With the World Cup rapidly approaching, the United States men’s national team is looking for redemption after missing out on the tournament entirely in 2018. Though the squad is expected to be competitive, the chance of a deep run through the bracket seems unlikely.
Given the wealth of athleticism in the U.S., it’s become somewhat natural over the years to hypothesize about what the men’s soccer team could look like if the country’s best athletes turned their talents to the pitch. Think about a 6’ 8” LeBron James at striker or Derrick Henry and Saquon Barkley streaking down the wing to collapse opposing defenses.
ESPN took the matter a step further on Friday, two days before the start of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, tweeting out a graphic from the SportsCenter account of what a USMNT might look like if it was comprised entirely of stars from sports outside of soccer. Among the notables were James, Barkley, Patrick Mahomes, Mike Trout and Steph Curry, in addition to other elite players across the four major American men’s leagues.
Though seemingly a fun exercise, the post came under fire fairly quickly. Head-scratching Photoshop work aside, the graphic highlighted 11 sensational athletes, but there’s no real reason to suggest that any of them would be able to hold their own on the pitch against the world’s best footballers. Not to mention that such a post is somewhat insulting to the 26 actual soccer players that will represent the U.S. in Qatar over the next month.
Because of the backlash, ESPN deleted the tweet shortly after posting.
The graphic felt like a clear successor to a 2019 tweet from Bleacher Report, that featured the USWNT stars in front of group of random famous Americans such as Beyoncé, Steve Carell and Iron Man (seriously). Similarly, the post was deleted once of wave of backlash came in from around the Internet.
Even though LeBron won’t be heading in crosses and Bam Adebayo won’t be making game-changing saves in net, the actual USMNT will look to hold its own over the next few weeks. The team opens group play on Monday against Wales.
