AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Tonight, here in Los Angeles, the U.S. men's national soccer team plays its first game of the FIFA World Cup. This match is some eight years in the making, as a so-called golden generation of American players has finally reached its prime, just in time for the U.S. to cohost the World Cup. NPR's Becky Sullivan has their story.
BECKY SULLIVAN, BYLINE: In one sense, this U.S. team's run at the World Cup will begin when a squad of 26 - arguably the most talented team the U.S. has ever fielded - walks out onto the pitch in their red-and-white striped jerseys to take on Paraguay. But in another sense, the path to this point began years ago...
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UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER #1: Trinidad and Tobago with a 2-1 lead over the United States.
SULLIVAN: ...When the U.S. had to put the pieces back together after hitting rock bottom, heard here on BN Sports.
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UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER #1: And the United States eliminated, missing out on the World Cup for the first time since 1986. Unbelievable.
SULLIVAN: In international soccer, the U.S. has always played second fiddle to powerhouses from Europe and South America. Yet it had seemed the team was on the up-and-up through the 2000s and early 2010s. But by 2017, the U.S. national team was leaning too hard on an aging generation of players like Clint Dempsey and Tim Howard, who were in their mid-to-late 30s by then. It all finally fell apart in that must-have qualifier in Trinidad.
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TIM HOWARD: It was all very surreal. In the game, you're hoping to just find a goal from somewhere. You just think that the miracles will happen, something will happen. And it didn't.
SULLIVAN: Howard was the goalkeeper for that miserable game. Last year on his podcast, "Unfiltered Soccer," he recalled just how low that moment was.
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HOWARD: Nothing - like, literally nothing was said in the dressing room. Nothing was said on the team bus. Go back to the hotel, went downstairs to a team meal. Like, I mean, you want to talk about the walking dead. It was - there were just people - no one - like, no one spoke.
SULLIVAN: Only one guy who's still on the team played in that game, Christian Pulisic. He was America's boy wonder then. He'd just turned 19 and scored the Americans' only goal. No one could blame him. But for basically everyone else, the criticism began at once.
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TAYLOR TWELLMAN: This is an utter embarrassment with the amount of money in the sport.
ALEXI LALAS: They failed themselves, they failed the sport, and they failed their country.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: U.S. soccer just has to make certain now that this never happens again.
SULLIVAN: The head coach resigned a few days later, and within a year, the rest of U.S. soccer's leadership would turn over. It was a dark, dark time for U.S. soccer, yet soon, there was a reason to have a little hope.
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GIANNI INFANTINO: So we have a winner for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
SULLIVAN: In July the next year, FIFA awarded the right to host the '26 World Cup to a three-way bid from North America.
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INFANTINO: Canada, Mexico and U.S.A. have been selected by the FIFA Congress to host the 2026...
SULLIVAN: That moment, an eight-year clock started ticking. A World Cup here at home was a golden opportunity - not just to play well on the field, as host nations often do, but with so much attention, they could give the game of soccer a huge boost and lay a foundation for generations to come. In other words, the stakes couldn't be higher. So they brought in a new head coach, a former national team player named Gregg Berhalter, who said on Day 1 that he planned to give a new generation of players a chance.
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GREGG BERHALTER: It's important for players to be performing. It's important for them to grow through games, and that's going to be an important aspect of how we're picking teams, of which guys are contributing.
SULLIVAN: Soon, the budding star Pulisic was surrounded by other promising young players. There was the spark plug midfielder Tyler Adams, raised by a single mom in New York, who made himself known quickly, as heard here on Fox.
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UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER #2: U.S. And Adams is going to chance - he scores. Tyler Adams - U.S., 1, nil.
SULLIVAN: There's Weston McKennie, the son of an Air Force officer who grew up playing soccer in Germany while his dad was stationed there. And an electric left back, Antonee Robinson, the England-born son of a U.S. immigrant who played college ball at Duke. Together, they and others were hailed as a golden generation, but they needed time to learn on the job.
ERNIE STEWART: The beginning was not easy when we made certain choices and, you know, bringing the - I'll just say - the young guys in.
SULLIVAN: This is Ernie Stewart, who took over as GM of the national team, then sporting director, for all of U.S. soccer in those years. There were some lumps for sure, he said. The team won only three games in 2018 and lost some ugly ones at times. But Stewart said it was all part of the process.
STEWART: The near future was the World Cup in '22 and wanting to perform there, as well. But also realizing that four years later, it's going to be in your own country once again. And these guys being at the peak of their, you know, when they were 27 years old, is - yeah, you know, you have the experiences, and hopefully, that can come together and do some damage.
SULLIVAN: In 2022, the Americans were the second youngest team at the entire World Cup. A win over Iran and draws with England and Wales saw them advance to the knockout round, where they lost to the Netherlands. It was a big, big learning experience, Tyler Adams said this week.
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TYLER ADAMS: Those are games and experiences that you need because - I don't want to say it was a wake-up call, but we didn't know really what to expect, how to manage the game, how to deal with certain scenarios, whereas now I feel a lot more comfortable with our identity in our own skin to be prepared for that.
SULLIVAN: Now, for the first time, a U.S. World Cup squad is full of players who have key roles on teams in Europe's top leagues. Adams, Robinson and the young star defender Chris Richards all play in the English Premier League. McKennie and Pulisic play in Italy, other guys play in France or Spain or Germany - all of them facing off week in and week out against other top international talent. But what is truly irreplaceable, McKennie says, is the bond that only comes from having grown up together.
WESTON MCKENNIE: A comfortability with each other, freedom to be themselves, to be who they are. And whenever you have that comfortability level with the players next to you, you can be completely honest with them, and you can hold them accountable and understand who they are.
SULLIVAN: Over the past few months, that chemistry has shown in friendlies against some of the world's best teams - Belgium, Senegal and Germany - broadcast on TNT.
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UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER #3: Robinson's ball to the K.O. (ph).
It's Christian Pulisic round the keeper. It's Pulisic with a goal.
Oh my word, what a strike for Antonee Robinson.
SULLIVAN: Berhalter hasn't been their coach for a couple of years now. He was replaced back in 2024 with Mauricio Pochettino, who's leading the Americans through the World Cup. But last week, Berhalter said, watching this group of guys reach this moment has been a joy.
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BERHALTER: When I got them, they were young. They were babies, and they were just learning what it takes to be a professional athlete. And now, when I see them, they're men. And, you know, they have kids, and they're adults, and they know exactly what it means to maintain themselves as professionals. And it's an amazing thing to see.
SULLIVAN: Now the opportunity, the stage, the stakes aren't lost on them, and they are ready for this moment, says Tyler Adams.
ADAMS: Like, to inspire people, to show that American players are at the level of the rest of the world. Like, let's show everyone what we're capable of doing.
SULLIVAN: The moment finally comes tonight for the U.S. men's national team when they take on Paraguay.
Becky Sullivan, NPR News, Los Angeles.
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