USMNT: 2022 FIFA WORLD CUP

Gregg Berhalter made the grand proclamation at his very first meeting with the U.S. men’s national team.

“We’re on a mission together,” he told two dozen players, some of whom he’ll take to the World Cup this fall. “What we’re looking to do,” he said on that tranquil day in January 2019, “is change the way the world views American soccer.”



He was, at the time, the freshly-minted head coach of a program reeling. Stateside approval ratings had hit 21st-century lows. Worldwide approval ratings, meanwhile, had never been all that high. Berhalter knew this. He’d traveled the globe as a player and coach. He knew how world football regarded American men. He'd heard how Brits sneered at Bob Bradley, who in 2016 became the first U.S.-born manager in England’s Premier League. He'd later hear fellow American coach Jesse Marsch speak about the “stigma.”

“I know that there is a lot of respect for American soccer,” Berhalter says now, but he and everybody else in the sport also know that there are biases, stereotypes, and unflattering opinions. And that’s why the 2022 World Cup, as Berhalter said, “is an opportunity.”

The disrespect appeared almost instantly on Friday night, after the USMNT drew England in its second game.

“YANKEE DODDLE DANDY,” screamed one British tabloid celebrating England’s luck.

“England’s hopes of World Cup glory soared after they were handed a dream draw in Group B,” another wrote.

Yet another called it an “easy-looking draw.” A fourth said “England were given a clear run through to the quarterfinals.”

At 2 p.m. ET on Black Friday, with tens of millions watching on Fox and Telemundo in the U.S., with tens of millions watching in Britain, and with many more watching across planet earth, the USMNT will have a chance to change all of this. To change perceptions abroad and assumptions back home that America can’t develop elite men’s soccer players, that it can’t compete with World Cup royalty, that the sport will always be secondary to a few others here.