I wrote a book about the last 40 years of US men’s soccer. Here is what I learned | Leander Schaerlaeckens

The mere notion that the United States men’s national team will enter this World Cup with a plausible chance of going on a deep run into the knockout stages represents something of a sporting miracle.

Consider that after the USMNT placed third at the 1930 World Cup – as one of just 13 countries to turn up, mind you – they were almost totally absent from the global stage for six decades. They kicked around the 1934 edition of the tournament just long enough to get smashed 7-1 by the hosts Italy in the first round. And they were there in 1950, stunning England 1-0 in the group stage, an all-time upset wedged around 3-1 and 5-2 losses to Spain and Chile, respectively.

From there, dark decades dawned. Between the 1954 and ’58 World Cup qualifying cycles, the Americans managed to lose their four matches to Mexico by a combined 20-3. They also lost 8-3 to a Canadian team that hadn’t played an official game in 30 years. In the 1950s and ’60s, the USMNT once went 11 years without winning a game. They played matches without a managers, or, possibly worse, with two coaches both under the impression they were in charge. They once lost their head coach and threatened to sue him for breach of contract, only to realize they had neglected to sign him to one. Before a qualifier for the 1974 World Cup, the US national team had to pull a man from the stands just to make up the numbers. Players routinely turned down call-ups, unbothered by the chaos and the $5-a-day per diems.

Things somehow got more embarrassing. In 1983, a perpetually broke and disorganized US Soccer Federation entered the USMNT into the crumbling North American Soccer League as Team America. But several leading national team players, such as they were, refused to leave their clubs for this bizarre experiment. Team America came dead last in the league, scoring the fewest goals by far. The team folded after one campaign.

Given the sum of the above, it’s remarkable that the Yanks managed to close the gap with much of the world, where the soccer scene never stopped evolving. But by 1990 they were back in the World Cup. By 2002, they were on the cusp of the semifinals. They went from the bumbling Team America calamity to producing a team that consistently reaches the World Cup knockout stages in three decades. And in the fourth decade, they may well have built a team capable of doing more. And they did it in a nation where other sports throw up more competition for athletic talent than anywhere else.

It’s easy to get lost in the quotidian swings of following a team, the ups and downs of competitions that never really end. Living through the rising and sagging fortunes of soaring fall runs and then deflating springs is the fun of it, after all. But when you get a chance to take the long view of it, as I did, another perspective emerges. I spent more than three years reporting and writing my new book, . I dug deep into the USMNT’s history and found lots of things that surprised me even after covering the team closely for more than a decade and a half. I interviewed 150-odd players, coaches, and administrators, and heard stories never told publicly before, particularly as I profiled six leading national team players whose journeys aren’t as well understood as you would expect.