USMNT aims to secure knockout stage berth in FIFA World Cup with win over Iran

Friday’s match was watched by 20 million in the United States, making it one of the most-watched men’s soccer matches ever in the USA. More than 15 million viewers tuned in on FOX, making it the most-watched men’s match on English language U.S. television, while another 4.6 million watched on Telemundo. The USMNT’s most-watched match all-time came in the 2014 World Cup group stage against Portugal, drawing in 24.7 million viewers. 

USA ROSTER NOTES:

• CAUTION WATCH: The USMNT’s Kellyn Acosta, Sergiño Dest, Weston McKennie and Tim Ream carry yellow cards into the match against IR Iran. If any are shown a yellow card on Tuesday, they will be ineligible for the USA’s potential Round of 16 match.

• The 0-0 draw with England was the USMNT’s first scoreless draw in World Cup play and first shutout against European opposition at the tournament since the 1-0 win against England in 1950.

• Substitutes Gio Reyna and Shaq Moore made their FIFA World Cup debuts. A total of 16 of the 26-man roster have earned their first World Cup caps in the last two matches.

• The Starting XI vs. England was the fifth youngest USMNT World Cup lineup after the three 1990 matches (all just over 24 years) and Monday’s match against Wales (25 years, 102 days).

• Haji Wright was the lone change from Gregg Berhalter’s XI that faced Wales. The Los Angeles product made his first World Cup start, replacing Josh Sargent in the lineup after coming on for him in the 74th minute of Monday’s tournament opener against Wales.
• Tyler Adams captained the USMNT for the 11th time against England. The team is 4-1-6 when Adams wears the armband.

USA-IRAN

• Tuesday marks the third meeting all-time between the USA and Iran, with the U.S. record at 0-1-1.

• It’s the nations’ second meeting at the FIFA World Cup. They previously met at France 1998, a 2-1 group stage defeat for the United States. Iran scored just before the half and bagged an insurance goal in the 84th minute before current USMNT general manager Brian McBride pulled one back in the 87th.

• The teams’ other meeting came in a January 2000 friendly at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif., a 1-1 draw as Chris Armas scored for the U.S.

• The USMNT is 1-1-1 against Asian opposition under head coach Gregg Berhalter.

IRAN ROSTER BY POSITION (CLUB; CAPS/GOALS)

GOALKEEPERS (4): Amir Abedzadeh (Ponferradina/ESP; 11/0), Alireza Beiranvand (Persepolis; 53/0), Hossein Hosseini (Esteghlal; 8/0), Payam Niazmand (Sepahan; 1/0) 

DEFENDERS (10): Rouzbeh Cheshmi (Esteghlal; 21/2), Ehsan Hajsafi (AEK Athens/GRE; 123/7), Majid Hosseini (Kayserispor/TUR; 20/0), Abolfazl Jalali (Esteghlal; 3/0), Hossein Kanaanizadegan (Al-Ahli/QAT; 36/2), Shojae Khalilzadeh (Al-Ahli/QAT; 25/1), Milad Mohammadi (AEK Athens/GRE; 47/1), Sadegh Moharrami (Dinamo Zagreb/CRO; 22/0), Morteza Pouraliganji (Persepolis; 48/3), Ramin Rezaeian (Sepahan; 47/3)

MIDFIELDERS (8): Vahid Amiri (Persepolis; 68/2), Saeid Ezatolahi (Vejle/ DEN; 49/1), Saman Ghoddos (Brentford/ENG; 33/2), Ali Gholizadeh (Charleroi/BEL; 28/6), Alireza Jahanbakhsh (Feyenoord/NED; 66/13), Ali Karimi (Kayserispor/TUR; 15/0), Ahmad Nourollahi (Shabab Al-Ahli/UAE; 28/3), Mehdi Torabi (Persepolis; 37/7)

FORWARDS (3): Karim Ansarifard (Omonia/CYP; 95/29), Sardar Azmoun (Bayer Leverkusen/GER; 67/41), Mehdi Taremi (Porto/POR; 62/30)

IRAN STAYS ALIVE

In its opening match of the tournament against England, Iran starting goalkeeper Alireza Beiranvand suffered a head injury in the game’s early going and the floodgates opened late in the first half as the Three Lions scored a 6-2 victory. Needing a result in its second match against Wales to keep its advancement hopes alive, Team Melli earned a dramatic 2-0 win on two late goals. Welsh goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey was shown a red card in the 86th minute and Iran was able to put two past his replacement in stoppage time with defender Rouzbeh Cheshmi scoring in the eighth minute and defender Ramin Rezaeian securing the three points in the 11th.

IN FOCUS: IRAN

WORLD CUP HISTORY

• Qatar 2022 marks the fifth appearance for Iran at the World Cup and their third straight participation.
• Team Melli has never advanced from the group stage at the World Cup, finishing third behind Spain and Portugal at Russia 2018. Its four points at that tournament were its best-ever, topping Morocco and drawing Portugal.

HOW THEY GOT HERE:

• Iran qualified for the World Cup as winner of one of the two Asian Football Confederation qualifying groups and is one of six Asian nations at Qatar 2022, the first World Cup held in an AFC nation.

• Team Melli went 8-1-1 in its 10-game qualifying campaign against Iraq, Korea Republic, Lebanon, Syria and United Arab Emirates.

• Iran punched its ticket with a win vs. Iraq on January 27 with three games still to play, becoming the first Asian nation to qualify for the World Cup.

• The team’s 49 goals in its two rounds of World Cup qualifying were second-most in the AFC, trailing only Japan’s 58. 

IRAN SQUAD:

• Sixteen of Iran’s 25-man roster ply their trade abroad across Europe and the Middle East in Greece, Turkey and Qatar (two players each), as well as Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, England, Germany, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and the United Arab Emirates.

