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As speculation grows about how far the U.S. men's national team can realistically advance this summer at the 2026 FIFA World Cup, a new commercial campaign has offered a bold answer: all the way to the top.
FOX Sports' latest World Cup advertisement for the USMNT opens with striker Christian Pulisic preparing to take a corner kick in the dying moments of stoppage time in the 2026 World Cup final against Brazil, with the score locked at 2–2. Supporters across the country dressed in red, white and blue are depicted glued to their screens, anxiously awaiting the U.S.'s final opportunity to find the net and claim world glory.
Pulisic then delivers something extraordinary. His stunning corner kick—shown in slow motion and accompanied by Elvis Presley's rousing ballad "The Impossible Dream (The Quest)" (1972)—bends directly into the side-netting, a rare feat known as an Olimpico, to clinch the World Cup and send American supporters into an ecstatic wave of celebration and tears.
In the commercial, the landmark triumph—for a team that, in reality, has only reached the quarterfinal stage a single time in the modern World Cup era—completely reshapes the country, with a truck driver swapping his dashboard bobblehead of NFL icon John Elway for one of USMNT midfield star Weston McKennie. A young boy then replaces his football and baseball posters with a large one of USMNT winger Tim Weah, symbolizing soccer's newly elevated status among America's most beloved sports.
The ad then shifts into more humorous territory, featuring NFL legend Tom Brady shaving the head of Zlatan Ibrahimović and declaring, "Told you we'd win," apparently having settled a World Cup wager with the soccer icon. Texas is depicted as having run dry of beer, while McKennie's face replaces George Washington on the one dollar bill.
The dramatic World Cup win ultimately turns out to be nothing more than the daydream of one hopeful fan at a bar, prompting a nearby Mike Eruizone, captain of the legendary "Miracle on Ice" 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team, to step in and ask, "What? You don't believe in miracles?"
The ad, capturing the imagination of both the most doubtful and enthusiastic U.S. fans ahead of next month's tournament, left viewers debating whether it was utterly absurd or genuinely inspired.
USMNT World Cup Victory: Brilliant or Ridiculous?
There were several surprisingly grounded moments in FOX Sports' ad, such as Ibrahimović calling himself handsome and Texas running out of beer—both scenarios that might not even require a U.S. victory to come true.
There's little question that the USMNT lifting the World Cup trophy is an enormous long shot. The team is given just over a 1% chance of achieving it, yet the ad made a persuasive case: miracles do occur, and they are something the U.S. has built its sporting identity around for generations.
Eurizone and his hockey teammates were equally dismissed at the 1980 Olympics, yet they famously triumphed, defeating the heavily favored Soviet Union and Finland on their way to gold, inspiring the creation of the "Miracle on Ice" (1981) film—a movie USMNT coach Mauricio Pochettino has drawn motivation from as he readies his squad for a potential Cinderella run.
Playing host to the World Cup could also provide the U.S. with a meaningful edge. Consider South Korea, who produced a remarkable semifinal run while co-hosting the tournament in 2002.
Perhaps the most thought-provoking element of the campaign was the cultural shift a U.S. World Cup win triggered among Americans, best illustrated by the change of perspective from both the truck driver and the young boy.
For a country striving to elevate soccer's popularity to the heights enjoyed by football, baseball and basketball, simply co-hosting the World Cup—the sport's grandest stage—is already a significant step forward; however, should the USMNT genuinely go deep, reaching even a quarterfinal or semifinal this summer, it could spark extraordinary growth in the sport's following across the nation.
That means the stakes are high for the USMNT, not only to mount a serious challenge for the World Cup title, but to win over the hearts and attention of a country still warming up to the beautiful game.