United States men's national soccer team

United States

Shirt badge/Association crest
Nickname(s)	The Stars & Stripes The Red, White and Blue Yanks
Association	United States Soccer Federation
Head coach	Bruce Arena, 1998-
Most caps	Cobi Jones (164)
Top scorer	Eric 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
Appearances	8 (first in 1930)
Best result	Third place, 1930
CONCACAF Gold Cup
Appearances	8 (first in 1991)
Best result	Winners, 1991, 2002, 2005

The United States men's national soccer team is the national soccer team of the United States and is controlled by the United States Soccer Federation.

The United States is a side that enjoyed early competitive success but is only now beginning to regain its international status. 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 accomplished 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

, 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 eventual runner-up Germany 1-0 in the quarterfinals.

For about a decade before the 2002 World Cup, the U.S. men's team existed largely in the shadow of the country's high-profile women's team (a fact that made them an object of derision by fans of other established men's sports like baseball, American football and basketball). While the U.S. men have not totally escaped the women's shadow, they are now receiving more attention from soccer fans at home. 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.

Since its recent successes, the team has been consistently ranked in the top 15 of the FIFA World Rankings; its highest-ever rank was 6th, first obtained in July 2005. 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. Adding to the difficulty, the lucky second qualifier of this group is likely to face first-ranked Brazil in the following round.

World Cup record

• 1930 - Semifinals (no 3rd place match)
• 1934 - Round 1
• 1938 - Withdrew
• 1950 - Round 1
• 1954 to 1986 - Did not qualify
• 1990 - Round 1
• 1994 - Round 2
• 1998 - Round 1
• 2002 - Quarterfinals
• 2006 - Qualified

Gold Cup record

• 1991 - Champions
• 1993 - Second place
• 1996 - Third place
• 1998 - Second place
• 2000 - Quarterfinals
• 2002 - Champions
• 2003 - Third place
• 2005 - Champions

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

Thomas Cahill (1916-1924) George Burford (1924) Nat Agar (1925-26) George Burford (1927-28) Robert Millar (1929-33) David Gould (1934) Bill Lloyd (1937) Andrew Brown (1947) Walter Giesler (1948-49) Bill Jeffrey (1950) John Woods (1952) Erno Schwarz (1953-55) George Meyer (1957) Jim Reed (1959-61) John Herberger (1964) George Meyer (1965) Phil Woosnam (1968)

Gordon Jago (1969) Bob Kehoe (1971-72) Max Wosniak (1973) Eugene Chyzowych (1973) Gordon Bradley (1973) Dettmar Cramer (1974) Al Miller (1975) Manny Schellscheidt (1975) Walter Chyzowych (1976-80) Bob Gansler (1982) Alkis Panagoulias (1983-85) Lothar Osiander (1986-88) Bob Gansler (1989-91) John Kowalski (1991) Bora Milutinovic (1991-95) Steve Sampson (1995-98) Bruce Arena (1998-)

Famous current players

• DaMarcus Beasley
• Carlos Bocanegra
• Conor Casey
• Steve Cherundolo
• Bobby Convey
• Clint Dempsey
• Landon Donovan
• Cory Gibbs
• Tim Howard
• Eddie Johnson
• Kasey Keller
• Eddie Lewis
• Brian McBride
• John O'Brien
• Oguchi Onyewu
• Eddie Pope
• Claudio Reyna
• Taylor Twellman
• Josh Wolff

Famous past players

• Jeff Agoos
• Marcelo Balboa
• Walter Bahr
• Paul Caligiuri
• Rick Davis
• Thomas Dooley
• Brad Friedel
• Joe Gaetjens
• Billy Gonsalves
• John Harkes
• Alexi Lalas
• Tony Meola
• Joe-Max Moore
• Bert Patenaude
• Tab Ramos
• Werner Roth
• Earnie Stewart
• Eric Wynalda

1930 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 American team finished third by Table scoring.
2. ^ There were six British-born players on the 1930 team. 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.

External links

• Official Website
• Archive of U.S. national team results 1885-1979
• Archive of U.S. national team results 1980-