American Exceptionalism expects U.S. men's soccer to be better than what they are, and we can write endless think pieces with valid critiques about what the problem is, but the truth of the matter is, the World Cup is really hard to win.
In 23 World Cups, there have only been eight winners.
Brazil has the most wins with five, but they haven't won in 24 years. They also went 24 years or 6 World Cups between their 1970 and 1994 win.
The gaps between Germany's four wins are 20, 16, and 24 years, and this year's Round of 32 result is their best since their last win in 2014, meaning they didn't even get out of the Group Stage in 2018 and 2022.
Despite also having four wins, Italy hasn't even qualified for the last three tournaments, and they have gaps of 44 and 24 years between wins.
Before Argentina's latest win in 2022, their last victory was in 1986, a gap of 36 years. Messi himself had to play in five tournaments before winning.
France didn't win their first of two World Cups until 1998 after not qualifying the previous two, and their resurgence is in large part thanks to one player, Mbappé, who helped them win in 2018, 20 years after the first win.
Uruguay's two wins were in 1930 and 1950, and England, despite being home to the Premier League, has only won it once in 1966, which negates the MLS argument. Their second-best finish? Third. This year.
Spain is the newest winner, and they took 16 years to win it again.
Statistically, that's 8/84, or 9% of teams that have qualified for the World Cup.
In comparison, 20/30 teams have won the NBA Finals, 20/32 NFL teams have won a Super Bowl, 25/30 MLB teams have won a World Series, and 22/32 NHL teams have won a Stanley Cup: at least half of all teams.
Sixteen out of 32 MLS teams have won a title, which is the lowest percentage among major American sports leagues, but when you dig deeper and look at the world's top soccer leagues, you will see how staggering the disparity is and much it parallels with the World Cup statistic: 7/51 (13%) teams that have competed in the Premier League, 13/58 (22%) Bundesliga teams, and 9/63 (14%) La Liga teams have won championships.
In contrast, the EuroLeague, Europe's top basketball league, has produced 22 different winners with 20 active teams. Soccer is the difference, and the World Cup is the biggest and best display of that excellence because in order to win, you truly have to be the best, so if the U.S. men are ever going to win the World Cup, it's going to take some time.
