NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
In less than one year, the United States men’s national soccer team will be competing in the World Cup as one of three host nations.
Eleven of the 16 host stadiums are located in the U.S., which will host the quarterfinals, semifinals and final.
The USMNT has not had much success in the World Cup. The squad reached the Round of 16 in 2010 and 2014 but failed to even qualify for the tournament in 2018. It returned to the Round of 16 three years ago but couldn’t get out of the Copa América group stage on home soil last year.
After the 1994 World Cup in North America, soccer’s popularity in the USA skyrocketed, and Major League Soccer was born because of it. Now, 32 years later, former USMNT player Taylor Twellman believes the future of the sport’s popularity in the U.S. rides on what the U.S. team does in next year’s tournament.
Twellman is gearing up for the celebrity golf American Century Championship next month, which he said is a “dream come true.” He said that more and more of his professional athlete friends are “asking way more questions about soccer than there ever was when I was playing,” especially at the famed charity event.
“That itself tells you that, now, there is all of a sudden way more attention, way more awareness, a little more education of what success is and what isn’t and a level of expectation,” Twellman told Fox News Digital in a recent interview.
“If the United States men get to the quarterfinal of this World Cup, you are talking about the real precipice of soccer in the United States of America and in North America becoming really, really, really at the forefront of everyone’s mind.
WITH WORLD CUP EXACTLY 1 YEAR OUT, USMNT LEGENDS SAY PRESSURE IS TURNED UP A NOTCH
“And, often times, it is not talked about — the top four major sports of the country. Yet everyone looks at the numbers and says baseball, NHL. Everyone is kind of sweating a little bit with soccer just around the corner. That is where I think success in this World Cup, that is where I think could really turn the corner is if the men really have a great tournament.”
Twellman added it would be a “massive failure” if the team does not at least make it to the knockout stage. The last time the USA participated in a World Cup and did not advance past the group stage was 2006.
“If they get out of the group, and it is a favorable draw, then we’re probably talking, ‘You got to get to the quarterfinals as a host nation.’ But I think the draw depends on a lot of that,” he said. “So, there is a lot to be said on that. But I do understand the level of urgency. And I would say the anxiety around the U.S. men’s national team is in line with the growth of the sport in the country.”
Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.
Read the full article here
