With one year until the World Cup, is the USMNT ready? - ESPN

A year from now, the U.S. men's national team will take the field at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, for its first group stage game at the 2026 FIFA World Cup. As cohosts of the tournament, alongside Canada and Mexico, the match will present an immense opportunity to move the U.S. program forward on the world's biggest stage.

The expectation is that the USMNT will be well on its way in terms of preparations. The core of the team will be identified. The style of play will be defined and only require some fine-tuning, with confidence building.

So is the USMNT meeting those expectations? Does it look ready to make the most of next year's festivities? Not even close.

One only needs to look at the past 12 months as proof. There was last year's group stage exit at the Copa América in an utterly manageable group, as well as a fourth-place finish in the Concacaf Nations League last March that witnessed home losses to Panama and Canada. The former competition resulted in manager Gregg Berhalter losing his job.

His replacement, the highly regarded Mauricio Pochettino, hasn't been able to arrest the slide to any great degree. The USMNT is in the throes of a four-game losing streak, all of them at home. The last time the USMNT lost four consecutive games at home was 1988. The past two setbacks have come with a youthful roster with several stars being omitted for various reasons, but the U.S. has also struggled with its first-choice lineup.

The good news is that the USMNT only needs to be ready next year, not now. But there are enough warning signs to cast doubt as to whether the U.S. can deliver even a respectable showing. Instead of being primed to deliver a performance for ages, one that would galvanize the country's