The TV in Peter Vermes’ office was locked onto the World Cup for a month, and when his day job running Sporting Kansas City forced him to miss a match, he would record it, then watch it later. The tournament commanded his constant attention, even as the effects of a U.S. men’s national team disappointment engulfed the domestic soccer culture.
But the World Cup’s conclusion last week shifts the future of U.S. Soccer back to the foreground.
And it could soon place Vermes in the foreground, too.
With its glaring absence from the 2018 World Cup officially an item of history, U.