How far has the US gone in the World Cup? Far enough to reach the knockout phase as Group D winners, after a 4-1 rout of Paraguay and a 2-0 win over Australia. The Americans moved on with first place secured and now head into a different level of pressure in Santa Clara, California.
Mauricio Pochettino had already pushed the conversation beyond survival when he unveiled his 26-man roster last month and asked, “Why not us?” He also said, “I think it’s important to believe.” That line now sits beside a team that handled its group and did not have to sweat the last match to learn where it stood.
Balogun Jump-Starts Paraguay Win
Folarin Balogun gave the run its sharpest early marker two weeks ago in Los Angeles, scoring two goals in the opening rout of Paraguay. The U.S. won that match 4-1, then followed with a 2-0 victory over Australia to finish with two wins in the group for the first time since 1930.
That sequence mattered because it showed the Americans were not scraping through the tournament’s first stage. They controlled Group D before the last match against Turkey, and Pochettino rested most of his starters for that game last week. The setup was already settled before the bracket chase began.
Pochettino Raises The Bar
The expectation around this team is no longer just getting out of the group. Just getting out of the group stage is no longer described as a satisfactory result for the Americans, even though that was once the benchmark. In a monthlong, 48-team World Cup, that changes the baseline for what counts as progress.
Gregg Berhalter’s 2022 team exited in the round-of-16, and the U.S. also went out in the round-of-16 in 2014. The farthest the Americans have reached remains the quarterfinal loss to Germany in 2002, so Wednesday night in Santa Clara carries more than one layer of weight: the team is already in the knockout phase, but the next step is the one it has not cleared in more than two decades.
Santa Clara And Wednesday Night
The immediate task is Bosnia-Herzegovina in Santa Clara, California, on Wednesday night. A win would be the Americans’ first in a knockout match since 2002, which is the cleanest way to measure how far this group can still go.
Balogun said of the run, “I think there's definitely belief,” and added, “Whether I would call it magic, I'm not sure. But there's definitely a belief we have within ourselves.” For a team that has already taken first place in Group D, the bracket now asks a simpler question than confidence or style: can the U.S. men finally beat a knockout-round opponent again after 2002?
