United States men's national soccer team

The United States national football team is the team that represents the country of the United States in international competition and is controlled by U.S. Soccer.

The team has appeared at four FIFA World Cups with their first appearance being at the 1926 FIFA World Cup. Their best would come twelve years later at the 1938 FIFA World Cup where they finished in third place as they defeated in the third-place playoff.

Early history
The formation of the United States team was way back in 1885 where they took on their rivals in in an unofficial match. Matches between the two nations followed up until 1916 where they played their first official match against at Stockholm in 1916 with the national team losing 3-1. It wouldn't though be until 1925 where the United States would compete in their first international competition, the qualifiers for the 1926 FIFA World Cup which was held in Spain. Competing in Group 7 with Canada and, the Americans scored seven goals in the two games at Toronto with being the leading goal-scorer of the campaign with three goals.

Though in the World Cup, the national team came in last place in a group which featured, and. This was mainly due to Dutch player hat-trick as his team smashed the United States 7-0 in what at the time was the biggest defeat. They though would win their final game against Hungary by a single goal from. After again withdrawing from the 1928 Summer Olympics, the United States competed in qualifying for the 1930 FIFA World Cup which was held in Uruguay. After dispatching Mexico and with ease, they qualified through to the finals where they drawn to meet the Netherlands,  and. Once again, the Americans couldn't break through into the knockout stage, losing all three matches in the progress without scoring a single goal at all for the tournament.

Reaching the Semis
In 1932, the Americans were the host for the 1932 Summer Olympics which was held in Los Angeles. After they dispatched in the opening round, they followed up with two massive upsets over  and  to qualify through to their first Olympic final where they took on Argentina. Unfortunately their dream run would end at that stage as they went on to lose to Argentina 4-1 in the gold medal match. The following year, the United States were only a step away from qualifying through to the 1934 FIFA World Cup which was held in Italy before a goal from Mexican player, sent the United States into the play-off where they would be eliminated by.

After skipping the 1936 Olympics, they competed in the first NAFC Championship where they would finish behind in the 1937 edition. For the Americans, they wouldn't need to worry about Mexico in qualifying for the 1938 FIFA World Cup held in Argentina with the national team only needing to defeat in the qualifiers. With a completely different format compared to previous years, the Americans took on the in the opening round with  scoring a hat-trick in the 5-0 demolition.

After an 85th minute goal from secured a spot in the semi-finals over Romania, they met the Netherlands once again for the third consecutive World Cup. Despite struggling early and conceding the opening two goals in the game, the Americans fought back into the match via Volz and Nemchick to level the match at two all. But a goal from would end the United States run in the World Cup. They would go on to win the third place playoff against to secure their highest place at a World Cup (to date).

The 50s of pain
After the national team struggled at the 1947 edition of the NAFC Championship, the team entered the 1948 Summer Olympics in the first round where would score four pass the American keeper as they would be bundeled out in the first round 8-0 to. The Americans than entered the qualifying stage of the 1950 FIFA World Cup in the second round of North American qualifying. In a draw which featured Canada, and Cuba,  and  each scored three goals as the Americans finish top of the group and qualified with Costa Rica.

In the World Cup, they were drawn in Group D which featured and  (who were both debutants), Romania and Yugoslavia. After losing the opening game 3-1 to Romania, the Americans recorded a 5-4 win over Korea with scoring a hat-trick in the victory. The following game against the British saw the Americans stay in the match until the 80th minute where broke the Americans hearts as Great Britain recorded a 1-0 win. The final match would be a two all with Yugoslavia. This was despite them leading the match on two separate occasions but they couldn't get the job done as Yugoslavia stole a point as the Americans finished third in the group.

After another disappointing first round exit at the 1952 Summer Olympics, the Americans would go on miss on qualifying all together for the 1954 FIFA World Cup after a shock nil all draw against was then followed up by a 2-1 defeat to Mexico in the final match of the group to book the Mexicans a spot and the Americans to be bundled out. For the Americans, the game of football was drying up in which saw them lose 10-0 to Yugoslavia at the 1956 Summer Olympics before not even making the final round of qualifying for the 1958 FIFA World Cup after losing out to Canada in their group.

FIFA World Cup
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