USMNT to Star in Documentary Series Ahead of 2026 World Cup, Featuring Pulisic, McKennie and More

Before opening play on soccer’s grandest stage this summer, the U.S. men’s national team will first come under the spotlight of a new documentary series, “U.S. Against the World: Four Years with the Men’s National Soccer Team.”

The first episode of the HBO Original produced by Park Stories, “The Golden Generation,” airs Tuesday at 9 p.m. ET on HBO Max, exactly one month out from the USMNT’s opening match of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Each of the four remaining episodes will be rolled out weekly, every Tuesday until June 9.

As the Stars and Stripes gear up for a historic run on home soil next month—with 16 cities across the U.S., Canada and Mexico hosting the tournament—the documentary first turns the clock back, following the squad over the course of the past four years. It begins with the lead up to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, as the USMNT chases a spot in the global tournament for the first time since 2014, after failing to qualify in 2018.

The documentary centers on the likes of Christian Pulisic, Tyler Adams and Weston McKennie, among other American stars, who made their World Cup debut in 2022 as youngsters but will now come into the 2026 tournament as seasoned veterans, knowing exactly what it takes to thrive in soccer’s most competitive atmosphere. At least 12 of the U.S.’s rostered players this summer will have prior World Cup experience.

Growing the Game in the U.S.

Releasing the documentary series is just the latest way U.S. Soccer is bolstering not only excitement around the team, but soccer fandom in the U.S. in general, before the sport’s greatest event comes to its doorstep.

Across the U.S., interest in soccer still largely trails that of football, basketball and baseball. Hosting the World Cup—something the U.S. hasn’t done since 1994— has been viewed as an incredible opportunity to grow the game, and the USMNT are intent on capitalizing on it. To do so most effectively, though, the squad will need more than documentary cameras. It will need results.

“We can understand what they’re going through as far as the pressure in 2026 because you want to have success in front of your fans,” Cobi Jones, a 1994 USMNT star, told Sports Illustrated in February. “You know what it means. You know that if you have a successful World Cup, it allows for exponential growth of the game within your country.”

The USMNT has never gone farther than the quarterfinal stage in the modern era of the World Cup, a feat it achieved over 20 years ago in the 2002 tournament in South Korea and Japan. Since then, they’ve been stuck in the round of 16, if not eliminated in the group stages.

Pochettino has a lofty ambition of a semifinal run, and although it appears out of reach for the Stars and Stripes, given the likes of Argentina, France, Spain and Portugal, among other powerhouses, will be breathing down their necks, it certainly isn’t impossible. In fact, the U.S. has a rather winnable group stage, facing Paraguay, Australia and Türkiye. Many of its star players, such as McKennie and Folarin Balogun, are also peaking at the perfect time, all aside from Pulisic, whose dreadful scoring drought persists.

Add those two factors, plus a little luck and “home field” advantage, and it could be a historic summer for the Americans.

READ THE LATEST USMNT NEWS, ANALYSIS AND INSIGHT FROM SI FC

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