USMNT told ‘guys aren’t good enough’ as hard World Cup truths hammered home

The United States is gearing up for what could be one of the biggest World Cups ever, but fans of the host nation need to set realistic expectations for what’s to come.

Mauricio Pochettino, a highly experienced coach, will lead USMNT on home soil this summer and has been fighting to change the identity of the team since arriving in 2024.

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He believes anything is possible.

“Why not? It is all about belief,” Pochettino said last month, when asked if the US could go all the way at the 2026 World Cup.

His comments certainly raised eyebrows, and sports writer Bomani Jones believes the idea of going for glory on the greatest stage is a little unrealistic.

USMNT fans told to temper World Cup expectations

Discussing the hopes of the USMNT during an appearance on The S Word powered by talkSPORT, Jones likened the 1994 World Cup to a debut album, and revealed what he thinks will come from the ‘Sophomore’ follow-up in 2026.

“I do think ’94 truly fits as a debut album in the sense that this country’s relationship with soccer changed completely after 1994,” he began.

“There was the boost that every home team seems to get when they play in the World Cup, which then leads to kind of the jingoism or patriotism, depending upon what your perspective is on it.

“But it led to a whole new generation of, not simply kids playing soccer because that had already begun, but with people believing that the United States should be good at soccer.

“I think we still have a fairly unrealistic set of expectations about how good we actually are, though.

“I think we struggle to understand why it is that we are not better and the explanation is not really that complex, but we’re not that great with that.

“This as a second album, it’s like you need to find something that happened in between that made the fame peak without an album, necessarily.”

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Jones went on to suggest that, as it stands, the USMNT is not on a level to compete with elite soccer nations, despite what some fans think.

US at ‘MLS level’ of national team

He continued: “We’re at the point where people get a little bit crotchety about the fact that these guys aren’t good enough.

“They’ve got their songs — ‘I believe that we will win’ — and everything else. All the times they’ve play games at Columbus.

“But Americans are not good at settling for what, honestly, most of the world has in the World Cup.

“Not everybody’s playing for the championship, right? You’d say there are probably seven or eight countries in the world that every year go into it being like, ‘Hey, I think we should win this.’

“France, Spain and (England), bless your hearts. You probably shouldn’t think that based on the fact but you do, right?

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“Brazil… I mean, Italy don’t even make it to the damn World Cup anymore.

“The United States, I look at MLS soccer the way that we look at European basketball leagues. Like, ‘Oh, it’s a cool league that people can come play in, but certainly not at the top.’

“And our national team is an MLS level of a soccer national team.”

US fans, then, might need to lower their expectations.

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Jones argues that hopes of lifting the trophy are pretty unrealistic, and it’s perhaps better for supporters to focus on the first task at hand this summer: Negotiating a tough group.

USMNT will face Paraguay, Australia and Turkey in Group D. If they do make it out, only then should attention turn to the knockout stage and beyond.

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