News: Bruce Arena says the United States will be in a position to win the World Cup by 2026

Agree with this completely. I mean our record in World Cups is on average a little less than one win per World Cup. Our best result ever in a World Cup held in Europe was a tie. Which we accomplished one time, in 2006. This thought of being in the semifinals or finals is, based on our historical performance, insane.

A little humility and reality is in order.

 

True and I think the majority expected that, had we made the tournament, we wouldn't have made it out of the group or maybe get out but be bounced the next round. Based on historical trends of never being good in Europe, not performing well as of late and our own WC record in general. However several big teams have not lived up to expectations, hello ARG, and maybe if we had brought the young team we had seen in these friendlies and the left the complacent vets at home we might have stolen a few point we might not have gotten otherwise.

 

Actually, I think that we've already generated a player pool that might have come close to that level - in 2010.

Our terrible luck with injuries that year has tended to obscure that accomplishment. But what if you could go back to the 2010 World Cup team and add:

-A healthy Jermaine Jones
- A healthy Oguchi Onyewu
- A healthy Stuart Holden
- A healthy Charlie Davies

With major upgrades at four starting spots, that strikes me as a team that's capable of reaching the semifinals (again, if they're playing at home). Holden alone would have made a huge difference - he was considered a top EPL player at that time.

And, not coincidentally, 2010 is roughly when our only other impressive generation of youth players reached their prime age. So I don't think that the USA's recent national team history only suggests pessimism.

 

Just to reinforce that last point - in 2010 we could have had a midfield of two top EPL players, a good Bundesliga defensive midfielder, and Landon Donovan at the peak of his career. Add a very competent back line (Bocanegra, Onyewu, Demerit, Cherundolo), an excellent keeper, and a couple dangerous forwards (Altidore and Davies), and you'd have had a team that no opponent would take lightly when playing on their turf.

Thinking about what might have been in 2010 is a little depressing, but it should also be a little encouraging- because if we've gotten to that level before, we can do it again.

 

Before we start talks by about WC level success, can we look at how we did at the U17, U20 and Olympics with this vaunted class?

We’ve made the quarterfinals at both recent FIFA U17 and U20 tourneys and both teams are consistently better than any since our last golden generation (jitterbug, LD).

Not sure that’s enough to become even a dark horse 2026 contender but it’s certainly movement in the right direction.

Ps, I’m no youth expert so will defer to those to contribute to the youth forum.

 

There's a very important distinction between pessimism and honesty/realism. I've often seen/read/heard a rather simplistic, binary view that says, "you either believe we're on our way to greatness or you're a pessimist." I'm arguing in favor of a third and more humble and realistic point of view which states that a) we're fairly mediocre, b) progress is rarely linear, and c) we will have to wait a long time to get to the level some of us falsely believe we've already reached. I'm also in favor of us toning down the godawful arrogance that is perfectly typified by that embarrassingly childish chant ("we are the U.S.... the mighty mighty U.S."). Let's just remember that the mighty U.S. missed out on the world cup after losing to -- and being outplayed by -- Trinidad and Tobago's B team. There's nothing mighty about that.

 

Love our optimism as Americans, and am proud that historically the US Jersey has given our players wings to perform rather than acted as a weight, but this is simply to far. Over the last 8 world cups we have averaged just over 2 points per. The furthest we have ever gotten is the Quarters and our level is clearly between the group stage and R16. Which is not bad when you look at our team on paper.

I know some people in here get all prickly when you start talking about where players play their club football but guess what that does matter. It is literally people's job to determine how good a player is and get them to their club. So before we even think about winning the W.C. we need a roster of players making contributions in the top leagues. This isn't Eurosnobery this is simple fact.

 

And before that, we need to change the development system so that good European teams are interested in taking our players over there to actually play for their teams, not to send them to the reserve league or loan them to some second division bottom-feeder.

Development starts here, not in Europe.

 

When you get to the World Cup, the whole of it comes down to the draw. Had the US made it to the World Cup this year it would have been the same. It will be that way in 2022 and 2026 as well.

Get in the tournament and anything can happen. A handball here, a player getting a red card for a stupid challenge, a ref making a bad call (VAR helps here). Plus 8 years is a really long time for a soccer player. Who even knows who will be playing at that point? So of course right now Id say almost every top 50 nation thinks they have a change at 2026.

 

I forgot about this old thread. Anyhoo, let me be the first to congratulate Cordeiro in nailing down the single most important factor in winning 2026: hosting 2026.

 

Maybe some day SUM/USSF is going to have enough money to bribe FIFA into hosting ALL World Cups in the USA.

The ultimate win: no more need to qualify at all.