Northern Ireland v USA

FACTFILE USA Words Liam Blackburn

INTERNATIONAL

» Former Coventry City and LA Galaxy midfielder Cobi Jones is the country’s most capped player having appeared for The Stars and Stripes on 164 occasions between 1992 and 2004. In total 17 Americans have been capped more than 100 times, including Landon Donovan, Clint Dempsey, Tim Howard, Claudio Reyna and Kasey Keller. » Former Fulham and Tottenham midfielder Dempsey and ex-Everton forward Donovan are USA’s all-time joint top scorers. Dempsey registered 57 times in 141 caps while Donovan reached that same goal haul in 157 caps. » There have been 37 coaches of USA, including Jurgen Klinsmann and ex-Swansea City boss Bob Bradley. Heading into this international break current coach Gregg Berhalter had a 71.74 per cent win ratio – the best of any coach to have taken charge of more than two games. » The Americans have appeared in 17 Gold Cups – the international tournament for nations in North America, Central America and the Caribbean. They have won the tournament on six occasions - most recently in 2017 - and were beaten in the final of the most recent tournament by Mexico two years ago. » America have also appeared in the Copa America and Confederations Cup. In the 2009 Confederations Cup USA beat the great Spain team 2-0 in the semi-finals and were 2-0 up at half-time in the final against Brazil, who came back and won 3-2 in Johannesburg. » USA’s women’s team are the most successful nation in Women’s World Cup history, winning four of the eight editions of the competition. The Americans won the inaugural tournament in 1991 and triumphed again on home soil in 1999 before winning the past two competitions in Canada (2015) and France (2019). » Kristine Lilly won 354 caps for USA’s women’s team across 23 years and is the most capped footballer – male or female – of all time. » The USWNT are currently top of the FIFA Women’s World Rankings and have never been lower than second. The men’s team were 22nd in the most recent rankings, having achieved a high of fourth before the 2006 World Cup.

» USA are facing Northern Ireland for the first time in their history today. » Northern Ireland have previously played matches in the States, though. In May 2006 Lawrie Sanchez’s team faced Uruguay and Romania in friendlies in New Jersey and Chicago respectively. In the game against Uruguay Steven Davis captained his country for the first time and Kyle Lafferty made his senior debut. In 2010 Nigel Worthington’s team lost 2-0 to Turkey in Connecticut. » USA played their first friendly in 1885 against Canada. It was the first time an international game had taken place outside the British Isles. » Though they were absent in 2018, USA have been to 10 World Cups in their history. They were one of the 13 teams who competed in the inaugural World Cup in 1930 and reached the semi-finals having topped a group featuring Belgium and Paraguay. » In that 1930 tournament Bert Patenaude became the first player to score a World Cup hat-trick when he netted a treble against Paraguay. » The Americans were also involved in the 1934 and 1950 World Cups, but they were absent for four decades after that before returning to the global stage in 1990. USA then went to seven successive World Cups before missing out on Russia 2018. » At the 1950 World Cup USA pulled off one of the biggest shocks in international football history when Joe Gaetjens’ goal earned the part-timers a 1-0 victory over England. The victory was later profiled in a book and film called The Game Of Their Lives. » America hosted the 1994 World Cup, while USA, Mexico and Canada are due to host the tournament in 2026. In 1994 more than 3,500,000 people attended games at the nine stadiums across America, making it the best attended World Cup of all time. That year USA advanced beyond the first round at a World Cup for the first time in 64 years and they were beaten by eventual champions Brazil in the last 16. » USA made the quarter-finals at the 2002 World Cup. Bruce Arena’s team beat Portugal 3-2 in the group stage and then eliminated their great CONCACAF rivals Mexico 2-0 to reach the last eight, where they were defeated by Germany.

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