The United States men's national football team has never had much success in the FIFA World Cup: following a third place at the first World Cup in 1930, their best result was quarter-finals (eighth) at the 2002 World Cup, although since 1990 they have qualified for the competition ever time except for 2018.
For World Cup 2026, the US Soccer team has announced a new mascot: Banner, a dog wearing a US soccer jersey. The reveal, however, was met with jokes and memes from the American people, who think it's a "joke", and that the mascot should have been an eagle, one of the country's most representative symbols.
The problem is that the eagle was taken: FIFA unveiled their mascots for World Cup, one for each country: a moose for Canada, a jaguar for Mexico, and naturally, a bald eagle called Clutch for the United States. Having two cartoony eagles might have been confusing, so instead they opted for a brown dog... and fans are lashing out in the comments.
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Some have pointed that they should have brought back Striker, another dog used in the World Cup 1994, designed by Warner Bros., that was also hosted in the United States.
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United States are co-hosts of World Cup 2026, held in the United States, Mexico and Canada, with many people observing the unsettling close relationship between US President Donald Trump and FIFA president Gianni Infantino.