The United States men’s team and its fans are feeling rather positive ahead of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, but who leads the way in goals?
The USMNT suffered a 2-0 defeat in Japan with the World Cup around the corner, fielding a startiing line-up that featutred Jesus Ferreira as the central attacking player between Gio Reyna on one side and Brenden Aaronson on the other. Ferreira, who was born in Colombia and plays for FC Dallas, has a decent record of seven goals in 13 games since his debut in 2020, and five of those have come in 2022. In all likelihood, the 21-year-old will be tasked with leading the line at the World Cup with Ricardo Pepi struggling for form and Christian Pulisic struggling to get a club game at Chelsea.
Pulisic is the only active player on the list of the USMNT’s all-time top scorers and his inactivity at Stamford Bridge will be a cause of concern for Gregg Berhalter, who could not give the 24-year-old a run-out against Japan in his side’s penultimate game before the World Cup after he picked up a knock in training.
Donovan, Dempsey lead the way
The USMNT have now failed to score in five games so far in 2022, against Canada, Mexico, Costa Rica, Uruguay and Japan. Historically, the US has produced some fine goalscorers, none more prolific than Landon Donovan and Clint Dempsey, who both bagged 57 for their country, Donovan in 157 caps and Dempsey in 141. The former spent the vast majority of his club career at LA Galaxy, with brief stints in Europe at Bayer Leverkusen, Bayern Munich and Everton. Dempsey became a cult hero at Fulham, scoring 60 times in 225 Premier League appearances, and also had a spell at Tottenham as well as playing for Seattle and New England Revolution in MLS.
Third on the list of all-time scorers is Jozy Altidore, whose eclectic club career took in New York Red Bulls, Villarreal, Hull City, Bursaspor, AZ Alkmaar, Sunderland, Toronto and New England Revolution. Although still playing club football at Puebla, Altidore retired from international duty in 2019 on 115 caps.
Top 15 USMNT all-time goalscorers
Source: m.allfootballapp.com