U.S. Men’s Soccer Team Qualifies For World Cup After Stunningly Missing 2018 Tournament

Topline

The U.S. men’s national soccer team secured its spot in this year’s FIFA World Cup despite losing to Costa Rica Wednesday night, clinching the Americans’ return to the world’s marquee sporting event after they failed to qualify for the 2018 edition.

Key Facts

Key Background

Failing to make the 2018 World Cup is widely seen as a low point in the history of modern American men’s soccer, especially considering the team’s success in previous tournaments. The U.S. had advanced out of the group stage to the round of 16 at both the 2010 and 2014 World Cups, marking the first time it had ever accomplished that feat in back-to-back tournaments, and there was hope the team was on its way to making it into the upper echelon of men’s national team programs, joining the likes of England, France and Brazil. But the failure to make the tournament, which was assured in an especially embarrassing loss on October 10, 2017 when the U.S. only needed a draw against lowly ranked Trinidad and Tobago to qualify, served as a reckoning on U.S. Soccer leadership. The coach of the men’s national team resigned three days after the loss in Trinidad, while the longtime president of the U.S. Soccer Federation announced in December 2017 he would not seek another term. Many of the aging veteran players on the team were also quickly phased out in exchange for promising young talent. The U.S. men’s team now boasts what many believe is its strongest squad in history, with the likes of 23-year-old Chelsea winger Christian Pulisic, 21-year-old Barcelona defender Sergino Dest and 19-year-old Borussia Dortmund forward Giovanni Reyna regularly featuring for the team.

Contra

The U.S. women’s team has won back-to-back FIFA Women’s World Cups.

What To Watch For

High-stress qualifying cycles will likely soon be a thing of the past for the U.S. men’s soccer team. The U.S. will co-host the 2026 World Cup along with Mexico and Canada, and hosts in the past have automatically qualified for the tournament. The World Cup is also set to expand significantly from its 32-team format to allow for 48 teams starting in 2026, which is expected to make it significantly easier for top programs to qualify.

Tangent

The 2022 FIFA World Cup has been mired in controversy ever since Qatar, a small, oil rich nation on the Arabian Peninsula, was selected as host during a 2010 event, beating out bids from the U.S., South Korea, Japan and Australia. Allegations of corruption in the bidding process quickly surfaced, and the Justice Department in 2020 said top FIFA officials accepted bribes in exchange for supporting Qatar’s 2022 bid and Russia’s 2018 bid. Qatar has since been accused of numerous human rights violations in the construction of stadiums for the event, with criticism directed at the working conditions of migrant laborers traveling from south Asia. The decision to hold the first-ever winter World Cup, to combat the dangerously high summertime temperatures in Qatar, is also set to significantly disrupt the competition calendars for European clubs.

Big Number

More than 3.5 billion. That’s how many people FIFA claims watched at least some of the 2018 World Cup.

Further Reading

U.S. Soccer, Out Of World Cup, Must Pay The Price And Remake Itself (Forbes)

The U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team—A Case Study In The Collective Power Of Women And Doing The Impossible (Forbes)

U.S. Says FIFA Officials Were Bribed to Award World Cups to Russia and Qatar (New York Times)