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World Cup World Cup Countdown The jerseys of Weston Mc Kennie, Ricardo Pepi, Christian Pulisic, Brenden Aaronson and Tim Ream of the USMNT hang in the locker room at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. John Dorton / ISI Photos / USSF Thirty-two years ago, the 1994 World Cup ushered in a new era for soccer in the United States, launching a professional league and introducing the sport to swaths of fans across the country. This summer is again an enormous opportunity to reach new fans who will tune into this World Cup — which will see the majority of games in the U. S. , supported by Canada and Mexico — the same way they might watch the Olympics. But if the U. S. men’s national team hopes to capture and keep those fans, a strong performance is imperative. Advertisement After a pair of losses in March exhibition games, those who are just beginning to pay attention might wonder why it’s worth tuning in at all. That instinct might have been reinforced by U. S. men’s national team coach Mauricio Pochettino, who insisted there was value in the back-to-back defeats because of the difference in level between his U. S. team and the opposition. “I think for sure Belgium and Portugal have, in the top 100 players, a few or some players playing in that top 100, ” Pochettino said. “I think we don’t have (any). That is why it’s good to play against these types of teams. ” Right now, those new fans might be asking a pair of pertinent questions. Is it worth even getting invested in the tournament if the men’s team is still bad? And if even the coach says we don’t have any top players? What Pochettino said is almost inarguably true … and also doesn’t matter at all when considering the potential success of the U. S. at this summer’s World Cup. March friendly matches don’t matter and neither do player rankings once the competition begins. Historically, U. S. teams have performed well even with poor tune-up results ahead of the World Cup. Four years ago, they lost to Japan and drew with Saudi Arabia before advancing to the knockout round in Qatar. In 2002, a quarterfinal run was preceded by two defeats in the build-up, including at Ireland and home against the Netherlands. Pochettino’s quote should have been seen as uncontroversial. The video game EA FC 2026’s top 100 players include six Portuguese players, three Belgians and no Americans; valuation website Transfermarkt’s top 100 most valuable players has six Portuguese, one Belgian and no Americans. Most of the top 100 players in the world are on five or six national teams total. For new fans looking to jump on the World Cup bandwagon this summer, however, it might have confirmed the U. S. is what they thought it was. The reality is that it has no bearing on how to think about this national team. The U. S. has never been a favorite for the tournament, nor has it ever boasted top 100-ranked players with any great regularity. Any progress through the knockout runs will be an underdog story. Advertisement No matter what happens at the World Cup, the U. S. has a long way to go to truly rank among the world’s top teams. But that’s why it’s a team worth rooting for. A quarterfinal or better finish wouldn’t just indicate progress. It would inspire progress. The U. S. has come a long way from the team that qualified for the World Cup in 1990, ending a 40-year drought and setting American soccer on a path toward today’s more stable ecosystem, which includes Major League Soccer and its 30 franchises. Missing the tournament in 2018 was indicative of the sport’s continued struggle to mature in the American consciousness, and for the men’s side to produce the type of world-class players to which Pochettino was referring. It’s why diehard U. S. men’s national team fans have built up so much hope around this group. Players such as Christian Pulisic, Weston Mc Kennie, Chris Richards and Tim Weah came up through American youth systems and moved to historically significant European teams at the same time many of their predecessors reached college programs. Dual nationals such as Sergiño Dest, Antonee Robinson, Folarin Balogun and Malik Tillman, who developed in Holland, England and Germany, further reinforced the pool. But measuring progress against yourself isn’t the truest way to gauge how much (or little) you’ve closed the gap. It’s new for Americans to see so many of their national team players at top clubs in Europe. It’s typical for many of the game’s most competitive teams. In 2024, for example, the U. S. had 10 players at top 50 clubs, per Opta’s worldwide rankings of teams. But 14 other national teams across the 2024 Copa América and 2024 Euro tournaments had more players at those top 50 clubs. That included the traditional powers, of course, but also teams such as Switzerland and U. S. group opponent Turkey, as well as Denmark and Poland, both of which missed the tournament. The talent gap isn’t new. It also won’t necessarily stop the U. S. from getting results. That 2002 team featured even fewer players at big clubs than this year’s squad. It was built around Americans who were forging a path to Europe. Players such as Tony Sanneh, John O’Brien, Brian Mc Bride, Brad Friedel, Frankie Hejduk and Joe-Max Moore were boosted by young Americans Landon Donovan and Da Marcus Beasley. They downed a Portugal team that featured some of the game’s biggest stars and went punch-for-punch with eventual finalist Germany. Advertisement The prove-yourself mentality of that team — and other American World Cup teams to follow — has been a requirement for any U. S. team that has navigated the World Cup. (And all but one U. S. World Cup team to qualify since 1994 has gotten out of the group stage; 2006 is the lone exception. ) The current U. S. team is still looking for that edge, and it’s doing it at a time when it’s searching for its on-field identity. More importantly, it’s learning how to balance an underdog mindset with a reputation that says it should somehow be expected to win. “Never chase reality” is the program’s slogan going into the tournament. It wants people to believe it can be different. And this U. S. team can make history. But embracing its reality is key to being able to do that. For bandwagon fans looking to latch on for the journey, it’s OK to get excited and get behind this team, no matter what the results of the past week say. It has players who are more experienced at the highest levels of the game and who have proved themselves on Champions League stages. They can be downright fun to watch when playing their best soccer. But they’ll still need to combine those experiences and that talent with the right mentality to make a run. The stakes are high. Every single win and every positive outcome should be celebrated this summer. Not just because those results are still so hard-earned for a U. S. men’s World Cup team, but because every win might inspire the next generation of American men’s soccer players. A deep run in this tournament, in our own backyard, could be the seismic moment American men’s soccer needs to propel forward. That’s something to root for — whether you’re a lifelong fan or new to the party. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Play today's puzzle Paul Tenorio is a senior writer for The Athletic who covers soccer. He has previously written for the Washington Post, the Orlando Sentinel, Four Four Two, ESPN and MLSsoccer. com. Follow Paul on Twitter @Paul Tenorio