USMNT rides growth wave into 2026 World Cup on home soil

The United States enters its home World Cup with a soccer economy that looks bigger, richer and more crowded than any previous national-team cycle. Built on years of infrastructure spending, MLS growth and a coaching reset, the question now is whether that momentum has produced a side ready to contend, or only one built to advance.

As co-host with Canada and Mexico, the U.S. will play its 12th men’s World Cup, and the early evidence already matters. U.S. Soccer confirmed the Americans were placed in Group D against Paraguay, Australia and Türkiye, with matches set for Los Angeles on June 12, Seattle on June 19 and Los Angeles again on June 25. The team’s 2-0 win over Australia in Seattle on June 19 gave Mauricio Pochettino’s group a second straight victory and a cleaner runway into the final stage of group play.

Pochettino, named head coach in September 2024, has been tasked with turning expectation into results. FIFA said on May 6 that he believes the U.S. have the talent to “hacer grandes cosas” and acknowledged the immense pressure of leading the Americans on home soil. U.S. Soccer then announced its 26-player World Cup roster on May 26, locking in the squad Pochettino will ask to carry the country beyond the kind of progress it made in Qatar 2022, when the U.S. reached the round of 16.

The backdrop is Major League Soccer’s own surge. MLS said 2025 regular-season attendance reached 11.2 million, with an average of 21,988 per match, and 19 clubs averaged more than 20,000 fans, the highest such mark among soccer leagues worldwide. The league also reported record ticketing revenue, a sign that the sport’s business base in the United States is still widening.

Lionel Messi remains the clearest symbol of that boom. Playing for Inter Miami CF, he finished 2025 with 37 goal contributions, 24 goals and 13 assists, and MLS said his visits continued to draw historic crowds in city after city. That blend of stars, sellouts and national-team ambition has made the 2026 cycle feel different. Home advantage can lift a team only so far, but for U.S. soccer the larger test is whether all that investment has finally bought credibility on the sport’s biggest stage.