With World Cup exactly 1 year out, USMNT legends say pressure is turned up a notch

VP Vance says the U.S. is excited to host the 2026 FIFA World Cup but adds a friendly reminder to visiting countries: "When the time is up, they'll have to go home."

The United States Men's National Soccer Team will be the home squad in next year's World Cup, and they could make a big splash.

Eleven of the 16 host stadiums in next year's tournament, which begins exactly one year from Wednesday, are in the United States, with New Jersey's MetLife Stadium hosting the final.

After 1994, Major League Soccer was born, and it goes without saying that the immediate rise of soccer's popularity in the country was exponential.

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Landon Donovan, left, and Alexi Lalas (IMAGN; Getty Images)

But it's seemingly hit a wall in recent years as the USMNT hasn't exactly given Americans a chance to grasp on.

The squad got into the Round of 16 in 2010 and 2014 but failed to even qualify for the tournament in 2018. The USMNT returned to the Round of 16 three years ago but couldn't get out of the Copa América group stage on their own home soil last year.

Team USA legend Landon Donovan, though, feels that soccer is "secure" in the country, even if Team USA disappoints, and its popularity can only go up from here.

"There’s going to be a lot of pressure, for sure, on this team. You play a World Cup in front of your home crowd, there’s certainly going to be pressure. Is the state of soccer in trouble if they don’t do well? No," Donovan said in a conference call with reporters this week.

"There is a massive, massive opportunity [for this team]. In my experiences from the ’02 World Cup, when we did really well, my life changed, and the trajectory of USA Soccer changed a little bit."

But then again,