• Nine players come from the domestic Persian Gulf Pro League. Four players are based at Persepolis in Tehran, one of the country’s most successful clubs.

• AEK Athens defender Ehsan Hajsafi serves as captain and leads the squad with 123 caps for IR Iran.

• Bayer Leverkusen forward Sardar Azmoun is the team’s top scorer with 41 goals in 67 appearances for Team Melli. He’s followed by Porto striker Mehdi Taremi, who has netted 30 times for Iran in 62 games, including the goal against Iraq that punched the team’s World Cup ticket. He also scored both of Iran’s goals in the 6-2 defeat to England to open the tournament.

IRAN HEAD COACH: CARLOS QUEIROZ

• The longest-serving head coach in Iran’s history, Carlos Queiroz returned for a second stint leading Team Melli in September 2022 after Croatian manager Dragan Skočić guided the team through most of its successful qualifying campaign.

• A Portuguese native, Queiroz is the first manager to lead Iran at three FIFA World Cups. His first spell with the team lasted from April 2011 to November 2019, stepping down after Iran’s semifinal exit at the 2019 Asian Cup.

• Queiroz has recorded a 63-28-14 mark all-time at the helm of Iran.

• Prior to returning to Iran, he managed Egypt during its World Cup qualifying campaign. The Pharaohs narrowly missed out on Qatar 2022, falling to Senegal in penalties for a spot at the tournament.

• Queiroz has coached clubs and national teams on five continents, including Colombia, Portugal and South Africa’s national teams as well as Portugal’s Sporting CP and Japan’s Nagoya Grampus Eight.

• He coached the New York/New Jersey MetroStars during the inaugural 1996 MLS season and led the team, featuring USMNT stars Tony Meola, Tab Ramos and Peter Vermes.

YOUNG AMERICANS

The USMNT is the second youngest team at the World Cup and was by far the youngest team to qualify for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, garnering valuable experience going through the rigors of World Cup qualifying. Through 14 qualifiers, the USA Starting XI came in at an average of 23.82, almost two years younger than the next closest team, Ghana at 25.67. Together, the other 31 participating teams averaged a Starting XI age of 27.5 through qualifying, nearly four full years older than the U.S.

From the available data for qualified teams, the USMNT played 10 of the 11 youngest lineups worldwide during the qualifying cycle, with all 14 lineups falling in the 23 youngest Starting XIs in the world dating back to October 2020.

The 2022 team ties the 1990 USA side for most U-23 players on a USMNT World Cup roster with nine: Tyler Adams (23); Brenden Aaronson, Sergiño Dest, Josh Sargent and Tim Weah (22); Jesús Ferreira (21); Gio Reyna (20); Yunus Musah and Joe Scally (19).

With the inclusion of Musah, Reyna and Scally, this is the first USMNT World Cup squad with more than one teenager named to the roster, though Gio Reyna turned 20 on Nov. 12 and Yunus Musah will do so on Nov. 29, the day of the USA’s final group stage match against IR Iran. 

HIGHEST LEVEL FOR CLUB AND COUNTRY

While 25 of 26 U.S. players arrived to Qatar sans World Cup experience, the USMNT roster is no stranger to some of soccer’s biggest stages at the club level. Five of  the 26 are participating in this year’s UEFA Champions League, the sport’s premier club competition, while 14 play for teams in the world’s top five leagues (England, Germany, Spain, Italy and France).

This USMNT World Cup roster boasts perhaps the most impressive list of club homes ever at the tournament, with players at some of Europe’s most storied teams. Forward Christian Pulisic helped Chelsea win the UEFA Champions League in 2020-21, becoming the first American to play in the UCL Final. Defender Sergiño Dest moved this season to reigning Italian champion AC Milan, while goalkeeper Matt Turner is plying his trade for English Premier League leader Arsenal. Midfielder Weston McKennie’s club Juventus won the Italian league championship nine times in a row from 2011-12 through 2019-20.

ONLY FORWARD

The USMNT’s World Cup squad reflects the success of the U.S. Soccer player development pathway, as many of the players came up through the U.S. Youth National Teams program and spent time in the U.S. Soccer Development Academy and/or the U.S. Soccer U-17 Residency Program.

Fourteen players – just over half the roster – have represented the USA in at least one FIFA Youth World Cup. Four took the field together at two separate tournaments: Tyler Adams, Luca de la Torre Christian Pulisic and Haji Wright at the 2015 U-17 World Cup in Chile, and Adams, Cameron Carter-Vickers, de la Torre and Josh Sargent at the 2017 U-20 World Cup in Korea Republic.

Seventeen of 26 played in the U.S. Soccer Development Academy, run by the Federation as the nation’s highest level of youth soccer from 2007-2020 to maximize youth player development by positively impacting everyday club environments. Seven players participated in the Residency Program, an elite training environment for the country’s best youth players at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla. From 1999-2017.

BE THE CHANGE

Following the death of George Floyd in May 2020 and continuing growth of the important Black Lives Matter movement, the members of the U.S. Men’s National Team were inspired to develop their own mission statement to send and spread a meaningful message. From a diverse and united group, a call to action emerged: Be the Change.

The spirit of our message is that each and every person has the ability, opportunity and responsibility to make a difference in their own way. The motto has been brought to life in a number of different ways. Last June, the USMNT advocated for stricter gun control with armbands and an imploring letter to Congress to pass legislation.

Now, with the eyes of the world on the 2022 FIFA World Cup, the USMNT and U.S. Soccer will continue to elevate and advance the Be the Change message, inviting everyone on the journey to make a positive and lasting impact.