United States Men's national Soccer Team News

How far has the US Men’s National Team gone in the World Cup

By Wilian Estrella

The USMNT at the FIFA World Cup, how it has fared, history and its best performance.

The USMNT at the FIFA World Cup, how it has fared, history and its best performance.

Síguenos enSíguenos en Google News

The United States' history in international soccer's biggest competition is inconsistent. After participating —and performing well— in the inaugural World Cup in 1930, Team USA has been in and out of the event, absent for nearly four decades, before returning to being a consistent qualifier.

However, as demonstrated in the last World Cup cycle (where they failed to qualify), the U.S. is not a guarantee to participate in the 32-team event, so the pressure is always on to secure qualification and attend soccer's most prestigious tournament.

More USMNT news:

How many international tournaments has the United States Men's National team won?
 

What was the best U.S. performance in World Cup soccer?

Technically, the best U.S. performance in a men's FIFA World Cup came in 1930 at the inaugural edition. However, that event only featured a four-team knockout stage, meaning there was no round of 16 or quarterfinals.

Since the World Cup was expanded to 16 teams in 1934 and to 32 in 1998, the United States has not advanced past the quarterfinals, reaching them once, in 2002. That tournament marked the only U.S. victory in the knockout stage, against classic CONCACAF rival Mexico.

The U.S. has never won a knockout stage match against anyone outside its own confederation.

U.S. World Cup History and Results

While the United States participated in the inaugural World Cup in 1930 and then reached the Round of 16 in 1934, there was a large gap between 1950 and 1990 in which the United States did not qualify for a World Cup.

One of the big reasons why the U.S. did not consistently reach the World Cup finals was that Mexico stood in their way. ‘El Tri’ always dominated the qualifying group, leaving the United States and Canada out.

Even when the CONCACAF regional body began using a different competition as its primary route to qualification, the U.S. still faced Mexico and Canada and regularly came up short.

As the qualifying format changed over the years, allowing more teams and expanding North American slots, and the U.S. beginning to compete more regularly with Mexico, the Americans finally returned to World Cup competition in the 1990s.

Despite missing the 2018 tournament, the Americans are now regular World Cup participants. The next hurdle to overcome is the knockout rounds of the tournament, where Team USA has stumbled on several occasions after falling out of the group.

The World Cup match that changed history between Mexico and the United States

The classic between Mexico and the United States was not always the evenly matched rivalry it is today. El Tri, arguably the strongest team in CONCACAF in the past, had been relentless between 1937 and 1980 without defeat in 24 matches against their biggest rivals. The gap between Mexican tradition and emerging U.S. intentions was abysmal.

June 17 marked the 20th anniversary of a foundational milestone for U.S. soccer. In Jeonju, the United States and Mexico met in the Round of 16 of the 2002 FIFA World Cup Korea-Japan.

Mexico, with Rafael Márquez as captain and Jared Borgetti as the attacking symbol in a squad full of glittering names, had played attractive soccer under coach Javier Aguirre and topped Group G ahead of Italy, Croatia and Ecuador.

Nevertheless, after an hour of play, the final blow to Mexico came with the stellar presentation of the player who would become USA’s biggest star: "My career was almost non-existent, especially on the world stage, I was a promising talent who generated doubts as to whether I would reach my potential or not," explained Landon Donovan.

It was the young wonderkid who sealed Mexico's elimination in the 65th minute. "With the 2-0 scoreline, the game ended, it ended our aspirations. There was no time, we were not well positioned on the field," said Javier Aguirre after a match that ended with Rafa Márquez being sent off for a harsh infraction.

Mexico, who would go out in the round of 16 again in the next four tries, said goodbye with an unthinkable defeat that still hurts the country to this day.

More USMNT news:

Can Christian Pulisic speak Croatian?

 


 

Topics


More news