Author: Jonathan Tannenwald

IRVINE, Calif. — On any given day in Seattle, there are a lot of things in the air: the breeze off Puget Sound, the seagulls that steal your french fries, and other substances for which the city is well-known.

It wouldn’t be fair for an outsider to ask if the last of those factored into the sudden outbreak of hype around the U.S. men’s soccer team. The atmosphere at Friday’s U.S.-Australia game needed no enhancement, with that crowd showing the nation and the world why Seattle’s soccer culture is the real deal.

But something has caused people to start asking if the U.S. men can win this World Cup. So let’s answer it.

No, this team is a long way from such a … height, let’s say.

Yes, the Americans have won two games in a men’s World Cup group stage for the first time since 1930. Yes, they have won their group for the first time since 2010, and clinched qualification for the knockout rounds with a game to spare for the first time in the program’s modern era, which started in 1990.

But the teams they’ve beaten so far, Paraguay and Australia, looked the part of the 41st- and 27th-ranked teams in FIFA’s global standings, which they were when the tournament kicked off. The U.S., meanwhile, has done something that should be within reach for a No. 17 team with home-field advantage on the world’s biggest stage.

When the U.S. faces Turkey in the group stage finale on Thursday in Inglewood, Calif. (10 p.m. Fox29, Telemundo 62), the hosts will again face a team ranked below them. Turkey is No. 22. How much will that actually prove, compared to a potential matchup with Belgium in the round of 16 or Spain in the quarterfinals?

Even the first knockout game in the round of 32 could be a trap. Though the U.S. is already set to head to the Bay Area for a game on July 1, the team across the field won’t be known until the group stage ends. It will be the third-place team from group B, E, F, I, or J, depending on which eight of the 12 third-place finishers in the tournament advance.

The Athletic has a forecasting formula that projects Bosnia & Herzegovina, ranked No. 64, as the most likely candidate right now. As they’d say on “Let’s Make A Deal,” you take the offer right there. Upcoming games could put Ivory Coast, Ecuador, Japan, Sweden, Norway, or Senegal behind the other doors.

But if it is Bosnia, it would still be a measuring stick, and not just because the U.S. men have won just one knockout-round game in their history (against Mexico in 2002).

The Americans’ all-time record against European teams in World Cups is 3-14-7, and the only win of the modern era was against Portugal in 2002. The other two were against England in 1950 and Belgium in 1930. (Coincidentally, both games had heroes from Philadelphia, Walter Bahr and Bart McGhee.)

Sometimes, the insistence on measuring American soccer against Europe is just a thing in the heads of fans and media. But the results record is still long and one-sided, even compared to other continents. The U.S. is 3-2-0 against teams from South America, 2-2-0 against teams from Africa, and 2-1-1 against teams from Asia.

Why it’s different for the players

If reading this makes you feel like it’s spoiling the party, sometimes that’s the job of a professional cynic. So we’ll balance it by saying the warning only applies to outsiders. It’s perfectly fine for the players and coaches to believe they can go all the way, because they need that belief along with everything else to win games on the biggest stage.

“Obviously, we take it one game at a time, but every game, every tournament that we play, we want to win,” centerback Chris Richards said. “So I don’t think it’s ridiculous to say that we want to win it.”

Nor was it outrageous, even if it was certainly headline-grabbing, when manager Mauricio Pochettino told The Athletic last week that “we should dream without limits.”

“If I dream of touching the moon, of being up on the moon, maybe I can get close to the moon,” he said. “If I only dream of getting close to it, I’ll stay on Earth. It’s so powerful, isn’t it? Believing that you can do it.”

It had to help Friday. The players found out that morning, just a few hours before kickoff, that its catalyst, Christian Pulisic, wasn’t healthy enough to play.

“We were all ready to prepare for this game, and whenever we heard that the coach gave us the lineup, the next player, the next man up was ready,” said Ricardo Pepi, who was that next man.

“I think that we built the victory in our attitude,” Pochettino said after the Australia game. “I told the player: the first action when we started the game, did you see how Pepi and Balogun go to press?”

