A field guide for the United States

America, meet fútbol.

Learn the game. Find a team. Compete. Follow the world’s best as we build toward a U.S. men’s World Cup championship.

How to Play Find your way to play

From the local field to the world stage.

FIRST TOUCH00:00

Eleven players. One ball. Space is the game. Start with the shape. The rules make more sense after that.

USMNT•USWNT•MLS•NWSL•U.S. OPEN CUP•AMERICANS ABROAD•THE WORLD GAME•USMNT•USWNT•MLS•NWSL

How to Play · First Touch

See the game before you memorize it.

Five short plays turn the field into a coach’s board. Follow the drawn route, circled player, and handwritten cue one slide at a time. No timer—move on when you’re ready.

Lesson 01 / 05

The point is space, not possession.

Two teams of eleven try to put the ball in the other goal. In open play, only the goalkeeper may handle it inside their own penalty area; throw-ins are a separate restart. Everything else is about creating, closing, and attacking space.

Watch for: the team without the ball becoming compact while the team with it stretches the field.

Check the official Law ↗

SLIDE 01 / 03

Blue has the ball. Red protects the middle.

Assistant referee test

Now you make the call.

A forward is beyond the second-last defender when the pass is played, but never touches the ball or blocks an opponent.

Call 1 / 30 right

Choose the decision, then we’ll show you why.

U.S. Fútbol

Build the game that can win.

The ambition is a U.S. men’s World Cup title. The work begins wherever Americans train, join teams, and play competitive matches.

01 / Find a local team02 / Train regularly03 / Play real matches04 / Raise the standard

Get in the game

Find a team. Face an opponent.

School, club, or adult league: competitive fútbol starts with a place to train and a match to play. Your state association is a practical first contact.

Find your state association ↗

National teams

USMNT + USWNT

Fixtures, squads, tournament paths, and the matches that move each team forward.

Official U.S. Soccer desk ↗

Men’s club game

MLS + Open Cup

The league season, the country’s knockout competition, and the clubs building local culture.

MLS ↗Open Cup ↗

Women’s club game

NWSL

Clubs, players, standings, and the league shaping the women’s professional game in America.

Official NWSL desk ↗

Passport tracker

Americans abroad

Which U.S. players are active, where their clubs sit, and which competitions deserve your attention.

Open the league passports ↓

League passports

Know the competition around the player.

A player’s club only tells half the story. The league explains the rhythm, stakes, calendar, and path into continental competition.

EnglandPremier League + WSLCountry context ↗ SpainLa Liga + Liga FCountry context ↗ GermanyBundesliga + Frauen-BundesligaCountry context ↗ ItalySerie ACountry context ↗ FranceLigue 1 + Première LigueCountry context ↗ MexicoLiga MX + Liga MX FemenilCountry context ↗

World Cup · a North American stage

The Cup came to North America.

Mexico, Canada, and the United States shared the stage. The U.S. ambition now is to turn that home-field moment into players who can win the men’s tournament.

The Cup that came to North America · 2026

Three nations.
One continent.
Forty-eight teams.

It opened in Mexico City, crossed Canadian and U.S. grounds, and ended with the final in New Jersey. Hosting made North America the stage; the teams from around the world made the story. Explore the hosts and tournament ↗

01 / MEXICOThe opening whistle.

Mexico City began the tournament; Guadalajara and Monterrey carried it onward.

02 / CANADAThe northern grounds.

Toronto and Vancouver brought the Cup across the border.

03 / UNITED STATESThe final ground.

Eleven host cities, from Los Angeles to the New York–New Jersey final.

The U.S. home chapter · two matches to remember

United States and Paraguay players on the field at SoFi Stadium, with a home crowd behind them. — USA–Paraguay · Los Angeles · June 12Photo: Alexis Doine ↗ · CC0

01 / LOS ANGELESUSA 4–1 Paraguay

A host nation comes out swinging.

Folarin Balogun scored twice in the U.S. opener. A home crowd got an immediate reason to care about the whole run, not just a single spectacle.

Read and watch the U.S. Soccer recap ↗

Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara during a World Cup match between Australia and Paraguay on June 25, 2026. — Same venue, different match: Australia–Paraguay · June 25Photo: Kaisersauce1 ↗ · CC BY 4.0 · display crop

02 / SANTA CLARAUSA 2–0 Bosnia and Herzegovina

Ten players. One way through.

