Success Quote by Brian McBride

Ambition, in Brian McBride's hands, isn't a TED Talk mantra; it's a two-part itinerary with stamps from two different identities: national representative and working pro. By pairing "second round of the World Cup" with "win a championship... with the Columbus Crew", he frames success as both a collective milestone for a still-aspiring soccer nation and a daily obligation to the club grind. The split matters. For an American player of McBride's era, the World Cup was where you proved the sport belonged in the U.S.; MLS was where you proved you belonged to the sport.

The intent is deliberately measurable. Not "make history" or "change the game", but a specific rung on the ladder: advance once in the tournament, win once in the league. That modesty is strategic. It projects seriousness, not swagger, and it sidesteps the trap of overpromising in a soccer culture that, at the time, was still negotiating its own legitimacy. "Second round" quietly acknowledges the gap between the U.S. and global powers without treating it as destiny.

The subtext is loyalty as credibility. McBride doesn't treat the club goal as secondary to national glory; he places Columbus alongside the U.S. badge, signaling that building domestic soccer isn't PR, it's professional pride. In a landscape where elite American talent often had one eye on Europe, claiming a championship "here in the U.S". reads like a stake in the ground: the league is worth winning, not just passing through.