The United States Men’s National Soccer Team played their first international match with Canada on November 28, 1885 in Newark, New Jersey but lost 0-1. In a year on November 25, 1886 the USA got the revenge in Newark, 3-2.
Despite football (called soccer in North America) not being the main sport in the country the USA team was a medalist of the first ever World Cup 1930 in Uruguay.
In the 1934 World Cup the USA lost to Italy 1-7 in the first round and Angelo Schiavio scored a hat trick. The Italians were the first team to play with the USA in the 1936 Olympic Games and the latest were defeated 0-1.
The USA withdrew from the World Cup championship in 1938, by that time football in the country had fallen into decline and the squad wasn’t expected to make a good showing. The team had a miserable run of thirteen loses in a row from 1934 till 1948. World War II prevented the team from playing football during ten years as the team couldn’t leave the country. Football was of no interest at that time and that’s not the least of the factors.
The USA failed in the Olympic Games in 1948 being defeated by Italy 0-9, later in September of that year the team beat Israel thrice.
The team didn’t manage to qualify for the 1950 World Cup having lost to Spain 1-3 and Chile 2-5. The USA earned 1-0 victory over England, the strongest team in the world, in their third game. Joe Gaetjens scored the goal and that victory was called the ‘Miracle on Grass’ and became a remarkable success in the US football history. It took the USA national team 40 years to make it to the World Cup again.
In 1994 the squad participated in the World Cup held in the USA and managed to make it to the round of 16.
The team played in the FIFA World Cup 2010 and played a draw with England 1-1 and Slovenia 2-2, then defeated Algeria and got to the round of 16 to lose to Ghana in extra time.
The team is headed by Jurgen Klinsmann since July 2011.
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