USA

USA 1996-96 Home Matchworn Jeff Agoos v Brazil (1996 Gold Cup)
USA 2014 Home

Eh. That’s what I mainly think when I look at this. Though you then take a look at it and wonder how bulky Jeff Agoos’ shoulders must’ve been. Man must have been seriously built. Collar and sleeves have the US colours fairly nicely done on them and the stripe across the centre of the chest and the back is sufficiently eye-catching to make the shirt interesting. The numbers and name are hard plastic stitched onto the shirt, which is bizarre, but certainly stand out and probably armour you far better than any other football shirt. Only other thing to say is that the stripe does stop to accommodate the front number, which is kind of it. Not sure if that improves the shirt or not but at least it is a point to discuss about it.

Used extensively, the shirt appeared in the 1996 Gold Cup where they beat El Salvador and edged Trinidad and Tobago only to face the mighty Brazil where they dropped 1-0 into an easy 3-0 win over Guatemala for 3^rd place. Similarly in 1998, they topped a 3 team group (wins over Cuba and Costa Rica) to face Brazil where they won 1-0. However, Mexico beat them 1-0 in the final, making them fall short once more. In 1998 World Cup qualification they lost away to Costa Rica and drew away in Guatemala but still easily qualified for the final “hex” round. Despite 5 draws, they only lost away in Costa Rica (again!) and easily qualified in 2^nd place for the World Cup.

Next up is this disappointment, sorry football shirt. It looks like a polo shirt, has few eye-catching features and the collar is the least favourite of any shirt I own. The sleeve cuffs are also heavy elasticated material which is a little odd and it overall just looks and feels like something else. I cannot like this shirt in the slightest, but sometimes it is good to have something to hate, no?

It was used in the 2014 World Cup, where they surprised everyone by edging Portugal on goal difference to qualify for the knockout stages (beat Ghana 2-1, conceded at the death to draw 2-2 with Portugal and lost 1-0 to Germany). A stalwart defensive performance from mainly Tim Howard set up extra time where Belgium raced into a 2 goal lead before the USA tried desperately to recover. A 2-1 loss was all they could do and suddenly they stopped caring about football again. It was also worn in the 2015 Gold Cup where they beat Haiti and Honduras (but drew with Panama) to qualify for the knockouts. They then annihilated Cuba 6-0 before dropping 2-1 to Jamaica. Hopefully all copies of this shirt have since been burnt as they swapped to something much nicer for their next shirt.

Relatively typical of the USA, their record speaks for itself. 3^rd place at the 1930 World Cup was followed up by a 7-1 thrashing in their only 1934 game. 1950 brought the infamous victory over England and they didn’t appear at a World Cup again until 1990 when their era began anew. A dominant continental force with 13 Gold Cup finals and 6 titles they’ve only not been finalists 5 times and have used that strength to reach every World Cup since 1990 (except for 2018!). Two 4^th places in the Copa América as well as twice 3^rd and once 2^nd in the Confederations Cup shows that they are a capable force worldwide, though they tend to alternate between the Group Stages and the round of 16 at World Cups.

On the women’s side, however, there is none of this petty rivalry with Mexico, none of these alight performances on the global stage. The USA women shred all before them, with 4 World Cups (also never below 3^rd place), 4 Olympic golds, 10 Algarve Cups, 3 SheBelieves Cups and 7 continental titles, with 1 loss and 1 draw from 39 games (drew to Brazil in 2000 and lost the 2010 semi-final 2-1 to Mexico in 2010). In gold Cups they’ve scored 199 goals and conceded only 6, they are a terrifying force to behold. On the youth side, the men’s teams have a Pan American Games, an Olympics 4^th place, an U20 and U17 World Cup 4^th place, 5 youth titles and 14 finals besides, down to U15 level. However, definitely a step down from the seniors. The women’s youth teams are about as you’d expected, though you can somehow describe 3 U20 World Cups, 6 continental U20 championships (and 3 other finals) an U17 World Cup runners-up finish and 4 continental titles as “disappointing”. Still generally the team to beat.

Despite winning 2 titles and 2 3^rd places in the CONCACAF Futsal Championship, they exited at the first round in 2012 and didn’t even qualify for the 2016 edition. 3^rd place at the 1989 World Cup and 2^nd at 1992 has been followed by three appearances with 2 wins from 13 games. The women’s futsal side competes in AMF competitions but only has a quarter-final and a group stage exit to show for it. In beach soccer they finished 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th across 1995-1997 but are no longer regular qualifiers with only 4 CONCACAF finals (and 3 titles) in the last 15 years. Regularly top 4, but no longer at the heights they were.

Despite the embarrassment of 2018, they are expected to qualify for the 2022 World Cup, particularly with the revised format. An extended group could provide some troublesome away ties, but they’re expected to prevail.