United States of America

The US national team won third place in the inaugural 1930 World Cup, but their progress since has been topsy-turvy. They exceed their expectations in a tourney only to fail utterly in the next. They remain the only team outside Europe and South America to win a third place at a World Cup

USA, with Canada, has played the first international match outside UK, in 1885, although the FIFA recognized debut came in 1916 against Sweden, won 3-2. USA hosted the World Cup's first indoor game at Detroit in 1994 edition

Being one of the best movers in the last year or so, United States has developed a habit to score their majority of goals from close range. But their inability to come back from behind combined with being prone to concede early remain the major headaches that need to be rectified

US Soccer Federation (USSF)
Confederation: CONCACAF (North America)
Coach: Jurgen Klinsmann (GER)

Their debut achievement and the 1950 heroics, where they managed a great upset by beating England 1-0, sandwich a first round exit in 1934. The trend continued as they managed to get into knockouts in 1994, 2002 and 2010 whereas they exited at group stage in 1990, 1998 and 2006. They've attended the confed cup a few times and won third places in their first two appearances. Their CONCACAF record is much better though, with five gold cups to their name

They overcame their loss to Honduras in their first qualifier, to tread through the rest of the campaign with seven wins out of ten games. They scored a record 15 goals in the Hexagonal while conceding just eight and topped the CONCACAF group to qualify automatically for the World Cup

The trend of US in the world cups might continue as the team has been placed in one of the toughest groups alongside Germany, Portugal and Ghana. Their history goes against them when facing Ghana, whereas Germany and Portugal might prove to be too good to lose against them. They might need  a string of upsets for them to qualify for the knockouts

Coach Jurgen Klinsmann announced the final 23 roster for the World Cup on May 22

May 12: Jurgen Klinsmann announced a 30-man provisional squad for USMNT

Ghana vs USA on June 16 at Natal

USA vs Portugal on June 22 at Manaus

USA vs Germany on June 26 at Recife