United States All-Time World Cup Team: Finally, Enough Of A Sample To Pick One!

Just eight years ago, putting together an All-Time U.S. World Cup team would have been line handing out driver’s licenses at age 14: way too early and frustrating for everyone.

Even four years back, this would have been a slight stretch for the United States. By comparison, Saturday’s U.S. opponent in Rustenburg and the other “Old Money” members of soccer’s global aristocracy have been doing these for ages, always with plenty of candidates and ample fodder for debate.

But sweet progress has been made for U.S. Soccer and here we are. The body of work now seems sufficient. Five World Cups in modern times have produce 64 candidates from which to choose. Here then, based solely on performance in World Cup matches, is my All-Time U.S. World Cup side.

Midfielders: Tab Ramos, John O’Brien, Claudio Reyna, Earnie Stewart

A couple of those selections were harder than you think. For instance, Eric Wynalda must be part of the consideration. His free kick goal against Switzerland in 1994 was crucial and he played an important role on the 1990 and 1998 teams as well.

John Harkes was an important part of two World Cups and such a massive figure in the overall advancement of the sport, so leaving him off feels a little odd.

Thomas Dooley was critical in the 1994 effort for his “glue guy” role as holding midfielder. He wasn’t exactly great shakes by 1998, but that wasn’t really his fault. The man was 37 by then, and the ongoing U.S. dependence on him in France said a lot about the shallow depth of the player pool.

And what about the tough choice in goal? By choosing Keller, I’ve left off the man who meant so much to the swell 2002 campaign, Brad Friedel. I took Keller because he did nothing wrong in 1998, he surely could have been the guy in 2002 but was carrying an injury early. He was big in goal once again in 2006, even if the rest of the team let him down.

So what about some of the other guys I did pick? If Sanneh’s inclusion is a surprise (he’s not as decorated as some of these names), then you don’t remember the truly outstanding tournament he had, start to finish, in 2002. He played a number of roles there, but since left back is and has long been the national team’s black hole, he’s a great fit at the spot.

(FYI, here’s a great trivia question: which three players were all the field for all 450 minutes of 2002? It was Friedel, O’Brien and, yep, Sanneh.)

It was a little difficult to choose between Balboa and Alexi Lalas, as both were similar center backs in 1994, both using a cocktail of grit, will and determination to find a way. Balboa got the check mark if only because of that spectacular bicycle kick that came ever so close against Colombia.

Stewart might just surprise some people. But consider that he was vital in three World Cups, and often quite the livewire in those. His 11 World Cup appearances matches Cobi Jones for most ever. (Landon Donovan will match them soon, assuming he doesn’t get hurt and that he plays in all three first-round games.) Ramos and Reyna were great midfield soldiers in three campaigns each. Reyna was actually the squad for a fourth, in 1994, although he was just out of college and never got on the field.

McBride and Donovan? Well, they should be fairly obvious selections. McBride supplied the only goal in 1998 and hit for two in Asia four years later. Donovan also struck twice in 2002 and was a big reason why the United States survived in that heroic effort four years later in Kaiserslautern against Italy.