In the round of 32, the U.S. lost a player to a red card, then scored again. Surviving short-handed became the chapter people could carry into the next match.

See the match and highlights ↗

03 / THE UNDERDOG · CABO VERDE

They arrived with no World Cup history. They left one.

Four games. No easy opponent. The Blue Sharks made their first tournament feel like a whole country stepping onto the field.

Cabo Verde and Uruguay playing at the 2026 World Cup in Miami, with the stadium scoreboard showing Uruguay 2, Cabo Verde 1 before the equalizer. — Uruguay–Cabo Verde · Miami, before the equalizer · Whoisjohngalt ↗ · CC0 · display crop

Cabo Verde goalkeeper Vozinha wearing the team's yellow jersey at the Saudi Arabia match. — Vozinha · Saudi Arabia match · Petsbikes ↗ · CC BY 4.0 · display crop

Their first World Cup match was against Spain, the European champion. Forty-year-old goalkeeper Vozinha kept them out. Cabo Verde left Atlanta with a 0–0 draw and the feeling that this was not a ceremonial debut.

01 · ATLANTASpain 0–0 Cabo Verde
The newcomers took a point from a favorite on opening night.
02 · MIAMIUruguay 2–2 Cabo Verde
Kevin Pina scored their first World Cup goal. Down 2–1, Hélio Varela brought them back.
03 · HOUSTONCabo Verde 0–0 Saudi Arabia
A third draw was enough. On debut, they were through to the knockout round.
04 · MIAMIArgentina 3–2 Cabo Verde · after extra time
Messi’s team led twice; Cabo Verde answered twice. An own goal in the 111th minute ended the run.

They did not win a match. They made the defending champions fight for the right to keep playing. That is an underdog story with an ending worth telling.

Meet Vozinha at CAF ↗Read the Argentina match at CAF ↗

04 / THE FINAL · SPAIN VS ARGENTINA

The phenom. The legend. And the team that won.

New Jersey, July 19. Nineteen-year-old Lamine Yamal faced 39-year-old Lionel Messi with the World Cup between their countries.

Lamine Yamal in Spain's red jersey during the 2026 World Cup final. — Lamine Yamal · separate frame from the final · Bryan Berlin ↗ · CC BY-SA 4.0 · display crop

Lionel Messi in Argentina's striped jersey during the 2026 World Cup final. — Lionel Messi · separate frame from the final · Bryan Berlin ↗ · CC BY-SA 4.0 · display crop

The billing was irresistible: a teenager at the beginning against a champion near the end. But the match resisted a simple passing-of-the-torch script.

Spain controlled the ball. Emiliano Martínez kept Argentina in it, denying Yamal early and turning away his free kick late in normal time. Argentina lost Enzo Fernández to a second yellow card. The goal still did not arrive until extra time, when substitute Ferran Torres struck in the 106th minute.

Spain won 1–0. Yamal and Messi gave the final its human scale; Spain’s collective play—and Torres’s finish—gave it an outcome.

Watch the final and read FIFA’s report ↗

The long memory

Four moments that outlived the score.

World Cup stories belong to nations, but one move can become everybody’s reference point.

1950

Belo Horizonte

The impossible American upset.

Joe Gaetjens’ goal gave the United States a 1–0 World Cup win over England—the result that still explains why one match can live forever.

FIFA match history ↗

1970

Mexico City

A team goal becomes an idea.

Brazil moved the ball from its own end to Carlos Alberto’s finish, turning the World Cup final into a lasting picture of collective play.

Watch the goal at FIFA ↗

1986

Mexico City

Two goals, one argument forever.

Maradona’s handball and his slaloming second goal arrived minutes apart. Fútbol can hold outrage and genius in the same match.

Watch at FIFA ↗

1999

Pasadena

The kick America remembers.

Brandi Chastain converted the deciding penalty at the Rose Bowl and supplied the defining image of a home World Cup victory.

Watch at FIFA ↗

Word Play

Learn the word by watching the move.

Pick a term, then choose each slide at your own pace. The coach marks the move on the same board used above.

In the commentary

Press

Close down the player with the ball and take away the easy next pass.

Watch the blue players close the ball and the passing lane.