SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Games like this, Mauricio Pochettino said, are 90 percent emotion. The world saw it Monday with all the Germans who wouldn’t step up and take a penalty, while Moroccan keeper Yassine Bounou stayed in total command in the most stressful of situations.
Pochettino would like to reduce that 90 percent to 50 or 60 when his U.S. national team faces Bosnia-Herzegovina on Wednesday. Realistically, that’s an uphill battle. This match, which represents the USMNT’s best shot to win a knockout game at a World Cup since 2002 and which will serve as a referendum on an entire generation of players, is not just another game.
The whole country saw what this team is capable of when it dismantled Paraguay and swept aside Australia in the group stage — what Bosnia coach Sergej Barbarez eloquently called “the way they use this euphoria around them.” Put forth that sort of performance again, on home soil, and the nation’s attention will truly be captured.
“I think the challenge is to keep our level,” Pochettino said. “Keep our way to approach the games and showing that energy, the quality that we have. It’s about [keeping] the energy and the capacity to really believe in what we are doing and performing this way.”
The 54-year-old Argentine has said he wants every game to feel like the final of a World Cup. This game will feel existential, not only to the coach, but to all 68,827 in the building.
With the possible exception of the 1994 Round of 16, a 1-0 loss to Brazil, this is surely the biggest game the USMNT has ever played in its own country.
“I kind of know what’s coming,” said Malik Tillman, who’s never played in a knockout game at a World Cup. “I know it’s gonna be more intense. It’s gonna be tougher than group stage games were, but you just have to be ready for it.”
Pochettino’s attempts to say otherwise aside, the Americans are surely the favorites in this match. Bosnia, though, is not to be overlooked. This, remember, is a team that stunned Italy in qualifying. And the USMNT hasn’t beaten any UEFA team since December 2021, though that win was, coincidentally, against Bosnia.
“Bosnia is a very combative, aggressive, physical team, but also, they have good organization,” Pochettino said. “Good coach, real good coach. When you see the games they play in the group stage or the qualification in March against Italy, you can see that they have quality.”
Barbarez was right in saying of the USMNT, “Of course they are favorites.” But that should imply to nobody that this will be easy.
“We already know this,” said Christian Pulisic, expected to start after returning from injury off the bench against Turkey. “It’s a World Cup. You’re never gonna get the so-called favorite winning every single time. This is soccer; this is the way things go. You can defend all game and win in the penalty kick shootout. That’s the beauty of the game. You have to be ready for whatever will come tomorrow.”
All true, all fair. And still, for all the conversations about how to grow the game in this country, how to market it, how to make MLS a better product, there is a pesky, inextricable fact at the heart of things: America will get behind a winner. Until that happens, there’s not much making up for it.
Go down early, and this World Cup will go down as an opportunity squandered in more ways than one.
“I think we all understand it’s much more than just a game,” Chris Richards said. “It’s a chance to progress the sport in this country, but ultimately, we understand it starts with getting results and good performances. They go hand in hand, but if we take care of business on the field, I think everybody around here will be watching off the field.”
