NEWYou can now listen to PK Press Club articles!
In less than a year, the United States male football national team will participate in the World Cup as one of the three host nations.
Eleven of the 16 host stadiums are located in the United States, which welcome the quarter-finals, the semi-finals and the final.
The USMNT was not very successful in the World Cup. The team reached the final of 16 in 2010 and 2014, but has not even managed to qualify for the tournament in 2018. He returned to 16 years ago three years ago, but was unable to get out of the Group phase of the American COPA on home last year.
After the 1994 World Cup in North America, the popularity of football in the United States has skyrocketed and Major League Soccer was born because of this. Now, 32 years later, the former USMNT player Taylor Twellman believes the future of the popularity of sport in the United States on what the American team does in the tournament next year.
CLICK HERE for more sports cover on Foxnews.com
The United States striker Taylor Twellman (20), the ball in front of the defender of El Salvador Julio Martinez (13 in the second period during group B competition during the Concacaf Gold Cup 2007 at the Gillette Stadium. (David Butler II / USA TODAY SPORTS)
Twellman is preparing for the Celebrity Golf American Century Championship next month, which, according to him, is a “dream come true”. He said that more and more of his professional athlete friends “ask many more questions about football than ever when I played”, especially during the famous charitable event.
“It himself tells you that, now there is suddenly much more attention, much more conscience, a little more education of what success and what is not and a level of waiting,” Twellman told PK Press Club Digital in a recent interview.
“If American men arrive in the quarter-finals of this World Cup, you are talking about the real precipice of football in the United States of America and North America, really, really, really, at the forefront of everyone’s mind.
Television commentator Taylor Twellman before a match between the New York Red Bulls and DC United in Red Bull Arena. (Mark Smith / USA TODAY SPORTS)
With the World Cup exactly 1 year, the USMNT legends say that the pressure is revealed from a notch
“And, often, we are not talking about – the four major major sports in the country. However, everyone looks at the figures and says baseball, in the NHL. Everyone is sweating a little with football just at the corner of the street. This is where I think that success in this World Cup, that’s where I really think that men really have a big tournament.”
Twellman added that it would be a “massive failure” if the team would not succeed at least at the direct elimination stadium. The last time the United States participated in a World Cup and did not progress beyond the group phase, it was 2006.
Eleven of the 16 host stadiums of the next year tournament, which begins on June 11, 2026, are in the United States. (Fox Sports)
“If they leave the group and it is a favorable draw, then we are probably talking about:” You must arrive in the quarter -finals as a host nation. “But I think the draw depends on a large part of this,” he said. “So there is a lot to say about it. But I understand the level of emergency. And I would say that anxiety around the American national male team is in accordance with the growth of sport in the country.”
