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United States men's national soccer team

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United States
Shirt badge/Association crest
Nickname(s)The Stars & Stripes
The Red, White and Blue
Yanks
AssociationUnited States
Soccer Federation
Head coachBruce Arena, 1998-
Most capsCobi Jones (164)
Top scorerEric Wynalda (34)
First colours
Second colours
First international
Unofficial: USA 0 - 1 Canada
(Newark, NJ, USA; November 28, 1885)
Official: Sweden 2 - 3 USA
(Stockholm, Sweden; August 20, 1916)
Biggest win
USA 8 - 1 Cayman Islands
(Mission Viejo, CA, USA; November 14, 1993)
USA 7 - 0 El Salvador
(Los Angeles, CA, USA; December 5, 1993)
USA 7 - 0 Barbados
(Foxborough, MA, USA; August 20, 2000)
Biggest defeat
USA 0 - 10 England
(New York, NY, USA; May 27, 1964)
World Cup
Appearances8 (first in 1930)
Best resultThird place, 1930
CONCACAF Gold Cup
Appearances8 (first in 1991)
Best resultWinners, 1991, 2002, 2005

The United States men's national soccer team is the national association football team of the United States and is controlled by the United States Soccer Federation. (Puerto Rico, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands, despite being U.S. dependencies, have their own national federations, and thus their own national teams.)

History

The United States is a side that enjoyed early competitive success. In the 1930 World Cup, the Americans won the first match in World Cup history (3-0 over Belgium in Montevideo, Uruguay—occurring simultaneously with another "first game" across town where France defeated Mexico). American player Bert Patenaude then scored the first hat-trick in World Cup history as the U.S. defeated Paraguay, 3-0.

In that first Cup, USA advanced to the semifinals, finishing in third place, still the all-time best World Cup performance by the men's team.[1] Some British football historians have claimed that the U.S. team at that competition was loaded with "ringers" (non-native players) from British professional leagues. The facts do not support that assertion.[2]

In the

Wikipedia has media related to 1950.

, the U.S. team pulled off one of the greatest upsets in soccer history, handing England its first ever World Cup defeat 1-0, after England had recently beaten the rest of Europe 6-1 in an exhibition match. Some news agencies in England reported the match result as 10-1 to England, a result which would perhaps have been less surprising. However, the U.S. failed to advance from group play after losing to Spain, and would not qualify for another World Cup until 1990. Although they were dismissed from that tournament without making a point, the side rebounded to win the first ever CONCACAF Gold Cup in 1991.

The team's best performances at recent World Cups have been a second-round appearance in 1994, when it hosted the event, and a quarterfinal berth in 2002. They were one of the major surprises at the 2002 event, stunning highly fancied Portugal 3-2 in group play, defeating continental rivals Mexico 2-0 in the second round, and narrowly losing to Germany in the quarterfinals 1-0.

The U.S. men are now a highly competitive side, capable of playing with and often defeating top teams from the rest of the world. In recent years, USA has become known for producing goalkeepers; three U.S. keepers started in the English Premier League in the 2003-04 season. Two of the three combined to win back-to-back Goalkeeper of the Year awards, as voted by the players, with Brad Friedel in 2002-03 and Tim Howard in 2003-04.

File:Nike donttreadonme.jpg
Nike's 2006 World Cup "Don't Tread on Me" logo for the men's national team.

Since its recent successes, the team has been consistently ranked in the top 15 of the FIFA World Rankings; its highest-ever rank was 4th, first obtained in April 2006. More Americans than ever now have successful careers in European leagues, and the country's youth team is strong, as shown by the under-19s winning the 2005 Milk Cup.

The USA has had more men reach 100 caps (international appearances) than any other country, with eight to date.

On September 3, 2005, they qualified for their 8th World Cup by beating Mexico 2-0 in Columbus, Ohio. The United States was drawn for Group E in the World Cup, and will face Italy, Ghana, and the Czech Republic in the group stage. Because of the high FIFA ranking of the sides in Group E, it has been frequently called this Cup's group of death. However, only one of these three teams (the Czech Republic) is currently ahead of the USA in the world rankings, at second place. The USA itself is currently at fourth place.

World Cup record

Gold Cup record

Copa América record

Starting from 1993, CONMEBOL has invited teams from other confederations to participate in their confederation championship, Copa América. USA has taken part as one of the invited teams twice, in 1993 and 1995.

  • 1993 - Round 1
  • 1995 - Fourth place
  • 1997 to 2004 - Was invited but turned down due to MLS season schedule conflict

Head coaches

 

2006 World Cup Roster

Player Position Club
Chris Albright D Los Angeles
DaMarcus Beasley M PSV Eindhoven
Carlos Bocanegra D Fulham
Steve Cherundolo D Hannover 96
Brian Ching F Houston
Jimmy Conrad D Kansas City
Bobby Convey M Reading
Clint Dempsey M New England
Landon Donovan M Los Angeles
Cory Gibbs D ADO Den Haag
Marcus Hahnemann GK Reading
Tim Howard GK Manchester United
Eddie Johnson F Kansas City
Kasey Keller GK Borussia Mönchengladbach
Eddie Lewis D Leeds United
Pablo Mastroeni M Colorado
Brian McBride F Fulham
John O'Brien M Chivas USA
Ben Olsen M D.C. United
Oguchi Onyewu D Standard Liège
Eddie Pope D Real Salt Lake
Claudio Reyna M Manchester City
Josh Wolff F Kansas City

Withdrew due to Injury

Player Position Club
Frankie Hejduk D Columbus

Alternates

Player Position Club
Chris Armas M Chicago
Gregg Berhalter D Energie Cottbus
Conor Casey F FSV Mainz
Todd Dunivant D Los Angeles
Chris Klein M Real Salt Lake
Tony Meola GK New York
Pat Noonan M New England
Steve Ralston M New England
Matt Reis GK New England
Chris Rolfe F Chicago
Taylor Twellman F New England
Kerry Zavagnin M Kansas City

Famous past players

Notes

  1. ^ The 1930 World Cup was unique in that there was no Third-Place Match, which was established in 1934 and has remained a staple of every World Cup since. In 1930, the Americans shared third place with Yugoslavia.
  2. ^ There were six British-born players on the 1930 team, all of whom played every minute of the team's three World Cup matches. However, at the time of the 1930 World Cup, the combined experience of those six players in British professional leagues was two games, both by a single player in the English Third Division (equivalent to today's Football League One). Four of the six had come to the United States as teenagers or younger. Three of the six never played professionally in Britain; their pro careers were entirely in North America. In the 1920s, there was a thriving professional league in the United States, and the league survived into the mid-1930s. Two of the six did have significant professional careers in Britain... but not until after 1930. All 16 members of the 1930 World Cup team were living in the United States by 1928. For more details on this issue, see this article.

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