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IRVINE, Ca. — What the U.S. men’s national team did in the group stage is meaningless.
Oh, topping the group was great. So, too, winning two of their three games for the first time. But it’s the knockout rounds that will determine whether this World Cup was a success for the USMNT or if it fell short.
"It's crunch time," Folarin Balogun said Sunday, June 28. "You lose, you go home. So this is the business end and this is the stage where, in my opinion, the big players step forward and the big players carry the pressure and make things happen.”
The USMNT begins the knockout rounds Wednesday, July 1, against Bosnia and Herzegovina in Santa Clara.
The Americans have won a knockout round game just once since 1930, and that was 24 years ago now. Given Tim Ream is about the only player who can remember that game, the drought doesn’t have much meaning.
What does is living up to the confidence this team has in itself by proving it can hang with the best in the world.
“I think we're a different team right now. We improved a lot in the last couple of years and I think we showed it as well the first couple of games in this tournament,” said Sergino Dest, one of the holdovers from the 2022 team.
“Everybody's really confident,” he added. “We just have a lot of belief that we can do it.”
Few knew quite what to expect from the USMNT when the World Cup began. They’d opened the year with losses to Belgium and Portugal, and lost to Germany in the final sendoff game.
Once the tournament began, however, the USMNT took off. They dominated Paraguay and Australia, energizing the American public in the process.
But the USMNT wants to get to the point, and believes it’s reached that point, where that kind of showing is the norm. Winning the group, winning games in the group stage, should be the default, not the exception.
Same with knockout rounds. The final might still be a reach – at this World Cup, at least – but the USMNT sees no reason why they can’t make some noise in the knockout rounds.
Or, as coach Mauricio Pochettino likes to say, “Why not us?”
“The objective is we play on Wednesday and the objective is to win,” Balogun said. “I'm not somebody who would look back and think we've done well. That’s not really my mentality. I'm just looking forward to Wednesday and looking forward to going out there and winning.”
Some longtime USMNT fans might have had their faith shaken with the loss to Turkey in the group-stage finale. On a last-second goal, no less. Maybe in the past, the USMNT might have been flustered by it, too.
But this team is older and more mature, and it recognizes that not all games are equal. Losing a game that didn’t matter, when Pochettino was resting his starters and playing his backups, is not going to have a carryover effect.
“The way we played the first two games is exactly the way we need to come out and play in the knockouts,” Ream said after the Turkey game. “If we do that, then we give ourselves the best possible chance to continue to move on.”
The bracket is set up to help the Americans make a deep run.
Though they have not beaten a European team under Pochettino, the losses were to teams ranked in the top 25. Bosnia Herzegovina is No. 64. The USMNT won its first three meetings against the Dragons, holding them scoreless in the last two.
Win that game, and the USMNT would play the winner of Belgium-Senegal in the round of 16.
The Americans lost to Belgium, badly, in March. But Belgium isn’t the same now as it was then. It had to settle for draws against both Egypt and Iran, and had to pile on New Zealand just to win its group. The game would also be in Seattle, where the crowd had true 12th Man energy for the USMNT’s game against Australia in the group stage.
Win that, and the Americans would be in the quarterfinals, just as they were in 2002.
“I feel like I can feel the difference in just the atmosphere,” Balogun said. “It’s knockout football. You lose, you go home. So for me, there's a change in my mindset and mentality as well. Not that I wasn't taking it seriously before, but you can just go into another gear because you want it more.
“I don't want the journey to end.”
Not when the World Cup is, in all the ways that matter, just beginning.
Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on social media @nrarmour.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Now the World Cup really starts for USA soccer. Nothing else matters | Opinion
Continue reading...
Oh, topping the group was great. So, too, winning two of their three games for the first time. But it’s the knockout rounds that will determine whether this World Cup was a success for the USMNT or if it fell short.
"It's crunch time," Folarin Balogun said Sunday, June 28. "You lose, you go home. So this is the business end and this is the stage where, in my opinion, the big players step forward and the big players carry the pressure and make things happen.”
The USMNT begins the knockout rounds Wednesday, July 1, against Bosnia and Herzegovina in Santa Clara.
The Americans have won a knockout round game just once since 1930, and that was 24 years ago now. Given Tim Ream is about the only player who can remember that game, the drought doesn’t have much meaning.
What does is living up to the confidence this team has in itself by proving it can hang with the best in the world.
“I think we're a different team right now. We improved a lot in the last couple of years and I think we showed it as well the first couple of games in this tournament,” said Sergino Dest, one of the holdovers from the 2022 team.
“Everybody's really confident,” he added. “We just have a lot of belief that we can do it.”
Few knew quite what to expect from the USMNT when the World Cup began. They’d opened the year with losses to Belgium and Portugal, and lost to Germany in the final sendoff game.
Once the tournament began, however, the USMNT took off. They dominated Paraguay and Australia, energizing the American public in the process.
But the USMNT wants to get to the point, and believes it’s reached that point, where that kind of showing is the norm. Winning the group, winning games in the group stage, should be the default, not the exception.
Same with knockout rounds. The final might still be a reach – at this World Cup, at least – but the USMNT sees no reason why they can’t make some noise in the knockout rounds.
Or, as coach Mauricio Pochettino likes to say, “Why not us?”
“The objective is we play on Wednesday and the objective is to win,” Balogun said. “I'm not somebody who would look back and think we've done well. That’s not really my mentality. I'm just looking forward to Wednesday and looking forward to going out there and winning.”
Some longtime USMNT fans might have had their faith shaken with the loss to Turkey in the group-stage finale. On a last-second goal, no less. Maybe in the past, the USMNT might have been flustered by it, too.
But this team is older and more mature, and it recognizes that not all games are equal. Losing a game that didn’t matter, when Pochettino was resting his starters and playing his backups, is not going to have a carryover effect.
“The way we played the first two games is exactly the way we need to come out and play in the knockouts,” Ream said after the Turkey game. “If we do that, then we give ourselves the best possible chance to continue to move on.”
The bracket is set up to help the Americans make a deep run.
Though they have not beaten a European team under Pochettino, the losses were to teams ranked in the top 25. Bosnia Herzegovina is No. 64. The USMNT won its first three meetings against the Dragons, holding them scoreless in the last two.
Win that game, and the USMNT would play the winner of Belgium-Senegal in the round of 16.
The Americans lost to Belgium, badly, in March. But Belgium isn’t the same now as it was then. It had to settle for draws against both Egypt and Iran, and had to pile on New Zealand just to win its group. The game would also be in Seattle, where the crowd had true 12th Man energy for the USMNT’s game against Australia in the group stage.
Win that, and the Americans would be in the quarterfinals, just as they were in 2002.
“I feel like I can feel the difference in just the atmosphere,” Balogun said. “It’s knockout football. You lose, you go home. So for me, there's a change in my mindset and mentality as well. Not that I wasn't taking it seriously before, but you can just go into another gear because you want it more.
“I don't want the journey to end.”
Not when the World Cup is, in all the ways that matter, just beginning.
Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on social media @nrarmour.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Now the World Cup really starts for USA soccer. Nothing else matters | Opinion
Continue reading...
