The USMNT have rebuilt nicely after a disastrous World Cup qualifying campaign four years ago, but the race to be Gregg Berhalter’s No 9 is wide open
By this time next year, the 2022 World Cup will have come and gone. Soccer’s great and good will have descended on Qatar for the most controversial tournament in the sport’s history, and they’ll have left again. New world champions will have been crowned. Whether or not the US men’s national team will have participated, though, is still unknown.
As things stand, Gregg Berhalter’s team stand a good chance of being in Qatar. The USA occupy second place in the final round of qualifying – Concacaf’s first ever ‘octagonal’ – with more than half the fixtures played. The ghosts of 2018 World Cup qualifying still haunt American soccer, nobody is taking anything for granted, but it would be a shock if, from this position of strength, the USA didn’t make the 2022 tournament.
