Soccer is Booming in the United States as Men’s World Cup Qualifying Begins September 2nd
It’s been a long and tumultuous road for soccer in the United States. The United States Men’s team failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup. This was a product of another systemic failure in the United States. This was the result of a system that has always been a pay-to-play model, that prioritized profit over talent, like any other industry.
It’s the same story in the music industry, and the film industry, and basically any industry. It isn’t people first. It’s profit first. That’s the era of capitalism we live in. However, they did find a way to fix the product within soccer, while still benefiting. That fix revolves around MLS academies and giving young players opportunity in their home states. As MLS academies popped up across the league and emphasis was placed on homegrown talent, we saw the likes of Weston McKennie emerge from FC Dallas, now plying his trade with Juventus, one of the biggest clubs in the world, and the list goes on and on.
Now, United States Men’s soccer has an opportunity to restore faith back into the sport and show that the United States can compete with the rest of the world. After two summer trophies in the Nation’s League and Gold Cup, the U.S. will be looking for strong outings against El Salvador, Canada, and Honduras. These are three teams that the U.S. should beat. For perspective, the U.S. is now ranked in the top ten globally by FIFA. As you can see from our predicted squad below, the United States has a slew of great talents playing in some of the world’s best leagues. Unfortunately, arguably America’s greatest talent, Christian Pulisic may not be available for the U.S. in these three games after contracting Covid this last week. With this in consideration, as well as uncertain injuries to Daryl Dike and Gyasi Zardes, this is who we expect on the announced roster, though any of those three could potentially still be involved.
GK: Ethan Horvath (Nottingham Forest/ENG; 7/0), Matt Turner (New England Revolution; 7/0), Zack Steffen (Manchester City/ENG; 23/0)
DEF: John Brooks (Wolfsburg/GER; 43/3), Reggie Cannon (Boavista/POR; 22/1), Sergiño Dest (Barcelona/ESP; 11/1), Walker Zimmerman (Nashville SC; 17/2), Chris Richards (Bayern Munich/GER; 3/0), Miles Robinson (Atlanta United; 9/3), Antonee Robinson (Fulham/ENG; 12/0), Kellyn Acosta (Colorado Rapids; 37/2), Tyler Adams (RB Leipzig/GER; 14/1), James Sands (New York City FC; 6/0), Joe Scally (Borussia Moenchengladbach/GER; 0/0)
MID: Sebastian Lletget (LA Galaxy; 29/7), Weston McKennie (Juventus/ITA; 24/7), Yunus Musah (Valencia/ESP; 6/0), Julian Green (Greuther Furth/GER; 15/4)
FWD: Brenden Aaronson (Red Bull Salzburg/AUT; 7/3), Matthew Hoppe (Schalke/GER; 5/1), Gio Reyna (Borussia Dortmund/GER; 8/4), Josh Sargent (Norwich City/ENG; 16/5), Jordan Siebatcheu (Young Boys/SUI; 6/1), Tim Weah (Lille/FRA; 13/1), Konrad de la Fuente (Marseille/FRA; 1/0)