The United States made it to the semi-finals of the very first World Cup in 1930. We have been slightly less successful at international soccer since then. In 1990, the US qualified for the World Cup for the first time in 40 years and every year since then, American soccer looked like it was on the rise and we were bound to become a soccer powerhouse eventually.
Until 2018, when the US suffered its greatest soccer embarrassment ever by losing to Trinidad and TobagoFun Fact: Trinidad and Tobago has a smaller GDP than Peoria, Illinois. We still fucking lost to them! and failing to qualify. After that disaster, the team started over with a new generation of youngsters.
The new generation was the most promising the US has ever had. The prophecy that the US would someday become good at soccer looked like it was finally coming true. For the first time ever, almost all our players were playing in top European leagues. We had guys starting at legendary clubs like Barcelona, Juventus, Chelsea, and Dortmund. Best of all, they were all super young. Most of our best players were barely in their 20s. 2022 was the welcome party but everyone knew 2026 would be the real opportunity. All of our guys would be in their primes. If they're making waves in major European teams now, imagine where we'll be in 4 years!
The Plan
I'm going to break down our roster, who the exciting players are that you should know about, and how good they are now relative to how hyped they were.
We're going to use the most rigorous and scientific method for evaluating how good players are: FIFA ratingsFun Fact: EA Sports lost the rights to call the game FIFA! Starting with the 2024 edition, the game is now called EA Sports FC. Catchy!.
"But Luis," you might be saying. "It's idiotic to use FIFA ratings seriously to evaluate players."
Shut up. It's a decent proxy for the consensus evaluation of a player. We're going to be comparing their Potential Overall ratings to their actual Overall ratings. Potential is basically the max rating a player can get in manager mode in FIFAFun Fact: Humans age! When players get older, their Potential ossifies and becomes the same as their actual Overall.. It represents how good the game thinks they can become. For us, it serves as a hype index. If a player had really high Potential in 2022 but now they have low Potential, it shows that they were hyped but expectations have crashed back down to earth.
If you don't know much about FIFA, here's a rough breakoutIf you actually know a lot about soccer, some of what I'm saying in this article might sound overly simplistic. You're right! I'm trying to simplify things for casuals. of how FIFA ratings translate to player quality:
- 60–70: This guy is not very good
- 70–75: This guy is decent but nothing to write home about
- 75–80: This is a solid starter at a low-mid tier team but wouldn't make the cut on a great team
- 80–85: This dude is pretty good but not good enough for a Champions League contender
- 85+: Elite player, starter quality at the best teams in the world
Our Boys
The Stars
Christian Pulisic: Pulisic is the most famous player on the national team. He's known as the LeBron James of Soccer, but that's mostly a reference to his height and skin color. His career has been up and down and is emblematic of much of the roster.
He broke onto the scene at Dortmund as a teenager and was the first American to make serious waves at a prestigious European team at that age. He was sold to Chelsea for $73 million, the most a North American player has ever gone for. He was great during the Covid restart season, becoming the first American to play in (and win) a Champions League final, but due to injuries and middling performance, he fell out of favor and was eventually sold to AC Milan in 2023 for $22 million. This might be hard to understand if you don't follow soccer, but dropping $50 million in value is not usually a great thing.
That said, he's been killing it at AC Milan (this past half-season has been a bit rough for the whole team but until then he was doing great) and has mostly recouped his value. In FIFA terms, he peaked at 89 Potential in FIFA 18 when he was 18 and is now rated at 85 Overall. He's not the next Messi, but he's still a world class player who bounced back from the end of his Chelsea tenure. You'll see him most as a winger, he's likely going to be our top goal scorer.
