SEATTLE (AP):For all the growth in United States football over the past quarter-century, the country’s men’s national team remains stagnant.Christian Pulisic, Tyler Adams, and Weston McKennie fared no better at the World Cup in 2022 and 2026 than Tim Howard, Michael Bradley, and Jozy Altidore did in 2010 and 2014.“We want to be able to go and compete with some of the best in the world and we just still have that next step to come,” Pulisic said after Monday night’s error-filled 4-1 loss to Belgium in the round of 16.For all the billions of dollars invested with the goal of boosting the national team into the world’s elite, the Americans remain football plebians.After reaching the semi-finals of the first World Cup in 1930, the US didn’t even qualify from 1950 to 1990. Since then, they were eliminated in the round of 16 in 1994, 2010, 2014, 2022 and this year, failed to advance past their group in 1990, 1998, and 2006, and flopped in qualifying for 2018.“It’s not like you are in a rocket and you improve and you grow. ... It’s not linear,” US coach Mauricio Pochettino said.The US won three games in a World Cup for the first time, beating Paraguay, Australia and Bosnia-Herzegovina while losing to Turkey and Belgium. The Americans benefitted as hosts, a seeded team that didn’t face a top-10 nation before the Red Devils.By the next World Cup in Spain, Portugal and Morocco (with three games in South America), Pulisic, McKennie and Adams will be 31.Which players increased value for the US national team?Folarin Balogun led the US team with three goals, looking like a top striker, and gained worldwide notoriety when his red-card suspension for awkwardly landing on an opponent’s ankle was lifted after a phone call from US President Donald Trump. A former Arsenal youth player, the 25-year-old striker is entering the fourth season of a five-year contract with French club Monaco and could be set for a move to a bigger club.Malik Tillman became the first player since France’s Bernard Genghini in 1982 to have two free-kick goals in a World Cup. The 24-year-old midfielder is entering the second season of a five-year contract with German club Bayer Leverkusen. He had a difficult 2025-26, getting dropped from the starting line-up between late March and the season’s final match.Does US coach Mauricio Pochettino stay in the job for another four years?Pochettino said he will speak with the US Soccer Federation after a rest period, to discuss whether it wants him to stay beyond the expiration of his contract this summer, and whether he wants to commit to a four-year cycle.The Argentine took over from Gregg Berhalter in late 2024 after first-round elimination at the Copa America. His first year included failures to win the Concacaf Gold Cup and Nations League.“We were in a mess,” he said. “I’ve seen this team show that we can play football. We can play soccer. We can compete. That we need to keep improving – a lot of young players with a lot potential and future.”Trouble spots on the field Goalkeeper has gone from the United States’ biggest strength from 1990 through 2014 to a huge weakness in the past decade, and appears to be at its weakest since the 1980s.Long gone are the days when Tony Meola, Kasey Keller, Brad Friedel, Tim Howard, Brad Guzan inspired confidence.Zack Steffen and Matt Turner both failed to establish themselves with big European teams. Matt Freese, who supplanted Turner as the first-choice starter last year, gifted a goal in the loss to Belgium that will be replayed on blooper reels.Gabriel Slonina, Chris Brady, Patrick Schulte, and Roman Celentano, who head the next generation, have the next cycle to establish themselves as possible No. 1s.With the expansion of the field to 48 nations, including six from North and Central America and the Caribbean, World Cup qualifying is not likely to be challenging for Concacaf’s powers: Mexico, the US, and Canada.All three were eliminated in the round of 16 after Curaçao, Haiti and Panama were eliminated with last-place finishes in their groups.Unless the US shows vast improvement, it will not be seeded for the 2030 World Cup and likely will face a world power in the first round.