The United States in the World Cup

Updated September 27, 2017 | Infoplease Staff

While the United States has fielded a national team every year of the World Cup, only nine of those teams have been able to make it past the preliminary competition and qualify for the final World Cup tournament. The 1994 national team automatically qualified because the U.S. served as host of the event for the first time. The U.S. played in three of the first four World Cups (1930, '34 and '50) and each of the last six (1990, '94, '98, 2002, 2006, and 2010). The Americans have a record of 6-18-4 in World Cup matches.