USMNT's World Cup Exit: A Missed Opportunity for American Soccer Growth

In the closing moments of the United States’ 3-2 win over Portugal at the 2002 World Cup, ESPN commentator Jack Edwards took a moment to remind viewers who had stayed up all night of the profound result they were witnessing. From his perch in Suwon, South Korea – where he was watching the first match of a campaign that would end in a quarter-final that remains the high-water mark for the modern US men’s national team – Edwards delivered a soliloquy that cut straight to the heart of the profound role World Cups play not just for the US men’s national team, but for soccer as a force in American life.

“The players on that 1950 team that beat England … this [result] is about the foundation that they laid,” Edwards said in his booming bravado as the hour crept toward 7am ET. “This is about the thousands of American families who have helped this sport grow, and the people in those pockets all over the country who have stuck with soccer. And it’s also for those seven- or eight- or nine-year-old kids, who are going to hear about this result when they wake up in the morning and rush outside, and knock a ball against a wall, and dream of something even greater than this.”

I found myself thinking of Edwards’ monologue often during the United States’ run at this year’s World Cup. It’s played in my mind whenever I saw the streets teeming with red white and blue on matchdays all along the west coast. It echoed every time eye-popping TV numbers dropped. I thought of it whenever I saw groups of kids – seven, eight, or nine years old – gathered with their parents at practice facilities and stadiums and hotels, eager to get an autograph or simply to catch a glimpse of their heroes.

Each time, I found myself wondering: When will that inspirational moment come for these kids? Who will provide it? What will it look like, sound like? I hadn’t fully considered the ramifications should the complete opposite come to pass.

What on earth would those kids have thought about what the US produced on Monday night during their 4-1 defeat to Belgium? What were the nation’s soccer fans saying to their non-soccer fan friends who they had finally convinced to watch a game with them, because this was the big one? The families Edwards referred to – what must they have thought? One moment they’re blessed with the feeling that they were on the edge of something great, and that the hard work and dedication they had put into the sport might finally pay off with mainstream acceptance.

What inspiration was there to be found in the team’s disjointed moves forward, of the missed defensive assignments, of the lack of poise the team played with in nearly every key moment? Of the alarming lack of technical and tactical wherewithal compared to a very good Belgian side? Of the opponents and pundits from other countries celebrating their national team’s demise?

We don’t know what the TV numbers from Monday’s game look like yet, but in a similar weekday primetime slot last week, the previous US record for a soccer broadcast was shattered, with around 31 million. At the very least, millions – and probably tens of millions – more were tuning in on Monday night for their first US men’s national team experience. And their first impression was a team that was not up to the task.

These people were not the longtime foundations of the game that Edwards referred to. But they will have understood what a team going toe-to-toe with a top-class opponent looks like. They would have seen it had they watched Mexico, for all their faults, scrap and claw in search of a foothold against England. They would have seen it had they watched Cape Verde heroically bow out to Argentina, or the United States’ previous games in this World Cup – the fever dream-like 4-1 win over Paraguay to the businesslike 2-0 win over Bosnia and Herzegovina in the last 32.

The 2026 World Cup was supposed to be a herald of the future for the US men’s national team program. And the great illusion of this tournament may well turn out to be that, for a few feverish couple of weeks, we all thought that it would be. Instead we are right back where we were. Good against the teams we should beat, but still waiting for that extra breakthrough against the teams we shouldn’t.

There will be plenty of time spent and ink spilled breaking down why the US fell short on Monday night. I’m not convinced any of that really matters. Rather, I’m left with a belief as unshakeable as it is daunting to consider: that the US have just wasted the single biggest growth opportunity in the history of American soccer.

What happens when a new nation of potential new fans – the living, breathing promise of a once-in-a-generation home World Cup – are delivered something worse than heartbreak: Total inadequacy?

We may be about to find out.