S1E6: Beyond Believing We Can Win

This is part 3 of our 3-part interview with Hugo Perez.

The United States men’s national team experienced its worst moment in its recent history in 2017. Despite a desperate change in management, the team had a poor FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign which ended in its elimination, something that had not happened in 32 years.

This campaign also brought out the best in some and the worst in others. For example, some of the most iconic senior players and coaches of the men’s and women’s programs made xenophobic comments about players with dual-citizenship that were being considered for the national squad. But not everything was bad news. Dual-citizenship holder, 18 year-old Christian Pulisic, was the leading scorer for the World Cup qualifier campaign, shifting fans’ interest and hopes to the next generation of players, those born in 1997 and younger.

The next generation of U.S. players can potentially become the most successful one ever. For example, there are more young players competing in Mexico and debuting in Liga MX; and there are more U.S. born players currently competing at the academy and senior levels in Spain, Germany, England, Italy, Poland, Denmark, and other countries in Europe.

With the new change in leadership, U.S. Soccer’s 32nd President, Carlos Cordeiro, and the rest of the federation’s leadership, have one of the most challenging mandates in recent times, to turn the USMNT program around for the better.

While the pool of talent is better and larger that it ever has been for future national teams, the make up of the team will depend greatly on what direction the new technical director and national coaches will want to take. Will we rely on better skilled technical players? Will we continue to stick to more physical and less talented players while the rest of the world moves forward? Do we take advantage of our players with international experience, like the rest of the world? Or do we follow a more protectionist approach and rely on our domestically produced talent? Only the future will reveal what is to come.

In this episode of Rethinking Football, we talk to Hugo Perez about the ways we can improve our USMNT program and take advantage of the next generation of players.

Soccer Hall of Fame inductee, Hugo Perez, is a legend and a true agent of change. Perez was part of the generation that influenced tens of thousands of football lovers in the U.S. As a professional footballer, Perez earned 73 national caps including the Olympic squad. He was a member of the 1994 U.S. World Cup team, and was starter in the unforgettable Round-of-16 match against Brazil.

As a coach, Perez has been credited as the architect of the most talented U.S. Youth National team in history. The graduates from his U.S. U-15 boys national squads (between 2012-2014) represent some of the players that can potentially shape the future of the USMNT including Christian Pulisic, Andrew Carleton, Josh Perez, Tyler Adams, Lucas Del Rosario, and Jose Carranza. He also brought Jonathan Gonzalez to the U.S. National Team program.