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Sam Borden
Multiple Authors
SAN JOSE, Calif. — The time is now.
Now to push the momentum of this tournament. Now to raise the level of the U.S. men’s national team program. Now to reward the American fans who have dreamed of a team and a month and a chance just like this one.
Now to make history.
“This group,” Gio Reyna said, “deserves something special.”
It does. The old sports adage that success is when preparation and opportunity meet has never felt more meaningful for an American men’s team: The U.S. has its most talented roster of players. Its most successful coach. A favorable draw. And a home FIFA World Cup, where it is literally experiencing the most frenzied and widespread support it has ever known. (Chris Richards said his daughter told him that even the children’s entertainer Blippi recently put out national team content.)
The players are doing their best not to dwell on it and are trying to stay present, just as they should. But they’re also aware of the reality that this round-of-32 match against Bosnia-Herzegovina on Wednesday needs to be nothing less than the first step on a road to something far, far greater.
“I think we all understand that it’s more than just a game,” Richards said.
It will not come easily. Beyond the most obvious challenges that Bosnia-Herzegovina presents — including the 40-year-old star Edin Dzeko — there are two overarching obstacles that can’t be ignored.
First, the U.S. hasn’t done well — like, at all — against European teams in recent years. They’ve lost ten straight matches against European opponents in all competitions, and in World Cups, the Americans only have one victory in their past 21 matches against European opposition (a group stage win over Portugal in 2002).
Perhaps more importantly, though, is this: The U.S. just doesn’t have a lot of experience succeeding at this stage in general. The American men have played a grand total of eight knockout round games at the World Cup in the history of the tournament.
Eight. By comparison, France has played nine World Cup knockout round games since 2022. Oh, and of that eight, the U.S. has won one — against Mexico in 2002 — and been eliminated in the rest.
“In my experience, the best way to break history,” striker Folarin Balogun said, “is not to think about what hasn’t been done, but just think about what you need to do. That’s the winning mentality.”
Balogun, of course, will be critical. He scored two goals and created a third in two group stage games before resting in the finale against Türkiye. The connection between Balogun, Christian Pulisic and midfielder Malik Tillman has been a revelation for the Americans, and Balogun’s prowess in front of goal makes for exactly the type of striker the U.S. has always needed but rarely had.
The players know Bosnia will be difficult to break down. The Bosnians are a gritty, defensive team, and the U.S. will likely hold the majority of possession. Will the Americans be mature enough to handle the game’s impetus and avoid a counterattack in a game where the stakes are win-or-go-home?
The knowledge that players such as Pulisic, Weston McKennie, Tyler Adams and Tim Ream gained in Qatar should help.
“Having that experience,” Pulisic said, “helps us go into this with a clear mind.”
That is important, because it is easy to imagine how this all goes badly. The U.S. is a clear favorite against Bosnia, to be sure, but knockout soccer is volatile, as Germany learned from Paraguay on Monday. A set piece, an injury, a red card or anything else can turn a game on its side. For all the positivity generated in the group stage, with FIFA’s expanded tournament and this new round of 32, the U.S. could — with a defeat — ultimately end up doing worse at this tournament than it did in Qatar.
But it is far more energizing to imagine what might happen in the other direction. By winning its group, the U.S. has the advantage of staying on the West Coast — and in one time zone — for weeks.
It also has among the best draws it could have hoped for among the possible third-place teams to meet (certainly Mexico, who ended up with Ecuador, would have loved to switch with them). And should it win on Wednesday, the bracket — with Belgium most likely to be waiting for the Americans in the round of 16 — could have been far worse.
Here is what we know: The U.S. has made the quarterfinals once at the modern World Cup. Getting out of the group and losing became the norm. The more and more we saw of the Americans over the past few decades, the less and less we expected of them.
Now, that has changed. U.S. Soccer found the money to pay a big-time coach like Mauricio Pochettino. It targeted dual nationals like Balogun and Tillman and Sergiño Dest. It built around a core of incredible talents like McKennie and Adams and Richards and Pulisic, all of whom are in their primes. Four years ago, the buzzword was “growth,” as the top U.S. players competed in their first World Cup. Four years later, the fruits of that are ready to be realized.
It starts in earnest right here. Balogun labeled it the “business end” of the tournament. Richards described it as “every game [being] like a final.” Pulisic said, “You don’t want it to end.”
The U.S. has waited long enough. The time — for everything — is right now.
