{"id":302313,"date":"2026-05-21T02:08:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T02:08:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/302313\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T02:08:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T02:08:07","slug":"texas-ranks-among-top-producers-of-usmnt-world-cup-talent-as-dallas-area-stars-eye-2026-roster-spots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/302313\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas ranks among top producers of USMNT World Cup talent as Dallas-area stars eye 2026 roster spots"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>From Clint Dempsey to Weston McKennie, Texas has quietly become one of America\u2019s strongest pipelines for World Cup talent.<\/p>\n<p>TEXAS, USA \u2014 When the United States takes the pitch during the World Cup in June, a strong likelihood exists that a solid contingency of the roster will have Texas ties.<\/p>\n<p>Little Elm native Weston McKennie is considered by most pundits a lock for the 26-man roster, as is center back Chris Richards, who has ties to the FC Dallas academy. Other World Cup hopefuls with Texas ties include Tanner Tessman (FC Dallas), Ricardo Pepi (El Paso native) and Alex Zendejas (FC Dallas).<\/p>\n<p>Regardless of how many make the squad, the USMNT has quite the history with Texas-made players.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sports.betmgm.com\/en\/blog\/states-producing-the-most-world-cup-talent-since-1930-bm32\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">According to an analysis by BetMGM<\/a>, Texas is America\u2019s seventh largest contributor of World Cup talent in American history. They examined every U.S. Men\u2019s National Team World Cup squad since 1930 and found five national team players on World Cup rosters were actually born in the Lone Star State, most notably Hall of Famer Clint Dempsey, who is from Nacogdoches.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The BetMGM analysis quantified several factors, including all USMNT World Cup competing rosters, total number of World Cup appearances, number of goals scored at a World Cup, and the number of games won at a World Cup.<\/p>\n<p>Here is how the rankings turned out:<\/p>\n<p>California\u00a0New JerseyMissouriIllinoisPennsylvaniaMassachusettsTexasNew YorkMichiganGeorgia                    <\/p>\n<p>Key Texas findings from the study:<\/p>\n<p>Ranked No. 2, tied with Massachusetts for most World Cup goals scored: 4 (vs. state average: 0.5)Ranked No. 6 for World Cup match appearances: 17 (vs. state average: 7.4)Ranked No. 6 for World Cup wins contributed to: 3 (vs. state average: 1.6)Ranked No. 7 for USMNT World Cup players: 5 (vs. state average: 2.5)                    <\/p>\n<p>USMNT coach Mauricio Pochettino will announce his 26-man World Cup roster on May 26.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From Clint Dempsey to Weston McKennie, Texas has quietly become one of America\u2019s strongest pipelines for World Cup&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":302314,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-302313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302313\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}