Donald Trump looked at him and, while shaking his hand, asked: “Coach, do you think we can win the World Cup?” The United States national team coach snapped to attention: “Of course we can, Mr. President!” At the World Cup draw ceremony, Mauricio Pochettino fulfilled his duty. The host’s optimism overrides the national mood. But Pochettino knows the odds of lifting the trophy are remote.

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Soccer no es un invento estadounidense. La adopción de esta palabra inglesa de este lado del Atlántico respondió a una necesidad práctica más que a una decisión cultural. Cuando el fútbol comenzó a expandirse por Estados Unidos a finales del siglo XIX y comienzos del XX, una variante local evolucionó hasta convertirse en el fútbol americano moderno. Con el tiempo, la palabra football quedó asociada de forma casi exclusiva a este deporte, una realidad que terminó de consolidarse con la fundación de la National Football League (NFL) en 1920.

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The first time U.S. soccer legend Tab Ramos played on a team in the country he had just moved to from Uruguay, Argentina was the reigning champion of the 1978 World Cup and the boy was thrilled that the jersey he was given, the Harrison Rec kit, was orange “like the Dutch one.” Ten minutes in, the coach took him off the field: he was too good to compete with that group. He was 12 years old.

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