally declare ourselves a soccer nation?  To answer the first part of the question: I don't think the USMNT will win this year's World Cup, even if they are capable of a deep run in the tournament. For the second part of the question, I think the USA is a soccer nation, but it depends on what side of the coin you are looking at.  In women's soccer, the United States Women's National Team enjoyed early dominance with the introduction of the 1991 FIFA Women's World Cup, and when women's soccer became an Olympic sport at the 1996 Atlanta Games.  They have won four World Cup titles and five Olympic gold medals–the most for any national team, man or woman. Despite the n...
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The Current Global Soccer Landscape (and why does it feel unequal?)

  Soccer is the number one sport in the world–approximately 240 to 270 million people play "the beautiful game" worldwide. FIFA, the governing body of soccer, established the first World Cup in 1930 in Uruguay. It took 61 years for the women's game to receive the same recognition worldwide. The women's game has seen significant strides in the last thirty years, including the creation of a women's sports league in Europe and in the USA. As someone who has grown to love soccer since I first watched the 2010 World Cup, I have especially grown to love the women's game because it's fun to see the United States dominate at a sport where we call it soccer and everyone else calls it football. Watching both the men's and women's international soccer, I can't help but notice some disparities that I find intriguing. First, Europe is big when it comes to soccer, and so is South America. However, while Europe has seen successful women's national teams, ...
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