While Trump Got the ‘FIFA Peace Prize,’ Something Truly Great Happened |
The FIFA World Cup Draw at the Kennedy Center last week was the sort of surrealist spectacle that can take a few days to truly absorb. (FIFA president Gianni Infantino gave Donald Trump a “FIFA Peace Prize” that he accepted with legitimate joy and appreciation in a way that gets more disturbing the more you think about it.) Every time I think about it, I find myself tapping the right side of my head with my palm like I’m trying to get water out of my ear. But a little lost in all the absurdity was what the event ostensibly exists for in the first place: announcing the groups, matchups, and schedule for the cup itself, which will be hosted by the United States, Canada, and Mexico next year. And while the draw was a nightmare for the U.S. as a country — an estimated 200 million people around the planet watched us immolate in real time — it was a dream for the U.S. as a soccer team.
In terms of our national teams, there is no squad more reliably dramatic than the U.S. men’s soccer. The men’s and women’s Olympic basketball teams win every gold medal, and the women’s soccer team is one of the most popular soccer teams in the world, but the USMNT is always going through it. I have been writing about the pending breakthrough of the U.S. men’s team for this magazine for more than a decade now, and the team has rewarded me by persistently falling on its face. It’s fired multiple coaches, restructured their entire operation, and had players fighting with their coaches (including star Christian Pulisic and........