Mark McKenzie hasn’t played in the World Cup. He’s at the center of USMNT’s most powerful moments

A postgame prayer circle has become the defining image of the USMNT’s World Cup run. Here’s the origin story behind it all.

By Henry Bushnell  (The Athletic)

June 23, 2026 Updated June 26, 2026. Read Article here.

IRVINE, Calif. — Minutes after the World Cup opener straight from everyone’s wildest dreams, a group of believers gathered at midfield to pray. They huddled in a circle and bowed their heads, just as they’d done six days earlier and previously. Most, in fact, had been glorifying God for years, at church or at home or at soccer matches. Within the broader brotherhood of the U.S. men’s national team, roughly seven players regularly convene for prayers or bible studies.

But on Friday, June 12, after a 4-1 win over Paraguay, something spontaneous happened. The entire USMNT — teammates and coaches and staff — rushed to join the circle.

Mark McKenzie, a backup defender who plays club football for Toulouse in France, suddenly found himself leading the full group in a post-match prayer.

“It was a powerful moment,” McKenzie tells The Athletic. And instantly, a snapshot often overlooked by the secular soccer world became one that defined the team’s togetherness.

And a week later, the USMNT reproduced it. This time, after a 2-0 win over Australia, it was less spontaneous. “After the first game, it just happened,” McKenzie recalls. “And then the second game, guys are like, ‘Hey, let’s go, let’s go.’ This time, rather than crowd around the prayer circle, dozens of them joined arms in one big ring. McKenzie stepped to the center, knelt, raised his arms and spoke. Some teammates bowed their heads. Others looked straight at McKenzie. Some soaked in his words. All listened.Some of them do not practice religion. “You have players and people on this team and this staff from all walks of life, from all different backgrounds and different experiences,” McKenzie knows.

But “there’s power in prayer,” he says. “It unites people in ways that you may have never even thought could. … And I think there’s beauty in that.”

It united a group of players and people who, for the past month, and in some ways for the past several years, have been pushing toward a common goal: World Cup success.

And the image of that postgame gathering became emblematic of the bond that’s fortifying this USMNT.

“Although it starts out as a moment of prayer, it invites people into what this team is about,” McKenzie says. “It’s about love, it’s about togetherness, it’s about welcoming people. It doesn’t matter what your background is, we are family.”

And he, a 27-year-old center back who has not yet played a minute at this World Cup, is at the center of it.

McKenzie, born in the Bronx and later raised in Delaware, was introduced to both soccer and God at young ages. His father, an immigrant from Jamaica, “came to America with little to nothing,” Mark told Victory Beyond The Cup. “And my mother worked for everything she ever had in her life.” They taught young Mark to work and to believe.

As he found his way in soccer, rising from the Philadelphia Union to European clubs and the USMNT, he also honed his faith and found his voice.

McKenzie has long been one of the team’s most eloquent players. But he wasn’t always a leader in religious contexts. He credits his dad, who “always said, ‘Listen, son, you have a greater purpose than just playing this game’”; and Andy Young, the U.S. team’s chaplain, with encouraging him to help guide others.

“I had been kind of preparing myself for any way, shape or form I could contribute, any way that I could step into a bigger role,” McKenzie says. “I’ve taken steps to try to be somebody who is glue for those around me, somebody who people can lean on, confide in and trust, and look to. It’s not just during the games, it’s during training days, it’s at the hotel, and whatnot.” But still, “this,” he says of this newfound postgame leadership role, “happened unexpectedly.”

McKenzie had thought about using the World Cup as a platform to highlight the subject of faith. John Bostock, a British soccer player who founded the group “Ballers in God,” reached out to him prior to the tournament to speak about spreading the good word. They wanted to do so in a way that was “as unifying as possible,” McKenzie explains, “to try to spread a message of love, spread a message of peace.”

And at their pre-World Cup camp north of Atlanta, several players engaged with Young in prayers and scripture readings. McKenzie mentions Christian Pulisic, Chris Richards, Matt Freese, Alejandro Zendejas and Cristian Roldan as part of the core group, though there are others too. After their pre-World Cup friendlies, some collected in a circle on the field. After their 2-1 loss to Germany on June 6, two German players, Felix Nmecha and Jonathan Tah, joined them in prayer.

It was visible — and, to those involved, powerful — but not uncommon in a broader sports context. Religious NFL players, for example, convene at midfield after nearly every game to kneel, bow their heads and pray. Non-religious on-field huddles are also customary in soccer and elsewhere. At first glance, when the USMNT huddled after its opener, there was nothing notable about the scene. It appeared to be a standard postgame speech full of wisdom or exhortation.

This one, though, was different. It was organic, voluntary, inspired by emotions and harmony.

Head coach Mauricio Pochettino did not take control. He was simply part of the group.

“In the moment,” McKenzie says, “after the first game, everyone’s just looking at me.”

The power of the moment

McKenzie would like to clarify, though, that the moment is not about him. “I’m just one of 26 guys,” he says. “We’re all chipping in in different ways. We’ve got staff who are all chipping in in different ways. That’s gonna be the catalyst for getting us through this tournament.”

And it is not a moment he has engineered; it’s merely one that pulls other players in. Nor is it something he prepares for. It is simply allowing it to “happen organically,” McKenzie says. “I don’t want it to be scripted. I want it to be something where everyone feels the power of it.”

After Friday’s game, Pulisic posted a picture of the circle on Instagram. McKenzie commented with the name of bible verses, Ecclesiastes 4:9-12, which begin: “Two are better than one”; and end: “Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.”

His actual message to the group on Lumen Field’s pitch, however, was of “thankfulness and gratitude,” McKenzie says, voicing thanks for both teams getting through the game healthy, for the victory, and for a “special day.”

“Obviously, you have the whole team coming together in the center circle, everyone’s curious about what’s going on,” he continues. “But it’s just a simple post-match prayer, regrouping, re-centering everybody, just keeping everyone in tandem and in unison.”

And of course, although he is physically at the middle of the circle, he is not its focal point. “I don’t necessarily want the attention for it,” McKenzie says. “I may be in the center of it, but at the end of the day, the Lord is at the center of it all. He’s the main purpose, He’s the main character, He is the protagonist. And I’m just trying to bring people into His light in some way.”