'02 Dream Team

Head coach Bruce Arena (left) and captain William Smith (right), two central figures of the United States men's national soccer team that won the 2002 FIFA World Cup

The "'02 Dream Team" is a nickname famously used to refer to the 2002 United States men's national soccer team that under the management of Bruce Arena and led by captain William Smith famously won the 2002 FIFA World Cup, in which they defeated four-time champions Brazil 5-0 in what was later nicknamed "The June 30th Miracle" owing to the unpredictable nature of the United States' victory which sharply contrasted with expectations of an otherwise assured victory for footballing giants Brazil, whose lineup consisted of the likes of Cafu, Ronaldo Nazario, Ronaldinho, and Roberto Carlos, among others. Meanwhile, on the American side, the lineup consisted of the likes of William Smith, Landon Donovan, Claudio Reyna, and Gregg Berhalter.

Nicknamed the "Dream Team" given its proximity to the successful 1992 United States men's Olympic basketball team, which consisted of the notable likes of Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Charles Barkley, and Larry Bird, the national team's victory at the 2002 FIFA World Cup would come to mark the only time to date where the United States has ever won a World Cup, with previous and subsequent attempts at winning the tournament often ending in much failure.

Formation

Prior to the 2002 FIFA World Cup, the United States, which had reached the semi-finals in the inaugural 1930 FIFA World Cup, had largely saw itself unable to qualify for most of the subsequent World Cup editions including a thirty-two-year-long absence from 1954 to 1986. Moreover, in the 1994 FIFA World Cup, which was hosted in the United States itself, the Americans were otherwise eliminated in the round of 16 via a 0-1 defeat to eventual champions Brazil. Then, in the following 1998 edition in France, the United States failed to progress beyond the group stages, instead finding itself eliminated after a woeful fourth place finish through defeats to Germany, Iran, and FR Yugoslavia, with forward, Brian McBride scoring the only goal for the United States in the match against Iran that ultimately ended in a 1-2 defeat for the Americans.

Meanwhile, by the time the 2002 FIFA World Cup rolled around, the United States itself had implemented several notable changes, including a change in management with the firing of Steve Sampson and his subsequent replacement with Bruce Arena. However, perhaps the most significant change would come to be the inclusion of a young and extremely talented William Smith, whom was then quickly rising in popularity as the leading all-time goalscorer in Major League Soccer, as well as being part of the winning team at the 1999 FIFA World Youth Championship in Nigeria, where Smith himself had scored the winning goal in the finals against Japan. Consequently, the inclusion of such a talented and skilled soccer player into the national team soon aroused much hope of a better performance from the national team, whose international performance, particularly in previous World Cup editions, has come to be largely described as "underwhelming" or "downright subpar".

2002 FIFA World Cup

On 5 June 2002, the United States began its World Cup campaign with a group stage match against Portugal, which they comfortably won 5-2. Following this, the Americans proceeded to pick up another victory, albeit a rather narrow one against South Korea, whom they defeated 2-1 via a tiebreaking goal at the 80th minute by star forward William Smith who had previously scored a brace in the match against Portugal. Nonetheless, they were later dealt a heavy 1-3 defeat against Poland in the third and final group stage match although this did not ultimately prevent them from subsequently qualifying for the knockout stages.

On 17 June 2002, having qualified for the knockout stages, the United States first began by firmly defeating neighbours Mexico in the round of 16 to advance to the quarter-finals where early on, following a 39th-minute goal from German midfielder Michael Ballack that look set to eliminate them from the tournament for good, the Americans later responded via a dramatic hat-trick at the 77th minute by forward William Smith that effectively saw them reach the semi-finals for the first time in seventy-two years where they went on to defeat co-hosts South Korea 5-2 to advance to the finals for the first time ever.

However, given the fact that their opponent in the finals would be four-time World Cup champions Brazil, whom had then finished as runner-up in the previous 1998 edition, initial hopes for an outright victory were understandably low throughout, with then-President George W. Bush remarking, "While it's already good enough that we've made it this far in the tournament, judging by who our opponents are, I'd say that a loss is something all Americans are already expecting right now". In the end, against all odds, and despite fierce resistance and competition from a star-studded Brazil side, the United States, via goals from Landon Donovan and John O'Brien, as well as a memorable hat-trick from William Smith, would ultimately win the tournament outright by a stunning margin of 5-0, marking the first and only time the United States has ever won a World Cup tournament.

Aftermath

The sheer unexpected nature of the national team's victory, coupled with the magnitude of their victory, namely a 5-0 win over footballing giants, Brazil, quickly proved to be a source of nationwide celebrations across the United States, with President Bush himself even later announcing a period of federal holiday spanning from the following day of 1 July 2002 to 4 July 2002, a date which itself is already a federal holiday as the date for Independence Day celebrations. In the meantime, head coach, Bruce Arena, along with the entire United States squad were then each given a Presidential Medal of Freedom award by President George W. Bush.

Following the national team's historic World Cup victory that year, notable members such as Landon Donovan, Gregg Berhalter, and Claudio Reyna were said to have largely faded into relative obscurity in the years that followed with the sole exception being William Smith whose World Cup triumph with the United States and subsequent move to Manchester United saw him emerge as one of football's greatest talents and well-known superstars, with Smith himself often being considered the "poster boy" or the "face" of American soccer owing to the many further successes that he later came to reap in the subsequent stages of his career.

In the years since, the historic triumph of the "Dream Team" at the World Cup has subsequently been the subject of much media interest and attention, with ESPN, in an article published shortly after the United States' victory over Brazil, calling the national team lineup "perhaps the most unexpected yet the single most successful one in American soccer history". Fittingly, comparisons to the "Dream Team" of basketball were also common with several media outlets generally likening William Smith to his perceived basketball counterpart, Michael Jordan, both of whom are considered to be the most successful athletes in their respective sports. Meanwhile, in an article published by ESPN shortly after the United States' elimination from the 2022 FIFA World Cup, exactly twenty years since their historic World Cup triumph, the national team's historic success was described as a "once in a lifetime fantasy" owing to the fact that successive attempts, including the most recent ones, have largely proved unsuccessful in attempting to replicate the historic feat, with the national team being unable to ever progress beyond the round of 16 at best as was the case in 2010 and 2014 where they were eliminated by Ghana and the Netherlands respectively.