We sure did, and it set the tone that led to the game’s first goal in just 11 minutes. Australia had to boot the ball out to beat it, and one of those clearances led to the throw-in that started the scoring play. The U.S. worked the ball around the back line, Antonee Robinson sprung Balogun down the left wing, Pepi charged up the middle, and Cameron Burgess put the ball in his own net.

They didn’t let up, either, as physical as the game got. After winning the first game with style, the U.S. won the second with grit, as the teams combined for 28 called fouls and plenty more uncalled.

How the Turkey game will go is impossible to know right now, with the U.S. already group winners and Turkey already eliminated. It’s the first game without qualification stakes for the Americans since 1998, when they lost their first two games and were eliminated before the third.

Will Pochettino rotate his lineup a lot? It makes sense at first, but there are caveats. There’s a history of teams that rest players in their third game ending up rusty in their first knockout game, and this time there are six days between the second and third group contests — then another six between the round of 32.

There’s a clear case to rest Pulisic and players on yellow cards: Tyler Adams, Robinson, Richards, and Balogun. If they get another booking in this game, they’re out of the round of 32 contest. But beyond them (and it’s a lot, for sure), Pochettino might want to keep the rest in a good rhythm.

At least it’s a good problem to have. The results so far and the manner of earning them signal that the U.S. can make a run in this World Cup. But winning the title is a different question. That still feels too high of a task, and it will eventually become clear.

SEATTLE — Like any sport, soccer is a game of players, tactics, skills, and decisions. But when it comes to emotions, no sport is like the world’s most famous one.

Not for nothing did soccer resist the long march of analytics far longer than increasingly-global basketball, baseball, ice hockey, gridiron football, and others. (Americans might not know cricket, for example, but that bat-and-ball game has its own volume of statistics.)

So, yes, we can talk about player matchups in Friday’s U.S.-Australia showdown for first place in Group D (3 p.m., Fox29, Telemundo 62). We can talk about the Socceroos’ impressive striker Nestory Irankunda and 6-foot-6 centerback Harry Souttar. And we can certainly talk about whether Christian Pulisic will shake off his calf strain in time.

But it’s impossible to avoid this moment’s romantic side. The Emerald City is rich with a half-century of soccer history, from the NASL’s Sounders to the MLS version, always drawing big and passionate crowds. In recent years, the NWSL’s Reign have joined them, with their own robust fan base watching stars of the women’s game.

For all that time — from hosting Pelé at the Kingdome to hosting Lionel Messi at Lumen Field, from Bobby Moore to Clint Dempsey, from Michelle Akers to Megan Rapinoe — Seattle’s soccer tapestry has missed one piece.

Until this year, it had never hosted a World Cup.

Now, at last, that hole is filled, and with style. Since the day in early 2024 when FIFA announced the U.S. would play a group game here, Seattle has been counting down to this moment, and so have fans across the country.

A game in this city, with its stage towering over the south side of downtown, is a joy any time. But a World Cup game here is on American soccer’s bucket list. So it’s natural that U.S. and Sounders midfielder Cristian Roldan, in his 12th season with the only club of his career, has led the welcome committee for the squad.

“I’ve told them that the city is ready, that the city is energized,” he said before Thursday’s practice at the University of Washington, his alma mater — with its own famed sports theaters in football’s Husky Stadium and basketball’s Palestra-like Hec Edmundson Pavilion.

“We haven’t had a game here in a long time, and we’ve been desperate to host a World Cup game, a U.S. men’s national team game,” Roldan added. “So they’re going to feel the crowd, feel the energy, and it’s about feeding off it.”

He felt it even more as he set foot on his old college field, with glittering Lake Washington a stone’s throw away and Mount Rainier towering beyond. On the same day that Penn product Duke Lacroix returned to his alma mater in Philadelphia ahead of Haiti’s clash with Brazil on Friday, a similar scene unfolded thousands of miles west.

“I’m thankful to have this full circle moment,” Roldan said. “I don’t think people realize how special it is for me to be here and enjoying this experience with the men’s national team.”

Come lunchtime, a walk through downtown showed what awaits. Fans in U.S. jerseys were all over, from Pike Place Market (Seattle’s version of Reading Terminal) to the glistening waterfront.

