The U.S. Men’s National Soccer Team Are The Fashionable Boys of Summer

Reported by Vogue.

Soccer is no longer America's polite, suburban secret. According to Vogue, a new Economist study ranks it the third most popular sport in the U.S. — yes, ahead of baseball — and this summer, with a home World Cup on the line, the country is finally paying attention. The U.S. Men's National Team lost their spring friendlies against Belgium (5-2) and Portugal (2-0), but if you ask anyone close to this squad, those scorelines tell you almost nothing about what's coming in June.

The roster reads like a dispatch from everywhere at once. Defender Chris Richards — Crystal Palace, 26, raised in Birmingham, Alabama — put it plainly: "Our team is full of immigrants and people from all walks of life. That's what this country is." Midfielder Tim Weah, 26, grew up in New York with Liberian and Jamaican parents and now plays for Marseille. Striker Folarin Balogun, 24, was born in Brooklyn to Nigerian parents, came up through Arsenal's academy in London, and is currently lighting up Ligue 1 at Monaco. Antonee Robinson, naturalized American, born in the UK, raised in Liverpool, plays for Fulham — and is raising two daughters. Midfielder Malik Tillman grew up in Germany. Harvard-educated goalkeeper Matt Freese is the pride of Philadelphia by way of MLS's NYCFC. These are not the boys next door. They are the boys from everywhere.

Brotherhood, With Real Stakes

Shoot them on a training ground and what you get is not performance — it's genuine ease. They joke. They throw balls at each other's heads. Weah calls their kids "our favorite pastime." Freese talks about patience: four years as a backup, watching, waiting, grinding. "Many years of hard work and patience coming to fruition," he says, with the calm of someone who has actually earned it. Roger Bennett, founder of the soccer media empire Men in Blazers, says this young American fanbase has finally caught World Cup fever — "obsessed like the rest of the world" — but acknowledges the team is still finding its identity. Retired U.S. international Jozy Altidore, who played in the 2010 and 2014 tournaments, disagrees with any pessimism: "This is one of the most talented teams we've had in our history."

They'll need every bit of that talent. The World Cup field includes Lamine Yamal, Vini Jr., Kylian Mbappé, and Harry Kane — a starting lineup of household names that the U.S. squad simply cannot match. Yet. Coach Mauricio Pochettino predicted back in January that the World Cup would effectively begin in the spring window, and his players have been battle-tested: wins over Uruguay, Paraguay, and Australia, plus a draw with Ecuador, before the Belgium and Portugal losses. Underdogs, yes — but a pre-season skid is not a prophecy.

A home World Cup, a generation of players who've been training together since they were boys, and a country that is — finally, loudly — showing up: if there was ever a moment for this team to become something bigger than a result, it's now.

Read the original at Vogue.