More Black Players Helping USMNT Reach 2022 FIFA World Cup Than Ever Before

As we continue to observe Black History Month this February, it can feel like some recent calls for more Black inclusion in the sports world are spinning their wheels.

The National Football League remains devoid of anything close to a representative cohort of Black head coaches in line with its number of Black players. Major League Baseball’s efforts to bolster the ranks of Black Americans playing in the majors or at the youth level have yet to bear visible results.

That perhaps makes what is happening at the highest level of American soccer even more noteworthy: The U.S. men’s national team, which is currently vying for a place at the 2022 FIFA World Cup, is easily relying on more Black players than at any point in the program’s modern history.

Through 11 of 14 CONCACAF qualifying matches, Black players have made up 21 of the 41 total to be called into the team’s training camps. When you look at who is actually playing matches, Black players have played 63.3% of the total minutes available.

Since the modern era of CONCACAF World Cup qualifying began in 1998, there has been growing Black representation among the U.S. ranks. But this current cycle marks a Beamonesque leap from any previous one.

The 2014 cycle saw a previous program high of Black players as a proportion of the total players called in at 30.4%. The 2018 cycle saw a previous high in terms of absolute quantity of Black players (15) receiving the call, and in the portion of minutes (42.3%) played by Black players.

Below is a full breakdown of Black representation in the national team in World Cup qualifying from 1998 to 2022. Note this includes Black players with immediate family ancestry outside the United States, including Latin America, Africa and Europe.

This increase is clearly worth celebrating in a sport that in America has often been defined as a passion of the white, middle-class suburbanite. But it’s also not entirely clear how or why this is occurring — though some probably owes to the changing complexion of the suburbs themselves.

In something as intimate as a national team program, it’s also important to note the presence of a couple players can make a major difference toward the overall numbers. On the current American squad, four Black players make up nearly 3,000 of the minutes played. Midfielders Tyler Adams Weston McKennie have basically proven themselves undroppable from Berthalter’s lineup when healthy and available. Antonee Robinson and Miles Robinson (no relation) have solidified their places in the back line.

What’s also unusual is there has been virtually no discussion of this facet of the current national team. If anything, the conversations around increasing minority representation in the U.S. Soccer player pool have centered on developing, recruiting and retaining more Latin American — not Black — talent. And the most marketed face of the program remains Christian Pulisic, a white attacker who plays at reigning UEFA Champions League winners Chelsea FC.

But as the 2022 and eventually 2026 World Cups approach, U.S. Soccer would be wise celebrate its (admittedly, perhaps accidental) success at fielding a team with more Black talent. In particular, a predominantly Black team playing well as a host nation in 2026 could help close a lot of the ground left to cover to make participation on the youth level truly as inclusive as basketball or football to American children.

Seeing Black players suiting up for the Red, White and Blue won’t immediately erase the participation obstacles that often exist in low-income communities of all backgrounds. Nor should it paper over American soccer’s own shortcomings with with diversity, including a minority coach hiring problem similar to the NFL’s.

But a team of Black American soccer starts could spark a generation of Black American children to believe succeeding in the World’s game is every bit as possible as making it to the NBA or the NFL. And if the U.S. national team of the of the present and near future could achieve that, the sport’s future here is even brighter than even most American soccer evangelicals currently believe.