As soccer fans turn their attention to the future of the sport in the States, we revisit four oft-overlooked moments \u2013 and one famous kick \u2013 that shaped its past<\/p>\n
This was originally published in the newsletter The World Behind the Cup. Sign up for it here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n The last time the US hosted the men\u2019s World Cup in 1994, many Americans viewed soccer as a game they watched their kids play on Saturday mornings, not the world\u2019s most beloved sport. Thirty-two years later, the sport has exploded in popularity and the USA have become a regular fixture at World Cups. But many people don\u2019t realize the US\u2019s World Cup history extends all the way back to the first tournament staged \u2013 when the US men had their best-ever finish, reaching the semi-finals.<\/p>\n The tale of those connected with the US team is often bleak, but it\u2019s also more deeply rooted and richer than is often appreciated. As US soccer fans turn their attention to the future of the sport, we revisit four often overlooked moments \u2013 and one widely celebrated kick \u2013 of the USA\u2019s early World Cup history.<\/p>\n This was originally published in the newsletter The World Behind the Cup. Sign up for it here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Continue reading…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As soccer fans turn their attention to the future of the sport in the States, we revisit four oft-overlooked moments \u2013 and one famous kick \u2013 that shaped its past This was originally published in the newsletter The World Behind the Cup. Sign up for it here. The last time the US hosted the men\u2019s … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73263\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}