The U.S. Men’s National Team’s all-time joint leading goal scorer, Clint Dempsey, who holds the benchmark along with Landon Donovan, has warned Mauricio Pochettino’s side of a potential “nightmare” scenario awaiting them at this summer’s FIFA World Cup.
Set to be hosted in the U.S. as well as in Mexico and Canada, the newly expanded 48-team, 104-game tournament will kick off in Mexico City on June 11 and come to a conclusion in New Jersey on July 19.
The USMNT enters the competition ranked 16th globally as per FIFA, down one spot in the most recent adjustment, swapping places with Javier Aguirre’s El Tri.
-
“So, I’m going to keep my fingers crossed for them, and they do have the ability to do something special. It’s just they got to make it happen.
“They got to inspire this country, kind of like what you saw in the Winter Olympics, where the people really got behind our women and men’s hockey teams. I think that’s something that you could see happening with a strong run.”
Along with inspiring the nation and with it, the next generation of potential soccer stars, the USMNT’s primary goal will, of course, be to go as far as possible in the tournament.
The first major hurdle staring them down will be to win their first World Cup knockout round game since 2002, when Japan and South Korea co-hosted the competition. But as it turns out, it’s not the 2002 USMNT Dempsey hopes today’s team can imitate, but rather one of that year’s hosts.
“I would like to see them do something special like South Korea did when they were the host country in 2002, where they were able to go to the semifinals,” he said. “If the U.S. can do something like that, man, I think that would be crazy scenes around every city. That would be a great thing to happen, but you would need all the stars to align, I think, for that situation.