Weston McKennie: Wes is one of the most liked players on the team by US fans. He's just a fun guy, I love the Harry Potter celebration he does whenever he scores. He started his career with Schalke in Germany before being sold to Juventus for ~$19 million in 2021. Juventus is one of the most historic teams in EuropeFun Fact: Juventus got banned for a cheating scandal! They were caught bribing refs, stripped of their 2005 and 2006 titles, and relegated to the lower division., this was one of the "Holy shit we seriously have an American playing for this team?!?" situations. But pretty much since the day he got there, Juventus has been trying to get rid of him. The recurring pattern is: Juve has super high expectations that they fail to live up to, so they fire their manager and get a new one. The new manager is not high on McKennie and tries to sell him but a deal doesn't materialize. Out of desperation or injuries, he has to start McKennie for a spell. McKennie plays super well, shows that he's one of the best players on the team, and becomes a locked in starter. Despite him playing well, Juventus as a whole doesn't perform well enough, so they fire their manager and hire a new one who doesn't rate McKennie.
This has happened like three or four times now, it's crazy. His potential peaked at 86 in FIFA 20 when he was 20, now he's a 79 Overall. I personally think he's very underrated and should be in the mid-80s.
Sergino Dest: Sergino Dest might be the most important player for our World Cup success. At his best, he's world class. Dest is a dual national who was born and raised in the Netherlands, but his father was American and he chose to play for the US. He's probably good enough to be on the Dutch national team as a backup. Dest is a fullback/winger, it's not clear exactly where he will slot in with our manager Mauricio Pochettino's tactics. Fullbacks are outside defenders, but in modern soccer they tend to play up a lot and be aggressive. With our roster composition, he's likely to play up as an actual winger instead of a fullback.
Dest was the first American to play for Barcelona. He transferred there for around $30 million when he was 19. This was another one of those "Wow an American is playing at one of the best teams in Europe and he is only a teenager!" moments.
Haters will say that that Barcelona team was a complete dumpster fire. Haters will say that their finances were a disaster (they had around $1.5 billion in debt) and they had to let all their good players leave and were forced to start whoever was available. Haters will say that he was not actually very good there and that Barca replaced him as soon as they could afford to.
The haters are right, but still. We had an American at Barcelona playing with Messi and an American at Juventus playing with Cristiano Ronaldo at the same time. It was surreal. Dest had a failed loan stint at AC Milan and eventually signed with PSV in the Netherlands on a free transfer. He tore his ACL in 2024 and things looked really bad for him, but he turned it around and became one of the best players in the Netherlands. PSV has been on a ridiculous tear, looking completely dominant as they won 3 straight titles.
To put it in college football terms, PSV is like being the best team outside the Power 4. They're great, but they're definitely not on par with the big boys. With his performance there, he'd probably have transferred by now to a top team in the top 5 leagues, but injuries have derailed his momentum. His peak Potential was 86 in FIFA 21, now he's a 79 Overall but still has 83 Potential. It's pretty likely that he transfers to a bigger European team in the next year or two. A great World Cup performance could move the needle on that.
Antonee 'Jedi' Robinson: Jedi Robinson is nicknamed Jedi because he liked Star Wars as a kid. He plays at Fulham and was arguably the best left back in the world during the 2024-25 season until he got injured. He scored this insane goal in the sendoff friendly against Germany and then did a backflip to celebrate. Just watch that clip, it shows everything you need to know about him.
He's probably the only guy on the roster who has actually exceeded expectations while playing in Europe. His peak Potential was 82 in FIFA 21 and now he's an 81 Overall.
Tyler Adams: Adams was the captain for the US in the last world cup. He's the only good defensive midfielder on the roster, so if he goes down, we're in trouble. Adams was part of the Leeds disaster but he has turned it around. He's a crucial piece at Bournemouth, which just had their best-ever finish in the Premier League in 6th place. He peaked at 86 Potential in FIFA 20 and is now at a 79 Overall with 81 Potential. If he stays healthy, he'll keep trending upwards.
As a quick aside, let's talk about what happened at Leeds. Leeds United was on the brink of relegation in 2022 when they hired American manager Jesse Marsch, who managed to keep them in the top flight. The next season, Leeds spent $30 million to buy Brenden Aaronson, $25 million to buy Tyler Adams, and landed Weston McKennie on a loan halfway through the season with a $35 million option to purchase if things went well. The 49ers ownership group was in the process of acquiring the team and Leeds USA was going to dominate the Premier League.
