The Long Game

Praise for The Long Game:

“If you love The Ball Is Round or Simon Kuper’s Soccer Against the Enemy or anything by Franklin Foer, you are going to love [The Long Game]. . . . Buy one for every single room in your home.”
—Taylor Rockwell, “The Total Soccer Show”

“Excellent. . . A really good book.”
—David Roth, “The Distraction,” a Defector podcast

“[Schaerlaeckens] reconstructs the arc of American performance on the international stage, including the all-time World Cup high of a 1-0 win over England in 1950. . . . The book is bursting with characters offering theories about when, exactly, soccer will arrive.”
—Gabriel Debenedett, Bloomberg Businessweek

“Cannot recommend this book highly enough—even though I am only a semi-reformed USMNT hater, I devoured it. It’s the best thing written about the team—insightful, really funny, exceptionally reported. If you have any interest in the U.S. men’s team at all, read this book!”
—Alex Shephard, via Bluesky

“The best review I could possibly give: my sister and I were talking about the book *near* our other sister and we accidentally convinced her to read it before the World Cup begins. Terrific read whether you’re a USMNT obsessive or just a fan of great stories.”
—Pardeep Cattry, via Bluesky

“[Schaerlaeckens] vividly chronicles the tumultuous journey of American men’s soccer by placing the team’s recent rise in the context of decades of institutional disorganization and on-field struggles. Fans will find this a boon.”
—Publishers Weekly

“Well-researched. . . . Enlightening. . . . Schaerlaeckens smartly blends accounts of key tournaments with locker-room color. He notes that a love triangle involving two 1990s American stars didn’t exactly help team chemistry; nor did superstar coach Jürgen Klinsmann’s unaccountable decision to cut high-scoring Landon Donovan in 2014. . . . An authoritative, strenuously timely history of America’s efforts to compete with traditional soccer powerhouses.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“The United States has put a man on the moon and invented such important technologies as the beer helmet. But we are yet to work out how to develop a Men’s Football team who, in the modern period, can challenge the world’s best. If you want to know why, this book tells the tale, rife with pioneering, yearning, and self-sabotage.”
—Roger Bennett, #1 New York Times bestselling author of (Re)born in the USA

“Leander Schaerlaeckens has put in the hours over many years to tell the story of the USMNT in all its fabulous diversity, with many lows and quite a few highs, ahead of what might be the biggest moment in the team’s history.”
—Simon Kuper, co-author of Soccernomics

“A sharp, thorough, and vastly entertaining tour of the adventures and misadventures of men’s soccer in the United States. Leander Schaerlaeckens has written the history of the U.S. Men’s National Team that American soccer fans need.”
—Brian Phillips, New York Times bestselling author of Impossible Owls

“From Billy Gonsalves to Dent McSkimming to Paul Caligiuri to Christian Pulisic—and every character, drama, celebration, and humiliation in between—The Long Game is the definitive account of the rollercoaster ride of American men’s soccer on the world stage. With his behind-the-scenes reporting and clear-eyed prose, Schaerlaeckens shows that, when it comes to the USMNT, you have to be a true believer and a skeptic all at once.”
—Stefan Fatsis, New York Times bestselling author of Word Freak and A Few Seconds of Panic