World Cup: From fall guys to contenders, the US mean business against England in Group B clash

Published

3 years ago

November 25, 2022

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“Soccer’s coming home,” they sing, to the tune of the Skinner and Baddiel classic.

It’s a chant of choice for American fans ahead of the World Cup showdown, poking fun at their English opponents.

We heard it from the crowd watching the University of Maryland take on Fairleigh Dickinson University.

The gag is, of course, the replacement of the word “football” with “soccer” – for UK listeners, it’s a lyric that could only have been written in fingernail on a blackboard.

As supporter wind-ups go, it’s at the benign end of the scale, far removed from the terracing attrition in the land where the game began. Some cultural traditions, it seems, take longer to transfer.

US soccer is football, but not quite as we know it in the UK, certainly not as we speak it.

It’s where players “turn and burn”, wear “cleats” on their feet, not boots; take “PKs”, not penalties and, yes, take liberties with the very name of the game.

From fall guys to contenders

However you word it, the US men’s team have come a long way. They are fall guys-cum-contenders in a sport that America found late.

As the game grew worldwide, it struggled for space in a crowded sporting marketplace, squeezed out by American football, baseball, basketball et al.

America’s male footballers have long been in the shadow of the country’s women’s team. They are a sporting superpower and serial winners of the World Cup (a record four times).

The women’s game has reaped the benefit of a college system that was attracting many of the country’s best female athletes to soccer scholarships, while their male counterparts leaned towards more traditional US sports.

The US Soccer Hall of Fame at FC Dallas hosts a display that recalls the 1950 World Cup match when America’s men, famously, beat England 1-0.

It was such a shock that they made a film of it: The Miracle Match. Seventy-two years on, there would be nothing miraculous about a US win against England in Qatar.

Men’s soccer has ‘taken off’

After a stilted journey towards an established soccer set-up, the US men’s team are ranked 16th in the world.

FC Dallas president and chairman Dan Hunt spoke to Sky News about how the men’s game, domestically, has grown.

He said: “The success of American soccer really goes back to 1994. Having the World Cup here in the United States kicked off a new generation of players on the men’s side.

“The women’s game was already successful and doing well, but the excitement and energy that brought really kickstarted soccer again in this country.

“It’s been a history of fits and starts and stops. You look at the big win against England in 1950, which was such a reference point, and then we basically went dark for 40 years, between 1950 and 1990.

“The old NASL (North America Soccer League) has come and gone. The promise that we had to make as a country was to create a first division professional league, and that’s what brought MLS (Major League Soccer) to life.

“The early years of MLS were incredibly difficult but, for me, the most pivotal moment was the 2002 World Cup where the US team did really well with a number of MLS players.

“Some had already gone abroad and had success in Europe, but that really was the foundation because, only a year earlier, MLS had talked about going out of business and that was the little bit of momentum we needed.

“Since then, the MLS has really taken off.”

While football club academies in America have, increasingly, become a feeder to the highest level of the sport, the college system still provides a pathway to the professional game.

The University of Maryland is a powerhouse production line of talent – graduates from its scholarship programme have played in the last five World Cups.

Sasho Cirovski is the university’s coach, whose career has spanned decades of growth in the American game.

He told Sky News: “The American college system is unique to the whole world. It’s the one place in the world where you can combine high level academics with high-level soccer in a residential setting with tremendous facilities.

“You’re prepared to deal with being away from home, you’re prepared to deal with the expectations of performance.

“You’re scrutinised by the media, you’re challenged by the coaches, and you’re around players who also want to be high-level pros and win championships. So, when you have that kind of support network where you can grow, and you can blossom, it allows players to realise their dreams.

“We have the great advantage in this country of being able to watch and experience and learn from other sports. There is a character and competitiveness about the American athlete – a winning mentality, a toughness that is bred across different sports.

“For a long time, we had to learn from watching the Bundesliga or English Premier League – now we can see it in our own country. But we can also see it from other sports, so there’s a wide array of learning around you that really shows you what it’s going to take to be great.”

US

Trump and Putin agree on ‘many points’ in Ukraine talks – but give little detail away

Published

22 hours ago

August 16, 2025

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Trump and Putin agree on 'many points' in Ukraine talks - but give little detail away

Donald Trump has said there are “many points” he and Vladimir Putin agreed on after holding critical talks on the war in Ukraine – but no deal has been reached yet.

Following the much-anticipated meeting in Alaska, which lasted more than two-and-a-half hours, the two leaders gave a short media conference giving little detail about what had been discussed, and without taking questions.

Mr Trump described the meeting as “very productive” and said there were “many points that we agreed on… I would say a couple of big ones”.

Trump-Putin summit – latest updates

There are a few left, he added. “Some are not that significant. One is probably the most significant, but we have a very good chance of getting there…

“We haven’t quite got there, we’ve made some headway. There’s no deal until there’s a deal.”

Mr Putin described the negotiations as “thorough and constructive”, and said Russia was “seriously interested in putting an end” to the war in Ukraine. He also warned Europe not to “torpedo nascent progress”.

After much build-up to the summit, it was ultimately not clear whether the talks produced meaningful steps towards a ceasefire in what has been the deadliest conflict in Europe in 80 years.

Mr Trump said he intended to speak with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other European leaders, who were excluded from the discussions, to brief them.

