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The strongest evidence of the mark U.S. Soccer is making worldwide can be seen in the fact that the U.S. Soccer National Team programs have qualified for 19 consecutive FIFA outdoor world championships (a number currently surpassed only by Brazil). In 2002, U.S. Soccer was the only federation in the world to lay claim to three major international championships, with the U.S. Men’s and Women’s Teams sweeping their way to CONCACAF Gold Cup crowns and the U.S. Under-19 Women’s National Team winning the inaugural FIFA U-19 Women’s World Championship.
There is no doubt that U.S. Soccer is coming off of a five-year period filled with unprecedented success. The U.S. Men advanced to the quarterfinals of the World Cup, beating Portugal and Mexico along the way, and captured the world’s attention in the process. The U.S. line-up featured two 20-year-olds in Landon Donovan and DaMarcus Beasley, who just three-years prior had won the Gold and Silver Balls, respectively, in leading the U.S. U-17s to an unprecedented fourth-place finish at the 1999 FIFA U-17 World Championship in New Zealand.
The U.S. Men’s Olympic Soccer Team shocked soccer followers at the 2000 Sydney Games, finishing fourth, drawing with eventual champion Cameroon and lasting longer than traditional powerhouses such as Nigeria and Brazil. For the U-20 MNT, similar success awaited them at the 2003 FIFA World Youth Championship in the United Arab Emirates. The team was seconds away from a semifinal berth, but had to settle for a fifth-place finish in the tournament after stoppage time and overtime goals from Argentina ended the squads record-setting run. Also in 2003, the U-17 MNT matched their U-20 counterparts with a fifth-place finish at the U-17 World Championship in Finland behind the inspired play of Freddy Adu, who appeared in both world championships for the U.S.
The U.S. Women won six tournaments in 2000, took home the silver medal from the Olympics and permanently altered the landscape of women’s sports with their historic win at the 1999 Women’s World Cup. In 2003, the team lost their world champion crown, but still maintained their perfect top three record in Olympic and Women's World Cup play with a third-place finish on home soil.
The U.S. Women’s Youth National Teams program has also set their standards high, with the U.S. Under-19 WNT sweeping their way to the first FIFA U-19 Women’s World Championship in 2002. In winning six of the last seven Nordic Cup championships (and five in a row), the Under-21 Women have also measured up to the WNT program’s standards of excellence. |
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