{"id":27388,"date":"2026-07-08T14:01:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T14:01:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/27388\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T14:01:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T14:01:10","slug":"lets-admit-it-the-united-states-is-never-going-to-win-a-mens-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/27388\/","title":{"rendered":"Let\u2019s admit it: The United States is never going to win a men\u2019s World Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"

Get free access to all our World Cup coverage in the app, from kickoff to the trophy lift.<\/a><\/p>\n

Fine, guess we\u2019re just a football nation.<\/p>\n

Clearly not that kind of football. The futbol adored in the favelas in S\u00e3o Paulo, the suburbs of Paris, all across the promenades in Casablanca \u2014 yeah, that\u2019s not for US. Although we like to kid ourselves that the United States of America, gleefully unconvinced of the allure of soccer and woefully unskilled in the quality of soccer, could become a soccer nation. Or, that one day humungo Major League Soccer stadiums, or stades as they\u2019re called elsewhere, could be filled to the skylights with ultras.<\/p>\n

That was a nice dream while it lasted. All three weeks of it.<\/p>\n

If this latest clumsy World Cup performance from yet another so-called USMNT \u201cgolden generation\u201d settled anything, it should be that America is not built for the beautiful game. This sport belongs to the world. We borrow it every few years. Footy is their one true love; we just play footsy and flirt around with it. Although our women masterfully represent in the country\u2019s colors, our male athletes cloak themselves in red, white and lose.<\/p>\n

So let\u2019s just admit, once and for all, that professional soccer will never rise to the level of the four titan leagues in this country. America is not a soccer nation, nor are we a global threat in this game. Please, stop pretending that we will ever be.<\/p>\n

I can already envision how these words might land with the millions of Americans who confess soccer as their passion. They\u2019re probably clutching their Arsenal scarves aghast and drowning me out with their drum sections. Seriously, you all have my respect. Some of the most fun I\u2019ve experienced as an adult sports fan has come in the bleachers at MLS and NWSL matches. One of the most rewarding assignments I\u2019ve covered happened at the FIFA Women\u2019s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, where the U.S. women\u2019s national team fell well short of winning its fifth overall prize, but other international powers, specifically La Roja, put on a show. However, though fun and full of vibes, this game is still a niche in these parts.<\/p>\n

That should be OK. Perfectly fine for the world\u2019s obsession to remain as a hobby here. No matter how often the homeland evangelists crow about this year or that year finally being the year.<\/p>\n

Did the USMNT get a serious reality check against Belgium? <\/p>\n

Felipe Cardenas<\/p>\n

On Monday night, as soon as it became evident that Team USA would lose in the round of 16, a 4-1 defeat to Belgium that felt like watching 11 guys take turns slipping on a banana peel for 90-plus minutes, the Fox Sports commentators turned into apologists. They pleaded with their American television audience to please, pretty plllease, give this game a chance beyond the four-year cycle of the World Cup.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve heard this appeal before. Just as much as we\u2019ve experienced the unmerited confidence displayed two hours before the match by someone like Alexi Lalas, who predicted the USMNT would \u201ckick some (tail).\u201d However, this bandwagon cycle, cruising along after a win or two in the World Cup, only to be abandoned on the side of the road by the likes of Christian Pulisic, Clint Dempsey, DaMarcus Beasley or Landon Donovan, has run its course.<\/p>\n

This should\u2019ve been the year for America \u2014 again, speaking solely about the American men \u2014 to show some might in this global game. Yet, even with everything stacked in our favor, we still looked like a weakling.<\/p>\n

USA’s dreams come to an end in the round of 16<\/p>\n

Tom Bogert and Lia Griffin<\/p>\n

We had a roster full of players who speak with European accents, meaning they grew up and learned the game in nations where this sport matters, and homegrown heroes who star overseas and still lost to a nation one-twenty-ninth our size. Sergi\u00f1o Dest came of age in the Netherlands, home of Oranje, and he looked the least prepared through the first half against Belgium. Pulisic, a midfielder for AC Milan, somehow injured himself after kicking the back of his opponent\u2019s boot and had to leave the pitch<\/a>. I mean, really, Captain America?<\/p>\n

We had home-field advantage, the USMNT playing all its matches on the West Coast, and still lost. No one can blame crowd noise for keeper Matt Freese\u2019s forgetting how to kick<\/a>, nor can anyone look at the waves and waves of watch parties across the country and condemn the U.S. for not supporting this team enough. After all, the U.S.-Belgium broadcast averaged a record-shattering 30 million viewers.<\/a><\/p>\n

We even had our president interjecting himself into a fight that should\u2019ve been out of his jurisdiction, and still lost.<\/p>\n

When President Donald Trump gently raised the possibility (wink, wink) to reinstate star striker Folarin Balogun, he made us embody the worst of the \u201cugly American.\u201d The stereotype that we stomp around other people\u2019s turf, loudly and boorishly, never respecting the customs of the land. With Trump acting as our unsolicited savior, we came across as the hosts-slash-interlopers who were too entitled and too frightened to play by the rules. Balogun\u2019s red card might have been a joke, but Trump\u2019s bulldozing lacked integrity. Had we entered the showdown with Belgium honorably, it would\u2019ve been fine to lose as underdogs and then make fun of their waffles. Instead, we\u2019re left with a tarnished image as front-runners that will follow the USMNT for years to come.<\/p>\n

Yes, this should\u2019ve been the year. But it\u2019ll never be the year.<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t have to dominate in men\u2019s soccer. Nor should we be torn up that we don\u2019t. Take it from Pulisic. Last month, ahead of the biggest sporting spectacle in the world, he sounded like every casual fan in this country.<\/p>\n

\u201cI get texts from my family and close friends \u2014 they\u2019re definitely all excited about it, for sure,\u201d Pulisic told GQ<\/a>. \u201cI mean, I feel like I\u2019m constantly playing in big games. For me personally, it\u2019s not like all that much is changing. It\u2019s just another big tournament, to be honest.\u201d<\/p>\n

If the face of U.S. men\u2019s soccer sounds this blase about it all, then shouldn\u2019t the rest of us?<\/p>\n

Belgium cares about soccer. So does Morocco, Norway and Switzerland, but guess what \u2014 none of these football-crazed countries has ever won the World Cup. They\u2019ve poured their resources, their time, their very souls into this sport and have never lifted the 18-karat gold trophy. Neither will we. The optimists will say the USMNT still has a cupboard full of young and exciting talent, and seemingly the right coach, so there are reasons to believe we will win. However, they believed four years ago, and four years before that. And when America gets bounced, again, in the round of 16 in the 2030 World Cup, they\u2019ll keep believing in a breakthrough that might never come.<\/p>\n

So it\u2019s OK that America, with its addiction to the NFL and countless other diversions to bet on, reigns in football, just not futbol. This feels like surrender, a resignation to competing against the world, but it\u2019s truly a return to normalcy.<\/p>\n

In other countries, a loss in the World Cup is a massive heartbreak. In America, it\u2019s a Monday.<\/p>\n