U.S. World Cup title dreams still grounded

Before Carlos Queiroz convinced Sir Alex Ferguson and Manchester United to sign an 18-year-old named Cristiano Ronaldo.

Before he oversaw the “Galacticos” – Zidane, Figo, Roberto Carlos – at Real Madrid,

Before Queirzoz led Iran to three World Cups, he was hired in 1998 by U.S. Soccer, the sport’s national governing body, to evaluate the game in this country and provide a blueprint for Team USA to emerge as a serious contender to win the World Cup in 2010.

What started off as the Q Report would be released as “Project 2010,” a 113-page paper outlining a $50 million development plan designed to result in the U.S. lifting the world’s most prized trophy in 2010.

The report’s cover was a photo of an astronaut planting the U.S. flag on the surface of the Moon with one hand, the World Cup trophy held firm in the other.

“We Can Fly,” read the top of the report’s cover.

“For U.S. Soccer, the equivalent of another Apollo XI lunar landing is on the horizon. Project 2010, as stated by U.S. Soccer, has set a goal of playing host to, and to be in a position to win the World Cup in the year 2010,” Queiroz said. “Project 2010, the boldest challenge yet to the sport in America, has begun.”

A dozen years after Queiroz and U.S. Soccer’s target date, Team USA’s Moon shot still hasn’t reached lift-off.

In the six World Cups between the release of Quieroz’s sequel to “The Right Stuff” and the U.S. surviving a series of late threats from Quieroz’s Iran side for a 1-0 victory at Doha’s Al Thumama Stadium, securing a spot in a second round match with Netherlands, Team USA has finished last, reached the second round three times, advancing to the quarterfinals of a 2002 tournament when many of the European players landed in Asia already exhausted from the demands of their club commitments, and failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup out of CONCACAF–global soccer’s mid-major.

So Tuesday’s win isn’t so much a cause for celebration as it is a reminder of Team USA’s history of World Cup failure and why Quieroz and U.S. Soccer’s flight of fantasy grows more and more ridiculous with each underachieving Mundial.

The U.S. arrived at its first World Cup in eight years with the baggage of two historical and inevitable givens: that U.S. Soccer would step in a controversy most likely of its own making, and that Americans would be greeted by a chorus–or broken record–that this is going to be the World Cup that Team USA finally breaks through at a significant level.

True to form, U.S. Soccer touched off an international firestorm by removing the national emblem and Islamic script from the Iranian flag on the organization’s social media platforms, creating a needless distraction for U.S. players hours before Tuesday’s must-win match with Iran and doing no favors for Iranian players already burdened with concerns about their families and their own safety after reports of threats from government officials following an embarrassing loss to England and in the wake of the Iranian regime’s violent crackdown on anti-government protest across the country following the death of Masha Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman died in custody on September 16. U.S. Soccer said the deletion was intended to show support for Iranian women protesting against government restrictions. Which is pretty rich coming from an organization that has spent most of the past quarter century denying the U.S. women’s national team, winner’s of four World Cups, equal pay and other benefits on par with their male counterparts.

On the pitch, not even when measured against the low bar of Team USA’s thin World Cup resume, can reaching the second round continue to be considered success.

In the past four World Cups, 19 countries have advanced to the quarterfinals of the tournament. The country that is home to more than 24 million soccer players, a nation that is second only to Germany in terms of registered players has not been one of them.

“As Americans you live in a land rich with human resources and unlimited potential, where hopes and dreams frequently come true,” Queiroz wrote. “During the years leading up to 2010, you have every opportunity to put the infrastructure in place to create an environment where the sport can move forward in a meaningful way.

“In my country we have the saying, ‘Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.’ But this is what the United States does when it invests time, energy and money into the preparation of the youth national teams, but does nothing to improve the competitive system that provides for player development.”

There’s a line in the film version of “The Right Stuff”: “no bucks, no Buck Rogers.”

U.S. Soccer reported $138 million in expenses (against $120 million in revenue) in 2020, according to the organization’s Internal Revenue Service filing. More than 70 percent of those expenses, $97 million, was spent on the national teams. But 97 million bucks still haven’t produced a Buck Rogers.

Despite the human and financial riches Queiroz alluded to, the U.S. still hasn’t produced a world class male player who wasn’t a goalkeeper.

Much of the U.S. optimism in the decade following the release of Project 2010 was based on the promise of Landon Donovan, the boy-wonder forward who never grew up into athlete who had the right stuff to cut it on a regular basis in the Bundesliga or the Premier League. Donovan played just 13 matches in a series of stretches with Bayer Leverkusen and Bayern Munich, failing to score a single goal in Bundesliga or German Cup matches. Donovan played 17 matches for Everton, scoring two goals, both coming during a 10 match run in 2010.

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Donovan’s heir as the Great American hope is Chelsea forward Christian Pulisic, the 24-year-old darling of Corporate America and much of the U.S. media.  Pulisic’s first half goal was the difference against Iran. But his heroics in Tuesday’s politically charged match doesn’t make him a world class player. Pulisic fell out of favor with Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel last season. Tuchel apparently wasn’t the problem. Pulisic stock hasn’t seemed to rise much since Graham Potter took over at Stamford Bridge earlier this season. Pulisic has made 13 Premier League appearances this season, only three of them starts, scoring but a single goal. Can you be considered world class if you can’t consistently break into the starting line-up of a side that is winless in its six Premier League matches?

Much of has been made of the youth of Team USA. The average age of the starting 11 versus Iran was 24. Which sounds promising until considering that Spain forward Gavi is just 18 and earlier in the tournament became the youngest World Cup goal scorer since 17-year-old Pele in 1958. Or that England midfield standout Jude Bellingham is just 19.

So Team USA, American soccer faces another World Cup reality check against the Dutch on Saturday. Will Pulisic and the young Americans finally grow up and step up? Is the U.S. finally ready to make a giant leap forward on the world’s biggest stage?

Or will Qatar 2022 be just another small step toward a goal that seems like another planet growing more distant with each World Cup?