USMNT Has Shown Enough: Winning Its World Cup Group Should Be Your Expectation
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CHICAGO — The U.S. men’s national team will open the World Cup on Friday against Paraguay, and the expectation should be that it will win its group.
Over the last few days, the team that will shoulder the hopes of a nation has proved capable of causing problems for world-class opposition. That remained true Saturday despite a 2-1 defeat to Germany, a match that contained plenty of positives and showcased the requisite fight and knowhow no matter the result.
Playing at home in an evenly-matched but not overwhelming Group D (Paraguay, Turkey and Australia), finishing top is a fair bar to set — especially for a team that has long believed it has a chance to make history and go further than any U.S. men’s squad before them.
This is a group that has grown up together and cares about each other. Four years ago, they made a pact. The mission was to change American soccer forever. The opportunity to do that has been a specter on the horizon for a long time. The reality of it? It’s finally here.
What happens over the next few weeks will be the culmination of an imperfect journey, one that has exposed this team’s flaws and tested its resilience. It began in 2018, when a core group of mostly teenagers was asked to rebuild a program from its lowest moment of failing to qualify for the World Cup. Four years later, they were the second-youngest team at the 2022 Qatar World Cup, and earned a trip to the knockout stage.
But the last three and a half years, when potential was meant to be realized in full, have been painful.
All 634 days since Pochettino was hired in September 2024 have been some part of a tear-down-and-build-up process toward this summer: The bad results and the good ones; the positive moments and the most difficult lessons. Pochettino took the hard route because he believed, after the U.S.’s group-stage exit at the 2024 Copa América, that it was the only way to get this team to where everyone once believed it could be.
There have been times since then when it felt like this U.S. team wasn’t going to be able to meet the moment. The last week has restored that hope. There’s been enough in the team’s performances against both Senegal and Germany to rebuild belief that, when these players lean into their strengths and play to their potential — and have the country backing them — maybe they can do something special.
Pochettino came in with a stated desire to challenge not only the players to want more, but the program itself. Now the thing that they’ve been working towards for so long is nearly here, the present mindset is a coming together of sorts, seeking to align the team, the fanbase, and earn the backing of as much of the country as possible.
This group’s legacy-making quest commences in mere days. The question is: How ready is the team for its moment?
They believe they are. And, for the most part, they look it. Being around the team the last couple of weeks, it’s been clear that there is finally a combination of comfort in Pochettino’s system with the energy and mentality that the coach has preached since his arrival.
What we have seen over the last two games is a U.S. team that has real attacking ideas. It can be dangerous when Pulisic is creating on the ball and running at defenders in space. It has a forward in Folarin Balogun who is capable of causing problems in the opposing box. It has creative flair through Sergiño Dest and capable, goal-dangerous midfielders in Weston McKennie and Malik Tillman, and another forward in Ricardo Pepi who can be lethal and influential in the build-up.
Yes, there are issues. The back line still has major question marks — most vitally when and whether Chris Richards will be ready to play — and it has an unproven presumed starting goalkeeper on the World Cup stage. It’s a team that can make mistakes in key moments and can get opened up in transition.
Maybe that limits the ceiling, but it shouldn’t impact the floor. Winning the group, and earning the more favorable knockout path that comes with it, is where it should start. This U.S. team has proven capable enough of inspiring belief, and it has a country waiting to be inspired. Those pregame moments on Saturday — replete with fireworks, player introductions, an appearance from Chance the Rapper and the baritone of Jim Cornelison’s Star-Spangled Banner — were reminders of the factor that might influence this summer most: a home-field advantage that this American team has rarely experienced.
Part of those pregame festivities also included a moment to honor the 1994 U.S. World Cup team, a group of players that nobody believed could win, but one that fought its way to the knockout stage and challenged eventual champion Brazil when it got there.
The ‘94 team’s presence was an important reminder of the impact and legacy of hosting a World Cup, but also of the impact and influence of playing in a home World Cup, where the spirit and energy of the crowds change what most might think possible.
These U.S players have a harder task than that ’94 team. This group will be playing with expectation on its shoulders and must live up to what people believe they should do. And just as importantly, what they believe they should do.
“We want to go and prove ourselves right,” Pulisic said on Saturday. “That we can go in and compete with the best, and really make a run in this tournament. For us, that’s what it’s all about.”
Changing American soccer forever means making the country believe in a way no U.S. men’s national team has before. Each game is another chance to do so. But they have to win.
It starts on Friday against Paraguay.