Soccer is the most popular sport on the planet. But which country has the best team? Every four years, that question is answered at the FIFA World Cup.
This year, three countries will host the men’s World Cup. The games will be played in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The six-week tournament kicks off on June 11. Teams from 48 nations are expected to take part. Billions of fans from around the world will watch.
The U.S. last hosted the World Cup in 1994. Before then, the sport wasn’t very popular in the U.S. But the tournament helped lead to a soccer boom, including among kids. From 1990 to 2010, the number of youth players in programs run by U.S. Soccer nearly doubled.
The stars on this year’s U.S. World Cup team started playing soccer during that time. That includes Chris Richards. He loved playing soccer as a kid in Alabama.
“It was a chance to be active and also meet kids around my community,” he says.
Richards’s teammate Tim Ream recalls watching the 1994 World Cup. At the time, he was a 6-year-old in Missouri.
“As young players, we all had dreams of playing for the U.S.A.,” Ream says. “Now as a team, we get to inspire kids who have similar goals and dreams.”