مدير عام كرة القدم
- Dempsey asks fans to turn up for كأس العالم
- Claims USMNT need to perform in order for that to happen
- Just 10 friendlies left until start of tournament
Former U.S. men’s national team forward Clint Dempsey believes that success on the pitch in the buildup to the 2026 FIFA World Cup will help U.S. Soccer fill seats with fans from the متحد States next summer at the tournament, which will be hosted in the U.S., Mexico، و Canada.
At the 2025 CONCACAF Gold Cup, which was also hosted in the United States, national team manager Mauricio Pochettino and current players both noted that crowds in St. Louis, where they played Guatemala, and in Houston, where they played Mexico, were overwhelmingly supporting their opposition.
“We were outnumbered in the games that mattered in terms of the semifinal and then final. There were more fans for the opposing team. So it’s up to the national team players to put a product on the field that makes people want to go spend their hard-earned money,” Dempsey said in an interview with The Associated Press. “I think with everybody being back and having that fight and kind of mixing that together with the quality, I think that will give people motivation to go out there and support this team.”
The USMNT has 10 friendlies left until the start of the World Cup, with two matches per FIFA international window in September, October, November, March, and June before the start of next summer’s competition on June 12.
The U.S. will begin their World Cup journey at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, before playing their second Group Stage match in Seattle, and then returning to Inglewood for their third and final match of the opening round.
“I want to see a team that is playing in an exciting style, whether it’s defending well, building out of the back, getting forward, creating chances, getting goals,” Dempsey said. “I just want to see the fight and the grit that we saw in the Gold Cup, just with more quality. That’s what I’m looking forward to, that team that gets you believing again that they can go and win games against top competition.”
Dempsey, who is tied with Landon Donovan at 57 goals as the USMNT’s all-time leading scorer, played 141 times for the national team. He represented the USA at the 2006, 2010, and 2014 World Cups and was part of the roster that failed to qualify for the 2018 competition in Russia.
The former Fulham ace believes that the holdover from the 2018 team to the 2022 squad lacked veteran leadership, with defender DeAndre Yedlin the only player from the previous cycle to make the squad for the Qatar World Cup.
The U.S., who were winners of the CONCACAF Nations League in 2021, 2023, and 2024, were eliminated in the Group Stage of Copa America in 2024, and manager Gregg Berhalter – who led the team in 2022 – was fired shortly thereafter. Dempsey hopes the current group will rally under Pochettino.
“There wasn’t that big mix of a lot of older players kind of passing down lessons that they learned over the years,” Dempsey said. “And sometimes it’s one of those situations where you need someone to shake things up, right? You don’t know if it’s egos. You don’t know what is the reason for why things don’t work out. So I think after Copa América after Nations League, there definitely needed to be some things shook up.
“And I think the more that people kind of look over their shoulder a little bit, their spots are not guaranteed, you have a culture that through training you can fight your way into getting into that starting lineup, I think people can get behind that and believe in that.”
At the 2026 World Cup, the U.S., as one of three co-hosts, will be seeded as such. That means that the USMNT will not have a top-10 ranked FIFA opponent in their group, and if they were to finish atop their group in the opening round, their odds of avoiding a heavyweight foe in the Round of 32 are boosted.
“If you are looking on numbers and looking on paper, you have a chance to do something special, and hopefully they take advantage of it,” Dempsey said. “I think we need all the best players fit, playing week in, week out. I’m excited to see what they do with mixing a little bit more quality into this fighting and gritty kind of culture that you’ve seen throughout the Gold Cup.”
The USMNT next report to the pitch in September, when they take on Korea and Japan in a pair of international friendlies.