After only 4 wins in 20 matches, Marsch was fired. Adams was playing very well before a hamstring injury made him miss the rest of the season. Aaronson could not get it going and scored one goal all year. Marsch was fired one week after McKennie joined the team and the new coach did not like him. It didn't help that Wes was out of shape and struggling with match fitness. Leeds went through 3 more coaches that season but shockingly that didn't lead to positive results. They were relegated and all 3 Americans left after the season, although Aaronson eventually came back after his loan and ended up winning fans over.
Folarin Balogun: Folarin Balogun was eligible to play for England, but his last name has the word "gun" in it so he chose to play for the US instead. He started his career with Arsenal but couldn't crack their roster as a young gun and was loaned out twice before being sold to Monaco (one of the better teams in France) in 2023. In his first start at Monaco, he missed two penalties in a 1-0 loss. If you don't know much about soccer, that's not very good. Fortunately, he managed to turn it around (hey, do you see a recurring theme here?) and has become one of their best players. He was voted their Player of the Season this year by fans and was the fourth leading goalscorer in France.
He plays striker, which was a major position of need for us, and landing him as a dual nat was a major coup. It's looking like Balogun is likely going to peak at "pretty great but not world class", which on paper makes him the best striker in American history. We'll see how he does at the cup. In FIFA terms, his peak Potential was 86 in FIFA 24 and he currently has a 79 Overall with an 83 Potential.
Tim Weah: Tim Weah is soccer royalty. And also royalty royalty. His dad, George Weah, is an all-time great who won the Ballon d'Or (basically the soccer MVP award) in 1995 and also was the President of LiberiaImagine being President of a country and your own son doesn't even choose to play for that country lmao. He won the French league with Lille in 2021 and was sold to Juventus in 2023, which was super exciting since Juventus is one of the most historic teams in Europe. Unfortunately, he couldn't quite perform and got loaned out to Marseille. His peak Potential was 88 in FIFA 19 and he's currently at a 77 Overall with 78 Potential. He hasn't been as great as people hoped, but he's a solid player who can be a difference maker when he plays well.
Gio Reyna: These days, it's a stretch to call Gio Reyna a star. His last four years have been a bigger disaster than four years with [choose a President that you personally dislike] in office.
Gio started his career at Dortmund in 2020. He was starting and playing well for the second best team in Germany as a 17 year old. They gave him the number 7 jersey. He was the youngest player ever to make 50 Bundesliga appearances. He was valued around $50 million and it looked like he might become America's first true phenom. Then everything fell apart.
In the leadup to the 2022 World Cup, he had a string of injuries that kept him from playing consistently. He still played well when he saw the field, but he couldn't stay healthy. He also had major attitude issues, putting in minimal effort in training and visibly pouting in games when teammates didn't pass him the ball. US manager Gregg Berhalter chose not to name Gio a starter. Naturally, Gio dealt with that by whining to his dad.
Gio's dad, Claudio Reyna, played on the national team alongside Gregg Berhalter. The two families were extremely close. Claudio was the best man at Berhalter's wedding. Their wives were roommates in college. When Berhalter didn't make Gio a starter, Claudio tried to get him fired by telling the federation that when they were in college, Berhalter kickedA likely thing for a soccer player to do his then-girlfriend (now wife). Given that it happened more than 25 years prior and the two of them had since gotten married, the federation decided that it wasn't worth firing the coach in the middle of the World Cup over this. But it leaked and dominated the news coverage for the 2022 World Cup, absolutely ruining the vibes.
The next few years didn't go any better for Gio. He ended up in a super sub role at Dortmund before being loaned to Nottingham Forest. Forest were one of the worst teams in the Premier League but he could still barely get playing time, so he went back to Dortmund, where he continued to barely get playing time. They sold him to Borussia Mönchengladbach for around $5 million, but he's had recurring injuries and has barely been able to get playing time.
He's only 23 and there's plenty of reason to hope that he can re-establish his career, but he's been the biggest letdown on the roster. He peaked at 87 Potential in FIFA 21 and is now at a 73 Overall with 78 Potential. It was doubtful whether he'd even be called up for the World Cup, but when he plays for the national team, he brings a spark that can get us wins.
