USMNT legends: These are the U.S. soccer players with the most World Cup appearances
The USMNT’s World Cup campaign kickoff off in less than a week, but before they play Paraguay in the opening match they will take on Germany on Saturday.
Some say this could be the golden generation of the USMNT at the World Cup. It’s a team that has a lot of it’s players playing with top clubs across the pond, but there aren’t that many players with heavy experience in this tournament. Christian Pulisic and Weston McKinnie are among the players with the most World Cup matches (four) on Mauricio Pochettino’s squad.
Messi with most, Landon leads US
It’s not surprising that Lionel Messi tops the list of players with most World Cup matches played. He is about to add to his already record setting 26 matches in the World Cup. There aren’t many lists he doesn’t top after spending decades at the summit of soccer at both the club and country level. Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Mexico’s Guillermo Ochoa are set to partake in their sixth World Cup tournament, which is a record that is shared between those soccer icons.
The USMNT doesn’t have as rich of a history in the World Cup. Despite their third place finish in the first edition of the World Cup back in 1930, they have made just 10 of the 20 editions since then. They had a forty year absence from 1950 to 1990, and that has kept any US players from entering the list of top 100 players with most caps in the World Cup.
The US player with the most World Cup caps is Landon Donovan who appeared in three editions of the tournament from 2002 to 2010. He played in every match of each of those three World Cups, reaching the quarterfinals with the team that made the deepest run in the tournament in the modern era. The former Bayern Munich man played five matches helping the US rich the quarters in the 2002 edition from South Korea and Japan.
DaMarcus Beasley is the only US player to have been named to four World Cup squads and play in each of the editions. With 11 caps in the sport’s biggest tournament he is tied with Cobi Jones, and Earnie Stewart who each played in the 1994, 1998 and 2002 World Cups. Beasley debuted in the 2002 quarterfinalist team, playing three matches and was a part of the next three squads in 2006, 2010 and 2014. Claudio Reyna was also named to four World Cup squads, but didn’t play a single minute in the 1994 edition due to a hamstring injury.
1st) Landon Donovan – 12 appearances
3 World Cups
12 appearances
5 as USA reached the quarter-finals in 2002
3 as USA suffered group-stage elimination in 2006
4 as USA reached the last 16 in 2010
2nd) DaMarcus Beasley – 11
4 World Cups
11 appearances
3 as USA reached the quarter-finals in 2002
3 as USA suffered group-stage elimination in 2006
1 as USA reached the last 16 in 2010
4 as USA reached the last 16 in 2014
2nd) Cobi Jones – 11
3 World Cups
11 appearances
4 as USA reached the last 16 in 1994
3 as USA suffered group-stage elimination in 1998
4 as USA reached the quarter-finals in 2002
2nd) Earnie Stewart – 11
3 World Cups
11 appearances
4 as USA reached the last 16 in 1994
3 as USA suffered group-stage elimination in 1998
4 as USA reached the quarter-finals in 2002
5th) Clint Dempsey – 10
10 appearances
2 as USA suffered group-stage elimination in 2006
4 as USA reached the last 16 in 2010
4 as USA reached the last 16 in 2014
5th) Brian McBride – 10
3 World Cups
10 appearances
2 as USA suffered group-stage elimination in 1998
5 as USA reached the quarter-finals in 2002
3 as USA suffered group-stage elimination in 2006
5th) Claudio Reyna – 10
4 World Cups
10 appearances
0 as USA reached the last 16 in 1994
3 as USA suffered group-stage elimination in 1998
4 as USA reached the quarter-finals in 2002
3 as USA suffered group-stage elimination in 2006
8th) Eddie Pope – 9
3 World Cups
9 appearances
2 as USA suffered group-stage elimination in 1998
5 as USA reached the quarter-finals in 2002
2 as USA suffered group-stage elimination in 2006
8th) Tab Ramos – 9
3 World Cups
9 appearances
3 as USA suffered group-stage elimination in 1990
4 as USA reached the last 16 in 1994
2 as USA suffered group-stage elimination in 1998
10th) Marcelo Balboa – 8
10th) Michael Bradley – 8
10th) Tim Howard – 8
10th) Eric Wynalda – 8
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