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133 pages

English

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Americans love to win. But when it comes to soccer, the world's most popular sport, the US women's team has delivered three World Cup victories in as many decades, while the men have not advanced past the quarter-finals in nearly ninety years. In October 2017, the US Men's National Team (USMNT) startled fans by failing to qualify for the upcoming World Cup, an episode that led both USMNT head coach Bruce Arena and US Soccer Federation President Sunil Gulati to step down from their positions, and which launched a new era of reckoning for US Soccer as a whole. As the 2018 World Cup commences with the US sidelined, fans are becoming impatient: What will it take for the USMNT to finally rise to an elite level and bring home the FIFA World Cup Trophy?InA I Believe That We Will Win, veteran soccer journalist Phil West delivers a compelling assessment of the history and future potential of American soccer on the international playing field. With insightful commentary and endless enthusiasm, West examines every aspect of the USMNT and their competition, detailing how the US returned to the World Cup in 1990 after forty years without qualifying, delving into the growing symbiotic relationship between the USMNT and Major League Soccer, and exploring how the US is cultivating young talent through MLS academies and the US Development Academy-and how Latino outreach initiatives, like the Sueno Alianza competition that brought Jonathan Gonzalez to prominence, can be better integrated into US Soccer's quest for talented players. Along the way, West touches on the controversial tenure of former coach Jurgen Klinsmann, the role of dual-national players, Christian Pulisic and the new wave of American players playing abroad, and other issues that have engaged American soccer fans in spirited debate. Punctuated with dozens of revealing interviews from players, coaches, and journalists,A I Believe That We Will WinA is both the definitive history of American World Cup play and an incisive and inspiring analysis of America's potential to win big in the near future.

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Publié par	ABRAMS BOOKS
Date de parution	08 mai 2018
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781468315202
Langue	English