The Rest
Forwards
Ricardo Pepi is a dual nat who could have played for Mexico. He plays with Dest at PSV as the starting striker (after being a dominant super sub for a couple of years). Balogun is the better player at the moment, but Pepi might surpass him someday. He's only 23 and has a 76 Overall in FIFA, but is currently at his peak Potential with an 84.
Haji Wright plays at Coventry and was crucial in getting them promoted to the Premier League this season. He's fairly mid but can be a scoring threat off the bench, like in 2022 when he scored against the Netherlands. Alejandro Zendejas plays for Club America in Mexico. He was probably the last man on the plane at this World Cup and I'm hoping he doesn't see the field.
Midfield
Malik Tillman was at PSV with Dest and Pepi until he went to Bayer Leverkusen this year for around $40 million. He was arguably the best player in the Dutch league before the move. He's had great moments in the Bundesliga but his form hasn't been consistent. He had 87 Potential at the start of this season (down to 84 after the mid-season adjustment) and a 79 Overall. The rumor is that he's hoping a good showing at the World Cup can get him a move to the Premier League.
Brenden Aaronson is the last man standing at Leeds after that disaster. He was loaned out after they were relegated, but returned and helped them win promotion back to the Premier League (and stay up the following season). He's firmly pretty good and it seems unlikely that he will suddenly become elite. He peaked at 82 Potential in 2024 and is at 76 Overall now. His little brother Paxten was hyped even more than Brenden by fans, but he's also struggled and has near identical FIFA stats. He couldn't cut it at Eintracht Frankfurt despite 2 loans, so they sold him to the Colorado Rapids.
Sebastian Berhalter is our old coach Gregg Berhalter's son. It's funny because when there were rumors that Gregg would call him up for the national team, everyone was calling it a nepo hire. But then as soon as Gregg was fired, the new coach called up Sebastian. He's an MLS lifer who has never been particularly hyped, but is having a solid mid-career bloom. Cristian Roldan is another MLS lifer who ideally won't see the pitch.
Defense
Chris Richards is a stud CB. He was a bench player at Bayern Munich before transferring to Crystal Palace in the Premier League. There have been ups and downs over the years but he was a locked in starter this season. He had a bad ankle sprain back in May and hasn't played since then, so Pochettino has been cagey about whether or not he'll start. If he's ready to play, he's by far our best CB. He hasn't quite reached the height that people hoped for when he was at Bayern (84 Potential in FIFA 22), but he's a solid player (79 Overall and 81 Potential currently).
Old man Tim Ream was named team captain for this World Cup. He played at Fulham for a decade before coming back to MLS in 2024. He was a bang-average player for a long time until he reached his 30s and became a world class defender. Pep Guardiola, the manager at Manchester City, once came up to him after a match and said "If you were 24 instead of 34, you'd be playing for me." Everyone assumed 2022 would be his last World Cup, since it was inevitable that he would drop off by now. And he has dropped off, but our CB depth is very bad and he's still our second best CB at 38. Because of his weird timeline, he's never been rated that highly in FIFA, hovering in the low 70s with no additional Potential due to his age.
Alex Freeman is the son of former Packers Pro Bowl WR Antonio Freeman. Freeman transferred from Orlando to Villarreal in January and has worked his way to be a borderline starter at the third place team in La Liga. He embodies where the entire USMNT team was at in the 2022 World Cup. He's only 21 and looking like he might be a meaningful contributor at a good European team, but he hasn't proven himself yet. We just have to hope his career looks more like Jedi Robinson than Gio Reyna. He made a huge jump in FIFA going from 65 Overall at the start of the year to 73 now and his 81 Potential is at its peak.
Personally, I think Joe Scally should be the starter at RB with Freeman as his backup, but for some reason Scally doesn't get the recognition he deserves. Scally is a consistent starter at Gladbach and this year became the youngest non-German ever to reach 150 Bundesliga appearances. He's only 23 but is widely treated as an afterthought by USMNT fans, which doesn't make sense to me. The good news is that this shows how far the national team has come. We can look at a guy who is a constant performer for a solid German team and keep him on the bench. A decade or two ago he would have been an undisputed star. His rating agrees with the fan consensus. He peaked at 82 Potential in FIFA 23 when he was 19, now he has 75 Overall with 78 Potential.
