Clint Mathis, 2002

Seeing former Metros Tim Howard, Michael Bradley, and Ricardo Clark help the U.S. to the Gold Cup crown, we felt proud about their success, but couldn't help but feel a little sad as the trio has long departed. And then, Jozy Altidore scored against Poland and then Brazil at the World Youth Cup. Now, the feeling of pride is even greater, for not only is Jozy a Metro, he is a current Metro. So let's take a look of current (at the time) Metros to take part at a FIFA world championship, be it the World Cup, the Olympics (U-23), the Youth Cup (U-20), or the U-17 competition. We will ignore the dubious Confederations Cup for this exercise.

We already look at the history of Metro at the World Cup last year, so the list of current Metros to play on the world's biggest stage is easily compiled. In 1998, we had Tab Ramos and Alexi Lalas for the US (Lalas didn't actually play), and Marcelo Vega for Chile. In 2002, there was Clint Mathis, whose goal against Korea remains the only one by a current Metro at the World Cup.

The 1996 Olympics saw three Metros on the US roster, as Damian Silvera, A.J. Wood, and Miles Joseph went three-and-out not in Atlanta, but rather in Birmingham and DC. Of course, the trio all turned into MLS failures: you can read about Silvera in Obscure Metro Files and Joseph in Ten Years Ago. Wood, who won four titles in four years under Bruce Arena at the University of Virginia, didn't have an exciting pro career as well. But in those Olympics, we actually saw two Metro-for-Metro in-game substitutions, as Joseph replaced Wood against Argentina and Wood took Silvera's place against Portugal.

The 2000 Olympics saw US's greatest success, where they finished fourth. But the success came without much effort from Metro Tim Howard, who was relegated to the bench as overage player Brad Friedel took the starting goalkeeping spot. Ramiro Corrales, who was ordinary at best during his Metro stint before taking off in San Jose and moving on to Norway, played at left for the Americans as they beat Japan in the quarters, only to lose to Spain in the semis. And then, four years later, as the US failed to qualify, Metro's streak at the Olympics continued thanks to Costa Rica's Pablo Brenes, whose one season with Metro coincided with his country's run into the quarterfinals. Brenes also became the first current Metro to score at the Olympics, doing so in an upset over Portugal.

Metros have had much more success at the biannual World Youth Cup, and it started long before Jozy. Carlos Parra, another Obscure Files casualty, played in two games in 1997. In 1999, Tim Howard started for the US in Nigeria, blanking England in the opener and beating Cameroon before bailing out to Spain in the second round. In 2003, Ricardo Clark and Mike Magee played for the US in the UAE, and Magee scored the winner against Paraguay. In 2005, Eddie Gaven took the field in the Netherlands, and now, in 2007, we have Jozy Altidore, already with three goals in three games (one against Poland, two against Brazil), and hoping to steer the US through the single-elimination round.

Finally, the Under-17 World Cup has had only one Metro, Gaven, who played in Finland in 2003. Eddie's pro and international career has seen his share of ups and downs since then, but since he is now a departed Metro, we'll watch from afar, and hope that some current Metro -- anyone -- can join Jozy in wearing US's (or whoever's) colors on the world's stage.