The U.S. men’s national team marks its long-awaited return to the World Cup stage on Monday, taking on Wales in a Group B showdown at Ahmad bin Ali Stadium in Al Rayyan, Qatar.
The U.S. infamously missed out on the 2018 World Cup by failing to qualify and spent the last four years rebuilding the program and centering the national team on a nucleus of young players, many of whom are playing in the top leagues in Europe. But if eight years between World Cups seems like a while for the U.S., consider Wales, which last reached the World Cup in 1958.