Is The USMNT Already Hopeless For This Year's World Cup After 'Reality Check' Losses?

The US Men's National Team kicks off the 2026 FIFA World Cup in Los Angeles just two and a half months from now. With arguably the most talented group of soccer players the US has ever produced, and the advantage of hosting the most important international tournament at home, not too long ago, expectations were high that they'd make a deep run.

Then, not long ago, manager Mauricio Pochettino said he believed it was possible for the USMNT to reach the tournament semifinals. Well, those expectations probably need to be lowered. Like, a lot. 

The USMNT had two big friendlies against top European teams, Belgium and Portugal, over the last week, and to call it a disaster would be optimistic. They allowed five goals to Belgium in a 5-2 defeat in Atlanta, then followed it up by losing 2-0 to Portugal. After that game, Pochettino admitted, "It's a good reality check for us." 

"I think we need competitive games to arrive to the World Cup in our best," he continued. "I think we cannot arrive with the wrong idea that we are so good, we are so handsome, we are so well-dressed and we are Americans.

"And it's good to feel that, but if we want to win the World Cup, if we want to go next to the next station in the group and we want to beat Paraguay, do you think that they are not going to fight?"

It wasn't the only discouraging takeaway from those losses.

United States midfielder Malik Tillman consoles midfielder Christian Pulisic after a missed shot during the international friendly between Portugal and the United States. (Photo by Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

USMNT Doesn't Seem Close To Competing For World Cup

After the loss to Belgium, Pochettino was a bit more optimistic, saying he wasn't "concerned" about what it meant for the summer. 

"I think that, of course, 5-2 is always difficult to accept. It's painful, but at the same time, I think we need to take so many positive things. The first half was really good. I think we really play better than Belgium."

Though he then acknowledged that "It really was difficult" for the USMNT in the second half. Star midfielder Christian Pulisic admitted that they're going to have to win games like this if they want to advance. 

"We have to beat teams like this if we want to have a chance to go far in the tournament," he told the media after the loss.

Then there's this quote from Pochettino: "Belgium and Portugal both have top-100 players, some players playing that top 100. I think we don't have [that]."

Not exactly what you want to hear heading into the most important World Cup for the US, arguably ever. And it's not just the quotes. An ESPN ranking of teams most likely to win the tournament put the US at 22nd out of 48 teams. France, widely viewed as the tournament favorites, has an estimated total transfer market value of 1.3 billion Euros. The US team is 356.7 billion Euros. 

Nothing is over until it's over, and there are plenty of examples of teams struggling in pre-World Cup friendlies only to recover to make a deep run. France, for example, struggled in 2018, tying the US 1-1, before winning the tournament. But those teams had exceptionally gifted rosters loaded with international stars. That's not the case with the USMNT. And for a cycle that seemed like it could be the culmination of the US's "golden generation," it seems to all be slipping away in a hurry. 

The US has two more pre-tournament tuneups against Senegal and Germany at the end of May and first week of June. Hopefully, they can make some improvements in a hurry.