US Men’s Soccer—Winning the World Cup, Is it an Impossible Dream?

Have you heard the 2026 World Cup is almost here? That it’s going to be played in the US during our 250th birthday? In Canada and Mexico too? There’s going to be more teams and matches than ever before.
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Official play won’t start until June 11, but the preliminaries are already starting. The one that caught my eye, a commercial about an impossible dream…The US Men’s team winning the World Cup. It’s an incredible ad! An incredible dream!
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                           And here’s how it started…

My Source: https://www.foxsports.com/stories/presspass/fox-sports-unveils-fifa-world-cup-2026-campaign-inviting-america-dream-big-summer


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Part 1: The Impossible Dream Ad
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It all began with FOX Sports Marketing asking a simple question, ‘What If?’ What if the impossible happened, and the Men’s National Team won the World Cup?

The ad debuted on May 2, during a baseball game on FOX. I don’t remember when I saw it, but it’s been echoing through my head, asking me to imagine the possibilities. 


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I searched, found, and retweeted the ad so I could share the highlights.
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Imagine…it’s the last minute of the last game of the World Cup Championship. It’s tied, and the US has a corner kick. You hear the announcers. Then silence as you watch people across the country wait…
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                 Then Christian Pulisic, who’s really on the team, takes the kick, and the music begins…

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The Impossible Dream, sung by the King, Elvis Presley.

As you watch, the goal goes in, and America celebrates this impossible dream…An American Men’s World Cup.

The music continues to play until Elvis reaches the climax of the song, that unreachable--

And then abruptly, as if someone yanked the needle off a record—Elvis stops.
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The next scene, a bar where someone’s asking if the US could really win the World Cup. The answer…It could happen. 


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​And then an old man asks do you believe in miracles?
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​He turns, and you see the back of his jacket, with USA and two hockey sticks. That’s the moment Elvis belts out the end of the song.

And that’s when I recognized the miracle—February 22, 1980. The one in the photo from Sports Illustrated. No caption needed. Everyone who watched that game still remembers. I do!

A bunch of college kids were playing the Soviets. There was no way they could win the Olympic gold medal, till the last minute when Mike Eruzione shot the winning goal.
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It was incredible! It lifted the whole country. It became a Hollywood movie, Miracle on Ice. You can still watch that amazing story.
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If you’d like to see the entire World Cup miracle commercial, here’s my link from X.

https://x.com/kisiithefoodie/status/2060021528171851945
PS: if the arrow spirals, give it time. It will work!


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​The World Cup won’t start officially until June 11, and the US men play on the 12. But don’t worry…you can imagine the impossible dream until then.

And if it doesn’t come true, we’ll have almost two months to enjoy our own version of that dream.
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​​      Part 2: Meet the Team and US Cities Hosting the Matches

​First up, our coach, Mauricio Roberto Pochettino. He played for the Argentine team and managed it too.

Mauricio announced his choices for the US roster on May 26, 2026, but he could make changes until June 2. Today is the 3rd, and I checked…no changes to the roster.

The US Men are in Group D, so we’ll play Australia, Paraguay, and Turkey.
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​If you’d like to read more about the US men, click on my source link: https://www.fifa.com/en/tournaments/mens/worldcup/canadamexicousa2026/articles/usa-squad-announcement-mauricio-pochettino
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Now for the 26-man team; many are veterans of the Qatar 2022 World Cup.
Our 3 Goalkeepers are Chris Brady, Matt Freese, and Matt Turner.
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The 10 Defenders who also protect the goal: Max Arfsten, Sergino Dest, Alex Freeman,
Mark McKenzie, Tim Ream, Chris Richards, Antonee Robinson, Miles Robinson,
Joe Scally, and Auston Trust.

The 10 Midfielders include: Tyler Adams, Sebastian Berhalter, Weston McKennie,
Cristian Roldan, Brenden Aaronson, Christian Pulisic, Gio Reyna, Malik Tillman,
Timothy Weah, and Alejandro Zendejas. They move the ball up and down the field.
​Sometimes they score, like Christian Pulisic did in the commercial for the Impossible Dream.
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And the 3 Forwards, who aim for the goal: Folarin Balogun, Ricardo Pepi, and Haji Wright.
Here’s to the US Men’s 2026 team! May the force be with them!


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As for the US cities hosting World Cup matches, I only have a map of the states.
​They’re first to help you find them. The cities, in parenthesis. 

They include Georgia (Atlanta), Massachusetts (Boston), Texas (Dallas and Houston), Kansas (Kansas City), California (Los Angelos and San Francisco), New York and New Jersey (cities not listed), Pennsylvania (Philadelphia), and Oregon (Seattle). 
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And finally, here’s the Group D schedule for the US Men’s first three games:
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June 12—USA vs Paraguay—Los Angelos Stadium

June 19—USA vs Australia—Seattle Stadium
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June 25—Turkey vs USA—Los Angelos Stadium