Miles Robinson might be why we lose the World Cup. This dude sucks for the national team, he was responsible for 3 of the goals that were scored on us in our 2 warm up friendly matches. If Richards or Ream go down, he's the next man up at CB and I don't think that will go well. He's down from 80 Potential in FIFA 23 to 74 Potential now at 73 Overall.
Mark McKenzie is the next CB option and I'd much rather see him on the field than Robinson. He's a regular starter for Toulouse in France. He was decently hyped a few years ago when he played in Belgium (82 Potential in FIFA 22), but seems bound to stay in the "decent but not great" tier (74 Overall/77 Potential currently).
Auston Trusty had some hype when he signed with Arsenal, but it's clear now he was never going to cut it at that level. He plays for Celtic and is very much just a guy. Max Arfsten is another MLS lifer and it's a bit of a surprise that he made the national team.
The Snubs
Johnny Cardoso is going to miss the World Cup because he suffered a high ankle sprain in May. It really sucks because as a Brazilian-AmericanI'm a Brazilian immigrant who is a naturalized US citizen, but I think the US team is more fun to follow. It's more exciting to see if our boys can break out on the global stage than to cheer for players everyone already knows are good. Plus I'm not some dirty commie so I bleed red white and blue., he's one of my favorite players on the USMNT. He's a Brazilian/American dual nat who couldn't even speak English when he declared for the US. When injuries aren't holding him back, he's been killing it at Atletico Madrid (one of the best clubs in Spain). This year he had 87 Potential with 81 Overall. If he can stay healthy, he has a chance to be the best American player in Europe.
Yunus Musah has probably had the most disappointing 4 years behind Gio Reyna. Landing him before the 2022 World Cup was a huge coup for the team because he was also eligible for England, Italy, and Ghana and being actively recruited by all of them. He joined Valencia in 2020 and was a regular contributor for them at 17. He was one of the best young players in the 2022 World Cup and transferred to AC Milan for around $20 million. Since then, things have not gone well. He lost his starting spot and was loaned to Atalanta, where he also could not get playing time. FIFA thinks he has a chance to bounce back as his Potential is still at 81 down from 83 in FIFA 21.
Gianluca Busio is the captain at Venezia in Italy. Since he's been there, they've been relegated then promoted then relegated again then promoted again. I think he's a very good player but he needs to join a team where he can stay in the top flight consistently. FIFA agrees that he can still develop, he currently has 81 Potential (down from 86 in FIFA 23 when he was 20) despite his 74 Overall.
Tanner Tessmann was Busio's teammate at Venezia before transferring to Lyon in 2024. He's been a solid player over there but had an injury in May which took him out for the rest of the season. He's supposedly healthy now and could play, but Pochettino chose not to call him up as a result. He's 24 and at his peak FIFA Potential of 82 with a 76 Overall.
Diego Luna is the biggest real "snub" who was left off the roster. I personally don't rate him, but he'd been called up to the national team consistently over the past couple of years and always gave his all for the team. In a 2025 friendly, he broke his nose and got it set on the sideline so that he could go back in. He earned a spot on the team over Zendejas. For some inexplicable reason, despite knowing he wasn't a lock to make the team, Nike chose to make him the face of their World Cup campaign.
Our Goalkeepers Suck
You might have noticed that I haven't mentioned any of our goalies so far. That's because they are terrible. At the time of writing this, Matt Freese is the likely starter. He's an MLS liferFun Fact: He went to Harvard! who is at his best just kind of ok. The only reason he's the starter is because all of our previously hyped keepers have flamed out.
The other option is Matt Turner, who is probably the better keeper but has a history of embarrassing gaffes leading to goals. He was our starter for the 2022 World Cup. At the time, he was the backup at Arsenal, so there was a lot of hope that he could become an elite player. Arsenal decided he would never be good enough to start for them, so they sold him to Nottingham Forest. He couldn't keep his starting job there and was loaned to Crystal Palace, where he also couldn't make it as a starter. He was eventually sold to Lyon, which immediately loaned him out to the New England Revolution in the MLS. He's been doing a pretty great job there and Matt Freese has been pretty bad in recent friendlies, so there is a chance Turner ends up as the starter.
