Perhaps the so-called “Golden Generation” of the US men’s soccer team didn’t stand a chance.
There have been many theories about why the USA, with a collection of players at the top who play for some of the top clubs on the planet and who thrilled fans en route to the round of 16 at this summer’s World Cup, fell to Belgium and bowed out at the same stage, despite the last three American teams playing at home to qualify for this summer’s tournament.
Maybe it was just a bad game. Maybe they just weren’t good enough. Maybe “target‘ that defender Chris Richards recently admitted was plastered on their backs when FIFA overturned Folarin Balogun’s suspension was too big to shake.
The USA ended the 2026 World Cup with an exit in the round of 16. (Photo by Charlotte Wilson/Getty Images)
Or maybe it was the result of a combination of factors.
Here’s another one to consider.
When the U.S. shockingly failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup, they were caught between two generations, the result of a problem, FOX Sports contributor Brian Sciaretta. identified even before that fateful 2017 loss to Trinidad & Tobago: A “development black hole” among players born between 1990 and 1996.
During the 2018 cycle, the old boys were very old. In addition to teenage star Christian Pulisic, youngsters like Tyler Adams and Weston McKennie were very young.
Weston McKennie and Tyler Adams are now mentoring the next generation. (Photo by Sarah Stier – FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)
The debacle marked the end of the legendary international careers of 38-year-old Tim Howard, 35-year-old DaMarcus Beasley and 34-year-old Clint Dempsey. The newcomers were “anointed” soon after the focus shifted prematurely to 2022, Howard said again on his podcast last week.
So when an 18-year-old Adams and a 19-year-old McKennie debuted for the US in a friendly in Portugal a month later, Alejandro Bedoya and DeAndre Yedlin were the only players with World Cup experience on the roster. The large core of seasoned veterans who traditionally help pass an established culture to the young talent who would replace them simply wasn’t there.
“When I came to the national team, there was a really big gap,” Adams told me Wednesday during a video conference with reporters. “It was all us youngsters, 17 and 18 years old, and then it was like 33, 34 and the guys who were obviously phasing out of the national team.”
By the time Richards made his Under-20 debut in 2020, Jozy Altidore and Michael Bradley had also appeared in their final national team matches. No wonder Richards hesitated for a moment Thursday when asked who he was rooting for when he first broke through. The Premier Leaguer eventually named fellow centre-backs Tim Ream and John Brooks, neither of whom had taken part in a World Cup at the time, and noted that his early camps were largely populated by his former youth team-mates.
With Saturday’s exhibition against Peru marking the start of the 2030 World Cup cycle, things are different. Coach Mauricio Pochettino has assembled a squad almost evenly mixed between underdogs – eight of them teenagers – and members of his 2026 World Cup squad.
Cavan Sullivan is being touted as the next star of American football. (Photo by Terence Lewis/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Still only 27, Adams has already played in two World Cups and made more than 250 appearances for clubs in the Premier League, UEFA Champions League, German Bundesliga and MLS. Even with AC Milan’s Pulisic and Juventus’ McKennie out for these next four home friendlies (the U.S. will also face Chile, Mexico and Canada) having just returned from early-season injuries in Italy, the current group is significantly more jaded than the one Adams and Richards joined as international rookies.
“Make sure they know they still have to earn a seat,” Richards said when asked what the process of in-country integration looks like. “Just because you’re here, it’s not the finish line, it’s the starting point.
“But when it comes to things off the field,” added Richards, who on Wednesday led the national team’s lengthy initiation ritual that requires first-time calls to sing in the lunchroom, “it’s just making sure they feel welcome in this environment, too.”
Chris Richards and Sergiño Dest are on a roster that mixes youth and experience. (Jane Gershovich/ISI Photos/ISI Photos via Getty Images)
This kind of tone-setting guidance can be invaluable over the next four years. The senior team will immediately return to official competition in November when their 2026-27 Concacaf Nations League program begins. There is a Gold Cup next summer. A dozen current camp participants are eligible for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles with the Steve Cherundolo-coached USA U-23s, and there could be another Copa América hosted by the USA that summer. After that, the qualifying matches for the 2030 World Cup begin.
When Pulisic’s generation launched the Stars and Stripes’ qualifying campaign for Qatar 2022, only Yedlin had ever appeared in both the months-long regional qualifying slog and the grand main event. Even on this deliberately experimental list, seven have: Adams, Richards, Sergiño Dest, Yunus Musah, Gio Reyna, Antonee Robinson and Miles Robinson.
It’s possible that the lack of tough qualifiers over the past four years (the US earned an automatic spot for 2026 as hosts) combined with a lack of cool heads in their early 30s hurt the Americans when the Belgium match began to slip. Ream looked every part of his nearly 39 years in that race, though there was plenty of blame to go around. However, it’s worth noting that only one player between the ages of 30 and 33 survived Pochettino’s final cut: back-up goalkeeper Matt Turner. World Cup champions Spain boasted nine. The US should be closer to that amount in 2030.
“We’ve got a lot of big games under our belts, and also guys who have played at a very high level for the club,” Richards told me. “These experiences are what will help the national team go into the future.
“When you get to the senior nationals, it’s a different beast,” added Richards. “So it’s making sure that we keep everyone grounded in the tough times, but also knowing that we have confidence from the back of what we’ve just done.”
That’s a luxury he, Adams and the rest of the US backers simply didn’t have.
“When I came in, it was obviously not qualifying for a World Cup and it was like you guys basically have to play now and you have to play now so we can qualify for the next World Cup,” said Adams, who at 23 was Qatar’s youngest ever captain.
“There’s less pressure on these young kids to come in and perform right away, and more time to be able to develop them,” he continued. “I look at this generation of players now and I think they’re in a great position to be able to get the process right.”
