Bullet point summary by AI
- A U.S. men’s national team squad just missed a historic chance to cement soccer’s growth at home with a shocking loss on Monday night.
- Multiple veteran starters are expected to exit the program after this tournament, opening the door for younger talent.
- The next World Cup cycle in 2030 will test whether the federation can build a more consistent contender from within.
The U.S. men’s national team was given a golden opportunity on Monday night, not just to advance to the quarterfinals of the World Cup for just the second time ever but also to firmly entrench soccer as an American sport. Instead, they laid an egg in front of a raucous home crowd in Seattle, with awful mental mistakes leading to multiple goals in a 4-1 loss to Belgium in the round of 16.
It’s not just that the Americans lost; the Red Devils are a quality side. But this was an almost unrecognizable performance, the sort of wilting under the bright lights that should trigger serious questions about this generation of players and the direction of the program moving forward. You can expect some major changes before the World Cup returns to Spain and north Africa in 2030, with several notable names on the way out.
CB Tim Ream
What a remarkable run it’s been for the oldest player on the U.S. roster at 38 years of age. But while we certainly wouldn’t put anything past a player who has defied Father Time before, it feels like this is the end of Ream’s time as the lynchpin at the back for the USMNT. After a decade of yeoman’s work for Fulham in England, he’s now back in MLS with Charlotte, where he’ll likely ride off into the sunset. If the Americans need his services again in 2030 when he’s 42 years old, we’ll have bigger problems.
GK Matt Turner
Turner was the No. 1 choice in net during the 2022 World Cup, but after a puzzling dip in form in England, he lost an open competition to NYCFC’s Matt Freese and was never able to regain his starting spot. Freese wasn’t exactly exceptional during this tournament, but he also wasn’t the liability some feared he would be as the U.S. finds itself with more uncertainty at keeper than it’s experienced in some time.
Turner has found his footing a bit back in MLS with the New England Revolution, but he’ll be 36 by the time the 2020 World Cup rolls around. And even if he does manage to beat out Freese, there are more promising young prospects coming through the pipeline, most notably Barcelona youth product Diego Kochen.
CB Miles Robinson
It’s not a coincidence that the USMNT’s defense completely fell apart when Robinson and Mark McKenzie were asked to serve as the starting center-back duo in a 3-2 loss to Turkiye in the final game of group play. Really, it’s a sign of how thin the Americans have been at this position that he was even selected for the national team in the first place; in reality, he’s an MLS-level player who becomes a liability on the world stage.
Luckily, the presence of Ream and Chris Richards meant that we didn’t have to see him much at all in matches that mattered. Come 2030, he’ll be 33, and hopefully some younger and more compelling alternatives have emerged.
ST Haji Wright
Wright is still just 28 years old, and he’s coming off a strong season for Coventry City in which he bagged 17 goals in 40 appearances and helped earn promotion to the Premier League. That said, early-30s is older than you think in international soccer, especially at the striker position, and Wright has yet to really make the leap many were envisioning a few years ago.
It’s entirely possible that he makes the squad again as a veteran depth piece in 2030 at age 32; speed has never been his game, after all. But he’ll be right on the border, and the U.S. is no doubt hoping that young forwards like Hamburg’s Damion Downs can improve and take these spots moving forward.
MF Sebastian Berhalter
This is less about Berhalter and more about a couple of factors out of his control: 1) his age (he’ll be pushing 30 by the time the 2030 World Cup rolls around) and 2) just how deep the Americans are in midfield, with Tyler Adams, Weston McKennie, Gio Reyna and Malik Tillman not going anywhere. And there are other youngsters coming, like Cole Campbell of Hoffenheim and Parma’s Benjamin Cremaschi. (Not to mention 16-year-old Cavan Sullivan, who’s playing real MLS minutes for a successful team at a preposterously young age.)
Berhalter has done good work as a substitute for this squad in the current cycle, and he had his moments at this World Cup. He’s a limited player, though, and his spot is in jeopardy come 2030.
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