American soccer history is littered with near-misses, blown calls, and diplomatic failures that make you want to put your fist through a wall. These aren't just fun hypotheticals — some of these moments have directly shaped what MLS is today, who plays in it, and whether the United States has any right to call itself a soccer nation.
What If Beckham Never Came to MLS?
In 2007, Real Madrid president Ramon Calderon publicly threatened to invoke an escape clause in David Beckham's contract to block his move to the LA Galaxy. He rattled the legal sabers. He made noise. He failed.
Good thing, too. Because without Beckham arriving at the peak of his celebrity — still playing week-in, week-out for one of the biggest clubs on earth at 31 — the Designated Player Rule almost certainly doesn't exist in its current form. Or possibly at all. That rule, created specifically to get Beckham's salary past MLS's cap, is the mechanism that later brought Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Sebastian Giovinco, Carlos Vela, and eventually Lionel Messi to American shores.
And then there's the ownership clause buried in Beckham's original contract — the right to purchase an MLS expansion franchise for $25 million. Expansion fees are now north of $500 million. That single clause made Inter Miami possible. Inter Miami made Messi possible. The whole stack of dominoes starts with Calderon's lawyers backing down.
Without the DP rule, MLS would likely have leaned harder into Latin American talent on modest wages — not the worst outcome for the league's development, arguably a more sustainable one, but a very different beast. No Zlatan era in Los Angeles. No Messi circus in South Florida. No pink jerseys melting in the humidity.
What If the Frings Handball Was Called?
June 21, 2002. The USMNT, fresh off beating Mexico in the round of 16, are trailing Germany 1-0 in Ulsan. Gregg Berhalter — yes, that Gregg Berhalter — gets a boot to a corner kick that Oliver Kahn parries. The ball bounces up toward the line. Torsten Frings, stationed at the far post, slides his left forearm directly into its path.
Scottish referee Hugh Dallas calls it incidental. Game over.
Under the rules of the time, that should have been a red card and a penalty. With a man advantage and a reinvigorated squad, the U.S. almost certainly levels it at 1-1 and pushes through. Their semi-final opponents would have been co-hosts South Korea — themselves beneficiaries of some generous refereeing against Italy — in Seoul. That's a winnable game for a squad built around Brad Friedel, Claudio Reyna, Landon Donovan, and Brian McBride.
That puts the United States in a World Cup Final. Against Brazil. A Brazil team featuring Ronaldo R9, Roberto Carlos, Cafu, and Ronaldinho. So no, they weren't winning that. Not even close.
But the cultural shockwave of reaching a World Cup Final — a country still processing September 11, playing a sport still fighting for legitimacy — would have been seismic. Would it have sparked an American soccer generation the way 1999 sparked one for the women? Would MLS have grown faster, deeper, earlier? Would the USMNT have actually qualified for the 2018 World Cup?
Frings's arm moved. Dallas missed it. And American soccer has been asking "what if" ever since.
What If the U.S. Had Hosted the 1986 World Cup?
Colombia was originally scheduled to host the 1986 World Cup. When they pulled out, the United States made a serious pitch — enlisting Pelé, Franz Beckenbauer, and Henry Kissinger, a man whose enthusiasm for soccer was matched only by his enthusiasm for geopolitical meddling. Kissinger reportedly refused to let FIFA conduct flyover inspections of potential venues and was, by all accounts, insufferable in negotiations. FIFA voted unanimously for Mexico instead, allegedly after a Mexican television magnate's bribery made the decision easier.
A 1986 World Cup on U.S. soil would have arrived just as the NASL was hemorrhaging teams and credibility. The league had shrunk from 21 clubs to 14 by 1982. A shot of World Cup oxygen might have kept it breathing long enough to establish real roots. No NASL collapse likely means no MLS — but an NASL without a salary cap, built around aging international stars, was always going to be financially fragile regardless.
And then there's the collateral damage to Mexico. The 1986 tournament is arguably the most iconic in World Cup history. Maradona's Hand of God and Goal of the Century happened in the Estadio Azteca, in front of 115,000 people, in a stadium that has since become mythological. That moment at Giants Stadium simply doesn't carry the same weight.
The honest answer is that a 1986 U.S. World Cup probably would have provided a temporary boost and then faded — not unlike the NASL itself. The structural problems undermining American soccer in that era ran deeper than any tournament could fix.
The '99 USWNT final deserves its own chapter. Goalkeeper Briana Scurry saved Liu Ying's penalty — a save that, had it gone the other way, might have handed China the trophy and robbed American women's soccer of the generational image that defined it. Brandi Chastain on her knees, jersey in hand, outside the Rose Bowl. That photograph became a statue. Players from Megan Rapinoe to Alex Morgan have cited that moment as the reason they play. Four World Cup titles later, it's hard to argue the butterfly effect was anything less than total.
