America's World Cup team is screwed, says everyone

America's World Cup team is screwed, says everyone
(Image credit: Valerio Pennicino/Getty Images)

The United States' soccer team isn't as terrible as you might expect, but it's still not expected to make much noise at this year's Wold Cup, which kicks off on Thursday. The team is ranked 13th in the world per FIFA, and it drew arguably the toughest opening round group. Taken together, that gives the U.S. only a 36 percent chance of advancing to the knockout stage, and a meager two percent chance of making it to the final game, according to FiveThirtyEight's forecasting model.

Though you can quibble with the math behind those predictions and insist the team will fare better — USA! USA! — even the team's coach, Jurgen Klinsmann, thinks they're doomed: "We cannot win this World Cup, because we are not at that level yet," he told The New York Times.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Explore More
Jon Terbush

Jon Terbush is an associate editor at TheWeek.com covering politics, sports, and other things he finds interesting. He has previously written for Talking Points Memo, Raw Story, and Business Insider.