The Road to World Cup Glory

The Road to World Cup Glory

A Long and Winding Path
Lies Ahead but Is Within Reach

By Victor Bryant | July 9, 2026

Despite a disappointing exit from the World Cup for the United States Men’s National Team (USMNT) that was shrouded in controversy as a result of Folarin Balogun’s suspended red card, there is no doubt that the team captivated the nation and displayed developmental gains and overall talent on the pitch.

Coming into the World Cup, conventional wisdom held that the USMNT was still two or three cycles away from catching up to the world’s elite teams, such as France, Argentina, and Spain. A failure to advance beyond the round of 16 due to the 4-1 loss to Belgium did little to dispel that notion, but the reality is that the group stage victories over Paraguay and Australia and the round of 32 victory over Bosnia and Herzegovina represent some of the best soccer this country has ever produced.

All 26 players that make up the 2026 United States World Cup roster have unique backgrounds but have coalesced into something greater than the sum of its parts. That chemistry has been years in the making, so it’s hard to believe that the bizarre circumstances surrounding Balogun’s red card didn’t have an adverse effect on the team during its knockout game against Belgium. Putting that into perspective is vital to understanding how to continue developing homegrown talent. 

According to current UC Santa Barbara assistant coach Carson Vom Steeg, the United States soccer program is heading in the right direction. It’s a subject he knows something about since he’s spent much of his life experiencing firsthand the development of United States soccer.

Tim Vom Steeg, the head coach who built UC Santa Barbara men’s soccer into a national powerhouse, is Carson’s father. Growing up under senior Vom Steeg’s watchful eye, Carson excelled from a young age. He was selected to compete for the United States at the under-14, under-18 and under-20 age groups. 

Although he never reached the senior national team, Vom Steeg wore the captain’s armband at the U18 level and had an up-close look at several players now on the United States’ World Cup roster. He saw how American players profited by training, not only in this country’s Major League Soccer programs, but also in European Club programs. 

Throughout Europe, club teams have training systems developed long before soccer was considered a major sport in this county and, Vom Steeg noted, that is where the outstanding players now on powerhouse teams in European leagues have all been trained. 

At the same time, this country’s Major Soccer League is also growing in strength, and he believes that this will continue to grow the development of training systems here. This, he said, was clear from the way the United States thrived in the group stage. “They are getting experience that we have yet to fully offer in this country,” Vom Steeg said, “but we’re getting pretty close.”

Key players on the current USMNT, such as Christian Pulisic, who joined German Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund’s academy at age 16, and defensive stalwart Chris Richards, who moved from the FC Dallas Academy to Bayern Munich’s academy as a teenager, are examples of the benefits of training in Europe’s top systems.

Another example on the U.S. team has been the emergence of Folarin Balogun, whose relentless attacking style and goal-scoring prowess has added a missing ingredient. A birthright U.S. citizen, he moved as a young boy with his Nigerian parents to England, where he developed his soccer skills, training at the prestigious Arsenal Football Club’s academy. Nevertheless, when the time came to join a national team, Balogun chose to represent the United States, the country of his birth.

It will be hard for the United States to quickly replicate the infrastructure that supports European soccer academies. One massive logistical hurdle that must be addressed in the United States is cost. Throughout Europe and across the globe, soccer is a working-class sport, but in the United States, club soccer costs price out a huge chunk of the talent pool.

Another problem is that most Major League Soccer academies only begin recruiting players between U-12 and U-14 (ages 11-13), although many clubs have opened pre-academy or development programs that start as young as U-8 or U-9. These young players, however, generally continue attending their regular school, with all its distractions, while in soccer training.

At top European academies, children as young as 6 years old are enlisted to begin training, and by age 13, those players begin moving away from home to join team academies. Many of the elite academies have boarding facilities where regular schooling is integrated into the daily experience.

That’s different from the system in this country. At age 15, Vom Steeg had joined an MLS Academy, which is now known as LAFC So Cal Youth, where he competed while attending San Marcos High School. He later signed with Stanford, helping the Cardinal win the NCAA national championship as a freshman. It was a great experience, but did not offer some of the intense training happening for those at European academies.

Another major part of the development programs in Europe, Vom Steeg observed, is the chance young academy players have to compete with and against top professionals from the team clubs during training sessions. When Vom Steeg was playing in the U18 group, he was playing against European youth national teams, including against Sweden, where he had a strong performance against Sweden’s striker Alexander Isak, who has since developed into one of the world’s top forwards, currently playing for Liverpool in the Premier League.

“It was obviously an honor and some of the best moments of my life putting on the captain’s armband and carrying the U.S. banner out,” Vom Steeg said, still somewhat amazed by his rapid rise. “You couldn’t really ask for more as a 16-year-old kid who wanted to be a professional athlete than to put on the stars and stripes and represent your country.”

Vom Steeg’s final national team camp was in Honduras at the U-20 level. Current World Cup standout Chris Richards was his center-back partner. The experience left a lasting impression.

“Chris is obviously above average, if not excellent, in almost every area,” Vom Steeg said. “But the thing that stood out to me was his calmness on the ball. His head was always in a calm state. At center back, a position where we had a lot of questions heading into the World Cup, he’s become one of those guys whose name you pencil into the lineup because you know exactly what you’re going to get.”

Vom Steeg also played alongside Tyler Adams at both the U14 and U18 levels. Adams emerged as a prodigy through the New York Red Bulls Academy, making his professional debut at age 16. He currently plays for Bournemouth in the Premier League.

“Those are players where, when you play with them — especially Tyler and Chris when I was with them at the U20 level — you just knew these guys were going to be leading our country in a few years,” Vom Steeg said.

Vom Steeg had transferred to UC Santa Barbara after his freshman season at Stanford to play for his father, Tim. However, a season-ending injury in 2019, followed by the COVID-19 pandemic that canceled the 2020 season, created nearly a three-year stretch without competitive matches during his Gaucho career.

After graduating from UCSB in 2021, Vom Steeg began his professional career with Loudoun United, in Leesburg, Virginia, logging 1,819 minutes during the club’s 2022 campaign. At the time, Loudoun served as the reserve team for Major League Soccer’s D.C. United, and his performances earned him a first-team call-up, resulting in one appearance for the Black-and-Red. He joined Memphis 901 FC ahead of the 2023 season and went on to make 42 appearances across two campaigns with the USL Championship club, before retiring from playing and turning his soccer experiences to coaching.

“It’s been fun to see those guys at the World Cup,” Vom Steeg said of his former teammates. “Obviously, I wish I was out there as well.”