The U.S. team secured its spot in the World Cup’s knockout round with a win against Australia on Friday. It’s the first time since 1930 that the American men have won consecutive World Cup matches. To discuss the tournament, Amna Nawaz spoke with soccer writer Leander Schaerlaeckens, author of “The Long Game: U.S. Men’s Soccer and Its Savage, Four-Decade Journey to the Top, or Thereabouts.”
Amna Nawaz:
Well, Team USA secured its spot in the World Cup’s knockout round with a 2-0 win against Australia this afternoon. It’s the first time since 1930 that the American men have won consecutive World Cup matches.
It’s been a big week as the world watches legends of the sport compete for their countries. Tournament favorites are meeting the moment and underdogs are rising to the occasion.
For more, we turn now to Leander Schaerlaeckens, who’s been covering the cup for ESPN and The Guardian. He’s the author of the book “The Long Game: U.S. Men’s Soccer and Its Savage, Four-Decade Journey to the Top or Thereabouts.”
Leander, welcome to the “News Hour.” Thanks for joining us.
Leander Schaerlaeckens, ESPN:
Thank you.
Amna Nawaz:
So let’s talk about that big win for Team USA against Australia today. What stood out to you and who in particular on the team stood out to you in that game?
Leander Schaerlaeckens:
I have these moments during this early run at this World Cup where I think to myself, what is going on?
Because, for my book, I went back and watched every U.S. game they have played at the World Cup back to 1990, and they have never played this well. They have never looked this good. And as you mentioned, they have not won consecutive World Cup games going back to 1930, which was the first World Cup that was ever played.
This is only the Third World Cup where the U.S. has even had two wins in the entire tournament. The other time was in 2002, when they made the quarterfinals. And what’s really striking me in this team right now is that they aren’t just still offering that feistiness and that fitness and that physicality that historically allowed this team to compete with more talented opponents, but that they’re also combining it with good soccer.
It’s creative. It’s tactically astute. They’re really, like, playing through opponents. The second half against Australia was a bit of a slog and a bit of an attritional war. But there’s so many players playing well right now, Chris Richards in the back, Weston McKennie in the middle, Tyler Adams in the middle, Folarin Balogun, the striker who forced the own goal that put the U.S. ahead early on for a second time in a row.
I believe this is the first World Cup where a team has ever benefited from two own goals, that being the U.S. this time around. So there’s a lot of players doing their job super well at the moment.
Amna Nawaz:
Own goals are still goals. We will take them either way.
I do want to ask you about some of the biggest names who are playing in this tournament, though. We have seen incredible performances from the likes of Lionel Messi, who scored a hat trick in Argentina’s opener. That means he has now tied the all-time men’s World Cup scoring record. Kylian Mbappe from France, Norway’s Erling Haaland, both scored twice to help leave their teams to wins in the early matches.
So on soccer’s biggest stage, how are its biggest stars performing?
Leander Schaerlaeckens:
So, far everybody has come out to play, other than Cristiano Ronaldo, who is 41 and who looked very static for Portugal. And there’s a rising chorus of critics suggesting that that team would be much better off if they left him off the field.
But everybody else has been really good so far. This World Cup is off to a really hot start. Lionel Messi, who’s about to turn 39 in a few days, had never scored a hat trick at a World Cup before, and he just did it for the first time the other day.
And that’s ultimately the thing that winds up redeeming the World Cup and that bails out the people who are in charge of putting it on, and who present us with these issues every four years. And there’s always all this discourse about the problems going into the World Cup.
And we certainly shouldn’t look away from them. But this is why it works so well as a sports-washing project, as kind of this redeeming thing is, because, once the soccer starts, it’s still really great, and we get all the folklore and we get all the fun stories of Boston falling in love with the Scottish fans.
And suddenly Lawrence, Kansas, is Algerian territory, and they’re having a great time. It’s just really fun, this tournament.
Amna Nawaz:
There was also some concern about the quality of play, with this being the first 48-team World Cup.
But I wanted to ask you about some of these underdogs that we have seen performing really well against some of the world’s top teams, the Democratic Republic of Congo holding Portugal to a draw, Cape Verde tying Spain. How are you looking at that?
Leander Schaerlaeckens:
Well, what’s so funny is that we have only had one 0-0 tie at this World Cup so far, which is the scourge of the soccer hater, right? And that actually turned out to be the biggest upset at the tournament, because that was Cape Verde at its first ever World Cup, in its first ever World Cup game, second smallest country to ever qualify after Curacao, which is also here, holding the Spain — the European champion Spain to a 0-0 draw.
So there was concern when the World Cup expanded from 32 teams to 48 that that would dilute the product and that there’d be a lot of walkovers, a lot of slaughters. And we really haven’t seen that so far.
Now, mind you, it’s an awfully long tournament, right? The World Cup from the first game to the last one is going to run 39 days. So you do want to kind of pace yourself a little bit if you have any sort of aspiration of still playing in the last week of the tournament.
Amna Nawaz:
I got about 10 seconds left.
I have to ask you, can Team USA win in their next match?
Leander Schaerlaeckens:
Against Turkey? Yes, absolutely, they can, and then they seat themselves really well for the knockout stages.
Amna Nawaz:
We will be watching and waiting and cheering them on. Leander Schaerlaeckens, such a pleasure to talk to you. Thank you so much for your time.
Leander Schaerlaeckens:
Thank you.
Amna Nawaz:
And you can find more of our World Cup coverage online, including a video explaining three ways that this year’s competition is different from years past. That is on our YouTube page.