Our third keeper is Chris Brady from the Chicago Fire. He's 22, but keepers tend to be late bloomers so there is a chance he breaks out and is our starter at the next World Cup. FIFA has him at a 69 Overall with 80 Potential, which fairly reflects his current level as well as the hope that he might develop.
Our other hopes at keeper have been disasters. Gaga Slonina was the youngest starting keeper in MLS history at 17 and was purchased by Chelsea at 18 for $10 million. He had two failed loans and has ridden the bench as the third string at Chelsea for a year and a half with no competitive minutes. It's not necessarily over for him, but he would likely have been better off staying in MLS until he was ready. FIFA has him at 68 Overall but still gives him 80 Potential, only down 1 point from his peak.
Zack Steffen was the backup at Manchester City and had a very similar trajectory to Matt Turner. The former starter for the national team, he had two failed loans and some high profile mistakes when he did get playing time for City. They eventually shipped him back to MLS. He's at a 71 Overall, which compared to his peak Potential of 84 indicates just how rough it has been.
Ethan Horvath is the same story as Steffen and Turner. He was the starter for Club Brugge during their Champions League campaign in 2018, but they signed a better keeper and eventually he left for Nottingham Forest. For some reason, he chose to go there on a free transfer despite them already having a locked in starter. He's now playing for Red Bull in MLS after a few loan stints and an unsuccessful transfer to Cardiff. He peaked at 82 Potential in FIFA 17 and is now down to 69 Overall. At least we'll always have his save against Mexico.
What Happened to These Guys?
Here's a few dudes who we hoped would be relevant but have completely crashed out.
Matthew Hoppe was only 19 years old and a no-name backup at Schalke 04 when he scored a hat trick against Hoffenheim. Schalke was having a disastrous season and was on a 30 game winless streak, but after that game Hoppe seemed like their one saving grace. They sold him to Mallorca for around $5 million after that season but he only made 7 appearances for them before transferring to Middlesbrough. He couldn't crack the squad there and after a failed MLS loan, he's now playing in Denmark. He's down at a 64 Overall from his 81 peak Potential.
Owen Otasowie was a promising young player at Wolverhampton with a 77 Potential in FIFA 22. He transferred to Club Brugge for around $5 million, then just stopped showing up halfway through the year. Brugge stopped paying him after he went missing without notice several times and he quit soccer to focus on modeling and starting a fashion brand.
Konrad de la Fuente was in Barcelona's academy, which obviously meant he was going to be the next Messi. He was the first American to come up through Barcelona's academy and was extremely hyped. He peaked at an 83 Potential in FIFA 22 and is now languishing in the Spanish second division with a 66 Overall.
James Sands and Paxton Pomykal both had an 86 Potential in FIFA 20, but neither has come particularly close to that level. We can blame that on FIFA looking for American teenagers they could give high potentials to. Pomykal has been at FC Dallas his whole career while Sands had loans to Rangers and St. Pauli but was never purchased by a European team and is still owned by NYCFC.
The Verdict
When the 2022 World Cup kicked off, there were 23 players younger than 23 with 80+ FIFA Potential, but only 11 of them made our roster for 2026. Twelve players were at some point given a Potential over 85, but only Pulisic ever reached that level. The hope was that we'd at least have a few more players at his level by now, but he's still the only one who can honestly be called a top player in Europeand even calling him that is a stretch when he's having a down season. The most frequent issue is injuries derailing otherwise promising careers.
Does this mean you shouldn't be excited about our boys at the World Cup? Absolutely not.
On paper, this is the best team America has ever had. The consistent theme is that most of our guys are great, even if they're not quite as great as we'd hoped they'd be. This team is more than talented enough to win its group and the first knockout match. After that point, we only need a few lucky matches to be world champions. I'm hoping we meet England in the semisFun Fact: The US has never lost to England at the World Cup!.