Pressure builds for USMNT ahead of World Cup : NPR
Christian Pulisic (center) warms up with other members of the United States men’s national soccer team on Friday at the Atlanta United training center in Marietta, Georgia. The U.S. team is preparing for two key matches ahead of the World Cup in Atlanta against Belgium on Saturday and Portugal on Tuesday.
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ATLANTA — With just over two months until the FIFA World Cup and two blockbuster international friendlies for the United States men’s national team in the coming days, the pressure has arrived.
Even as players try to avoid it — logging off social media, putting down their phones and focusing on their training and process — some of the team’s biggest names acknowledged it this week.
“Hosting a World Cup at home comes with pressure,” midfielder Weston McKennie told reporters on Friday. Next to him sat striker Christian Pulisic, the biggest star in American football.
“There is pressure. I feel it. Yes, it’s there,” Pulisic said. “But there’s nothing I can’t handle. I’m going to tackle it head on. We’re a team. I don’t have to do it alone. That’s the beauty of it.”
This month’s friendlies against top European competition will put Team USA face-to-face with real World Cup contenders to see how they stack up. The first match will take place on Saturday against Belgium, ranked No. 9 in the world, followed by a match on Tuesday against Portugal, No. 5. Both games will take place at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
Optimism around the team has started to grow again after a disappointing 2024. Then, in an unbeaten run that began last September, the United States beat Japan, Australia, Paraguay and Uruguay and drew Ecuador – a promising run of results against five teams who will all play in the World Cup.
U.S. Soccer head coach Mauricio Pochettino watches his team practice Friday at Atlanta United’s training center in Marietta, Georgia. Pochettino will choose his roster for the World Cup in May. “It’s going to be difficult to select the right players for the final roster. It’s a big, big job. I’m suffering two months early,” he said.
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Now the team is ready to take on a bigger challenge, says head coach Mauricio Pochettino. “We decided to bring this type of opponent because we wanted to play against good teams, teams that can show our reality,” he told reporters on Friday.
One or three victories against a quality Belgian or Portuguese team will be necessary for the United States to qualify for the round of 16 of the tournament. (Belgium, in fact, is a possible opponent for the United States in the early rounds of the knockout stage this summer.)
Together, Saturday and Tuesday’s games will show the team and its fans how much optimism to keep for the summer when the United States co-hosts the World Cup with Canada and Mexico.
“These friendlies are not friendlies,” midfielder Cristian Roldan told reporters this week. “So this is our chance to show what we can do, who we can compete against.”
It is also the last opportunity for players to make an impression on Pochettino in the hope of being selected for the World Cup squad, which will be revealed at the end of May. That increased the intensity of training camp this week, Pulisic said.
“All the guys are staking their claim. Everyone wants to be on the list. Everyone wants to prove it,” Pulisic said. “Great opportunity with these two matches. Feel the energy in the team, it’s getting more serious.
Some of the decisions Pochettino faces are easy. Pulisic and McKennie, for example, are locks barring injury. It will be more difficult to know if other young players who have made a difference over the past year, such as Diego Luna, Gio Reyna and Sebastian Berhalter, will make the team.
Weston McKennie chases the ball during a warm-up drill Friday before an international match Saturday between the USMNT and Belgium in Atlanta.
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“It’s going to be difficult to select the right players for the final roster. It’s a big, big job. I’m suffering two months early,” Pochettino said.
This summer will mark the first time since 1994 that World Cup matches will be held in the United States. This World Cup spurred the growth of the sport in the United States. More than three decades later, the United States can boast thriving professional soccer leagues, regularly televised soccer matches, and millions more fans.
Yet soccer lags behind American football and other sports in popularity in the United States. The opportunity to change that is not lost on anyone in American soccer.
The deepest run the United States has made in the modern era of the World Cup was the 2002 quarterfinals, which required upset victories over Portugal and Mexico, then two top-ten teams.
Achieving this result is a reasonable goal. Reaching the semifinals – or, fingers crossed, beyond – could create an essential memory for millions of young soccer players and fans in the United States, propelling the sport into a new stratosphere for the next generation.
“There is going to be a lot of pressure at the World Cup. We are obviously hosting it. We are in good shape. There are a lot of expectations in our dressing room,” said Roldan, who plays for the Seattle Sounders. “With the pressure on, we have a huge responsibility to show up and create these lasting memories for the next generation.”
