World Cup history-makers? Christian Pulisic, Gio Reyna & USMNT class of 2026 receive record-setting prediction from hero of 1994 finals on home soil

Jones formed part of the last United States squad to grace FIFA’s showpiece event on home turf, reaching the last 16 in 1994 before coming unstuck against eventual winners Brazil. The U.S. went on to reach the quarter-finals in 2002 – their best result since a first World Cup showing in 1930 – but there is the promise of more to come from an exciting collection of modern-day talent.

Jones believes Christian Pulisic, Gio Reyna and Co can thrive in 2026, when co-hosting alongside neighbours Canada and Mexico, with the USMNT’s all-time leading appearance-maker telling FIFA’s official website: “This group can do something big. They've gone through a World Cup together and most of them are going to be at their prime age in 2026. I believe they can go further than any U.S. team has ever gone in a World Cup. That’s the expectation and that's what we've got to look at now. You can't be satisfied with just making it to the next round. You've got to look beyond that and say, ‘Hey, we have to put ourselves up with the big boys.’”

Jones, who has 164 caps to his name, added on the benefits that a home World Cup will bring to America: “Growth. It's all about growth. It's so exciting. If it's anything like this last World Cup [in 2022], we're going to see another explosion within the United States. That's what we see with every World Cup. With the U.S. hosting, it will go to another level and if the U.S. does well, that growth will accelerate. There is so much opportunity here.”

The States have plenty of talent at their disposal, with the likes of Pulisic, Reyna, Weston McKennie, Tim Weah, Yunus Musah, Sergino Dest, Malik Tillman, Ricardo Pepi, Josh Sargent, Tyler Adams and Folarin Balogun all plying their club trade in Europe.