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I BELIEVE THAT WE WILL WIN
THE PATH TO A US MEN S WORLD CUP VICTORY
PHIL WEST
With 11 color photographs
A mericans love to win. But when it comes to soccer, the world s most popular sport, the US women s team has delivered three World Cup victories in as many decades, while the men have not advanced past the quarterfinals in nearly ninety years. In October 2017, the US men s National Team (USMNT) startled fans by failing to qualify for the upcoming World Cup, an episode that led both the USMNT head coach and US Soccer Federation President to step down from their positions and which launched a new era of reckoning for US Soccer as a whole. As the 2018 World Cup begins with the US sidelined, fans are becoming impatient: What will it take for the USMNT to finally rise to an elite level and bring home the FIFA World Cup Trophy?
In I Believe That We Will Win , veteran soccer journalist Phil West delivers a compelling assessment of the history and future potential of American soccer on the international playing field. With insightful commentary and endless enthusiasm, West examines every aspect of the USMNT and their competition, detailing how the US returned to the World Cup in 1990 after forty years, delving into the growing symbiotic relationship between the USMNT and Major League Soccer, and exploring how the US is cultivating young talent through MLS academies and the US Development Academy-and how Latino outreach initiatives can be better integrated into US soccer s quest for talented players. Along the way, West touches on the controversial tenure of former coach J rgen Klinsmann, the role of dual-national players, Christian Pulisic and the new wave of American players playing abroad, and other issues that have engaged American soccer fans in spirited debate.
Punctuated with dozens of revealing interviews from players, coaches, and journalists, I Believe That We Will Win is both the definitive history of American World Cup play and an incisive and inspiring analysis of America s potential to win big in the near future.
Copyright
This edition first published in hardcover in the United States in 2018
The Overlook Press, Peter Mayer Publishers, Inc.
N EW Y ORK
141 Wooster Street
New York, NY 10012
www.overlookpress.com
For bulk and special sales, please contact sales@overlookny.com , or write us at the above address.
Copyright 2018 by Phil West
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a review written for inclusion in a magazine, newspaper, or broadcast.
ISBN 978-1-4683-1520-2
To Emmeline, Lucas, and Noah, my first and foremost hopes for the future
CONTENTS
COPYRIGHT
DEDICATION
Introduction: How American Soccer Got Its Own Day of Infamy
Chapter 1: How Americans Became Worthy of the World Stage
Chapter 2: Klinsmann and the Dual National Debate
Chapter 3: How MLS Was Created, Saved, and Nurtured to Respectability
Chapter 4: MLS Academies: The New Tip of the Spear
Chapter 5: Beyond Bradenton: The Development Academy Reinvents Itself
Chapter 6: Bienvenido al Futuro : On Finding and Developing Latino Players
Chapter 7: The U-20s and the U-23s: First Team Players-In-Waiting
Chapter 8: Americans Abroad: When Young Players Choose Clubs in Other Countries
Chapter 9: Home-Field Advantage (and How to Create Soccer-Specific Support in American Football Stadiums)
Chapter 10: How the Rest of the World Will Weigh in on America s World Cup Aspirations, and How We Might Respond
WORLD CUP HOSTS, WINNERS, AND RUNNERS-UP
SOURCES
INTERVIEW LIST
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
INDEX
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
INTRODUCTION
HOW AMERICAN SOCCER GOT ITS OWN DAY OF INFAMY
A MERICAN SOCCER FANS WOKE UP ON O CTOBER 10, 2017, FEELING CONFIDENT and expecting to clinch an eighth straight trip to a World Cup. They went to bed that night reeling from what will go down in the annals of American soccer as a Day of Infamy.
It hadn t been an easy qualifying campaign, as opening November 2016 losses to Mexico and Costa Rica left the Americans in very real danger of missing out on the global tournament for the first time since 1986. In the ten months that followed, the United States Men s National Team (USMNT) won and drew enough to stay in contention, though they reaped two unfortunate outcomes in September 2017-a 2-0 loss in New Jersey s Red Bull Arena to Costa Rica, followed by a 1-1 draw in Honduras. This left the US fourth in the six-team competition to determine which three teams would automatically advance to the 2018 FIFA World Cup to represent CONCACAF (Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football), the federation of forty soccer-playing nations founded in 1961. 1 With only the Mexican team clinching a CONCACAF berth by September, the two international dates in October would determine who else would go on to the Russia-hosted World Cup and who would stay home.
In their penultimate qualifying match, against Panama in Orlando, the US won 4-0 and looked every part the cohesive team that could go deep into a World Cup, let alone qualify for one. The team then traveled to Trinidad Tobago for the final qualifying match, playing before a mere 1,500 fans (including a small-but-spirited contingent of Americans) in the 10,000-seat Ato Boldon Stadium in Couva.
A win over Trinidad Tobago, most everyone s expected outcome, would send the USMNT on to Russia. Even a draw would suffice-in part because the US had padded its goal differential with the Panama win and by overwhelming Honduras 6-0 earlier in the campaign. Even a loss , in almost every configuration, would have allowed the Americans a pathway to at least the November home-and-away playoff against Australia, the Asian Football Confederation s fifth-place team.
ESPN s SPI (Soccer Power Index), defined by the sports media giant as an international and club rating system designed to be the best possible representation of a team s current overall skill level, 2 gave the US a 93 percent chance of advancing to the World Cup going into the final days of qualifying, compared to 41 percent for Panama and 11 percent for Honduras. USMNT is in great shape, ESPN s Paul Carr cheerfully observed on Twitter alongside an image showing the figures, but still with a bit of work to do. 3
The stray 7 percent chance of not qualifying was bound up in an unlikely but still possible scenario: Panama beating Costa Rica and Honduras beating Mexico, coupled with a US loss against Trinidad Tobago. (Given the latter two teams relative strengths, that outcome would be considered more a collapse than a loss.)
The first domino fell relatively early-and, unexpectedly, in Couva. In the seventeenth minute, USMNT defender Omar Gonzalez attempted to clear a cross-presumably over his team s goal line-but it looped sickeningly upward, in a parabola that arced over goalkeeper Tim Howard and behind him for an own goal. Twenty minutes later, Trinidadian right-back Alvin Jones sent a speculative shot from nearly thirty yards out, and it swerved and arced past Howard to double the lead.
Then, the rest of the awful equation began to lock into place.
Honduras came back from a 2-1 deficit in its game, outlasting Mexico 3-2. Honduras s goals came from Alberth Elis and Romell Quioto, who are key offensive players for the Houston Dynamo (of Major League Soccer (MLS), the United States and Canada s top-tier soccer league), as well as from a bizarre own-goal sequence in which a Honduras shot caromed off the crossbar, hit Mexican goalkeeper Memo Ochoa s head, and bounced in.
The Panama/Costa Rica match provided even more drama. Panama s equalizing fifty-third-minute goal came on a corner kick in which veteran striker (and notorious agitator) Blas P rez, formerly of MLS s FC Dallas, fell near the ball and nudged it with his shoulder (or, illegally, his arm) toward goal. Replays clearly showed that the ball never crossed the line, but the goal was controversially counted all the same.
These matches played out simultaneously; by the time Panama had equalized in its match, the US had just crawled halfway back from its unexpected 2-0 first half deficit with a forty-seventh-minute goal by Christian Pulisic. A second US goal bringing the match to a tie would automatically send the team to the World Cup even if Panama scored five more times.
But if the US didn t score again, Panama could fulfill its own World Cup dreams with just a single goal. In the eighty-eighth minute, Panamanian defender and MLS player Rom n Torres scored, and in the ensuing moments, the sick, sinking realization of defeat descended like a fog over the American fans in Couva and across the US, as the end of regular time gave way to five futile and fruitless stoppage-time minutes.
Ten months after leading his Seattle Sounders FC to its first MLS Cup win, Torres had lifted Panama into its first World Cup appearance, taking the third and final automatic qualifier s spot. Honduras, by virtue of its win, secured fourth place and an intercontinental playoff date with Australia it would eventually end up losing. The US wouldn t even get that opportunity; it was definitively and shockingly locked out of the World Cup for at least the next five years.
In Couva, there were previously unfathomable scenes of American players silently imploding under the weight of the loss. There would be terse statements to come in post-game interviews, owning the failure, registering the disappointment, but in the moments following the final whistle, there was just staggering, weighty disbelief and heartbreak. Pulisic cut the most striking figure of all, crouched on the field, one hand extended in front