Opinion

Manchester City worked tirelessly on Tuesday to break through Atlético Madrid’s defense to earn a 1-0 victory in the first leg of the UEFA Champions League quarterfinal. The game was advertised as an unstoppable force meets immovable object, and Atlético Madrid delivered in terms of dropping everyone into defense.

The original purpose of this piece was to find players who began their careers in American soccer in the lower league and worked their way up to Major League Soccer — not players who went out on loan, rather athletes who signed for a USL or NPSL club, impressed at that level, and drew the attention of an MLS side.

But after a thorough examination of numerous MLS rosters, I found that this type of career path is almost nonexistent; such upward mobility is nearly impossible in American soccer.

While everyone's been wasting their time arguing over the tactical masterplans of Pep Guardiola and Diego Simeone in the build-up to Manchester City and Atlético in the Champions League, a better philosophical discourse has been raging in the bottom half of the Premier League table, where Brighton manager Graham Potter is urging supporters to stop yelling "shoot" at his players while Burnley boss Sean Dyche is playing the devil's advocate by instructing his men to "kick it in the net."

The World Cup draw has been completed, and USMNT fans now know their team is going up against England, Iran and the winner of Ukraine/Scotland vs. Wales. The U.S. will need to be at its best to come out of this group, and this way too early USMNT World Cup roster can get the job done.

This mock USMNT World Cup roster is taking several things into account, including that every available American player is healthy and predicting how players will perform with their clubs over the next seven months.

No, this isn’t some cruel April Fools’ Day joke. The USMNT World Cup group really is one perhaps the most interesting possible group the Americans could have drawn on Friday. 

The U.S. will play England, Iran and the winner of the European playoff — Ukraine, Scotland or Wales — in the 2022 World Cup starting in November. It’s a fascinating group for many reasons, and one from which I think most USA fans will expect their team to advance. 

Group B is set:

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Four years ago, Taylor Twellman went down in U.S. sports media history with his epic rant screaming “WHAT ARE WE DOING?!” to anyone who would listen after the USMNT failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup. On Wednesday night, the sports media reaction to the Americans returning to the World Cup was far more muted, almost apathetic in many cases. SportsCenter in particular buried the news deep in its flagship Scott Van Pelt broadcast.