The news conference came after a grand arrival earlier in the day at the Elmendorf-Richardson military base in Anchorage, where the US president stepped down from Air Force One and later greeted his Russian counterpart with a handshake and smiles on a red carpet.

Mr Putin even travelled alongside Mr Trump in the presidential limousine, nicknamed “The Beast”.

It was the kind of reception typically reserved for close US allies, belying the bloodshed and the suffering in the war.

Before the talks, the two presidents ignored frantically-shouted questions from journalists – and Mr Putin appeared to frown when asked by one reporter if he would stop “killing civilians” in Ukraine, putting his hand to his ear as though to indicate he could not hear.

Our US correspondent Martha Kelner, on the ground in Alaska, said he was shouting “let’s go” – apparently in reference to getting the reporters out of the room.

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US

Ukrainians are appalled at Trump’s naive and cack-handed diplomacy

Published

2 days ago

August 15, 2025

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Ukrainians are appalled at Trump's naive and cack-handed diplomacy

For Ukrainians, the spectacle of Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump meeting in Alaska will be repugnant.

The man behind an unprovoked invasion of their country is being honoured with a return to the world stage by the leader of a country that was meant to be their ally.

And they feel let down.

Follow latest updates from Ukraine war

President Trump had threatened severe sanctions on Russia within 50 days if Russia didn’t agree to a deal. He had seemed close to imposing them before letting Putin wriggle off the hook yet again.

But they are not surprised. At every stage, Trump has either sided with Russia or at least given them the benefit of the doubt.

It is clear that Putin has some kind of hold over this American president, in their minds and many others.

Ukraine wants three things out of these talks. A ceasefire, security guarantees and reparations. It is not clear at this stage that they will get any of them.

Ukrainians and their European allies are appalled at the naive and cack-handed diplomacy that has preceded this meeting.

Vladimir Putin is sending a team of foreign affairs heavyweights, adept at getting the better of opponents in negotiations.

There are, the Financial Times reported this week, no Russia specialists left at the Trump White House.

Instead, Trump is relying on Steve Witkoff, a real estate lawyer and foreign policy novice, who has demonstrated a haphazard mastery of his brief and breathtaking credulity with the Russians.

Former British spy chief Sir Alex Younger described him today as totally out of his depth. Trump, he says, is being played like a fiddle by Putin.

There is a fundamental misunderstanding of the conflict at the heart of the Trump administration’s handling of it. Witkoff and the president see it in terms of real estate. But it has never been about territory.

Vladimir Putin has made it abundantly clear that Ukraine’s existence as a sovereign democratic entity cannot be tolerated. He has made no pretence that his views on that have changed.

Ukrainians know that and fear any deal cooked up in Alaska will be used by Putin on the path towards that ultimate goal

US

Melania Trump threatens to sue Hunter Biden for $1bn over Epstein comments

Published

2 days ago

August 14, 2025

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Melania Trump threatens to sue Hunter Biden for bn over Epstein comments

Melania Trump has threatened to sue Hunter Biden for more than $1bn (£736.5m) in damages if he does not retract comments linking her to Jeffrey Epstein.

Mr Biden, who is the son of former US president Joe Biden, alleged in an interview this month that sex trafficker Epstein introduced the first lady to President Donald Trump.

“Epstein introduced Melania to Trump. The connections are, like, so wide and deep,” he claimed.

Ms Trump’s lawyer labelled the comments false, defamatory and “extremely salacious” in a letter to Mr Biden.

Her lawyer wrote that the first lady suffered “overwhelming financial and reputational harm” as the claims were widely discussed on social media and reported by media around the world.

The president and first lady previously said they were introduced by modelling agent Paolo Zampolli at a New York Fashion Week party in 1998.

Mr Biden attributed the claim that Epstein introduced the couple to author Michael Wolff, who was accused by Mr Trump of making up stories to sell books in June and was dubbed a “third-rate reporter” by the president.

The former president’s son doubled down on his remarks in a follow-up interview with the same YouTube outlet, Channel 5 with Andrew Callaghan, entitled “Hunter Biden Apology”.

Asked if he would apologise to the first lady, Mr Biden responded: “F*** that – that’s not going to happen.”

He added: “I don’t think these threats of lawsuits add up to anything other than designed distraction.”

Ms Trump’s threat to sue Mr Biden echoes a strategy employed by her husband, who has aggressively used legal action to go after critics.

Public figures like the Trumps must meet a high bar to succeed in a defamation suit like the one that could be brought by the first lady if she follows through with her threat.

In his initial interview, Mr Biden also hit out at “elites” and others in the Democratic Party, who he claims undermined his father before he dropped out of last year’s race for president.

The letter threatening legal action against Mr Biden is dated 6 August and was first reported by Fox News Digital.

It was addressed to Abbe Lowell, a lawyer who has represented Mr Biden in his criminal cases. Mr Lowell has not yet commented on the letter.

This comes as pressure on the White House to release the Epstein files has been mounting for weeks, after he made a complete U-turn on his administration’s promise to release more information publicly.

The US Justice Department, which confirmed in July that it would not be releasing the files, said a review of the Epstein case had found “no incriminating ‘client list'” and “no credible evidence” the jailed financier – who killed himself in prison in 2019 – had blackmailed famous men.