Fox’s studio show set up shop on one of the piers, with the ferries crossing Puget Sound as one backdrop and a boisterous crowd as another.

It’s a different vibe from sprawling Los Angeles, and they’ll tell you that here as much as a visitor from out east naturally senses it.

Everything will come together at noon local time on Friday, when a capacity crowd of just under 67,000 will roar the U.S. team onto the field.

The vibrant scene in Seattle as Fox’s studio show goes on air:

#USMNT

[image or embed]

— Jonathan Tannenwald (@jtannenwald.bsky.social) June 18, 2026 at 2:23 PM

The players are excited to experience it, especially those who haven’t before. Because the stadium usually has artificial turf, the U.S. men haven’t been here since the 2016 Copa América Centenario, when grass was installed like it has been this summer. (The World Cup’s grass also helped bring the women’s team here in April, ending a nine-year drought.)

“I’ve obviously spoken to ‘Roldy’ and other people who’ve said how much of a soccer culture Seattle has, and I’m really looking forward to experiencing that firsthand,” defender Antonee Robinson said. “The first game that was played in that stadium looked amazing. So I’m looking forward to being a part of it, too.”

Roldan isn’t expected to start, and he knows it. But if he gets on the field as a substitute, the roar that rises will no doubt be as great as a U.S. goal.

“I’m getting goosebumps just thinking about it,” he said. “This is a place that I call home, and I’ve called home for a while. … I’ve given my heart and soul to this club. To be able to see the field would be a dream come true, and I think it would be special not only for me, but I think for the city of Seattle as well.”

ATLANTA — If fans of the U.S. men’s soccer team wanted to see an A-level squad take on Portugal’s stars, they didn’t get it.

But if U.S. manager Mauricio Pochettino wanted to see what would come of a slew of auditions for spots on his World Cup roster, he certainly got that.

Pochettino tested 20 players across four formations over the course of 90 minutes in a 2-0 loss to Portugal on Wednesday night inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

For a second straight game, Pochettino decided to try something new instead of working toward his best starting lineup. He deployed a 4-2-3-1 with no formal striker at the top, instead putting Christian Pulisic up there in front of Tim Weah, Weston McKennie, and Malik Tillman.

That freed Weah of the defensive responsibilities he had as a right back on Saturday, and Pochettino reinforced the role a little more by starting Alex Freeman there. The defense also included Media’s Auston Trusty at centerback and Wayne’s Matt Freese at goalkeeper, with the latter move seemingly cementing Freese as the No. 1 in net.

The point of putting Pulisic up top was to get him closer to goal, and that genuinely happened in the first few minutes. The U.S. had some very nice attacking plays, and Portugal’s defense worked well to keep shots from going in.

In the 22nd minute, Weah showed the virtue of playing him higher up the field with a burst down the right wing and cross for Pulisic. Alas, the Hershey native fluffed his chance, and the ball bounced past McKennie as it ran away.

When Pulisic shot narrowly wide from 20 yards in the 36th, it seemed the U.S. was building more momentum. But Portugal then went right down the field and scored. Bruno Fernandes drove forward, then tore up the U.S. defense with a gorgeous backheel pass for Francisco Trincão to finish.

Both teams decided the starters had done their work in the first half, and began a parade of substitutions as the second kicked off. Portugal made seven (of 11 allowed), and the U.S. made three: striker Patrick Agyemang for Pulisic, Tanner Tessmann for McKennie in midfield, and Max Arfsten for Antonee Robinson on the back line.

Those moves restored the U.S. to the 3-4-2-1 formation that many observers had wanted to see. Alas, it did not stop Portugal from scoring a second goal in the 59th, though the tactical change wasn’t why.

In fact, it was something worse — a corner kick play that completely fooled the Americans.

With almost everyone from both teams lined up near the goal mouth, Fernandes swung a service to one two Portuguese players who stood unmarked atop the box, second half substitute, João Felix. He hit an inch-perfect smash through the crowd that Freese likely couldn’t see until too late.

Freese made up for it in the 64th with a nice diving save on a long-range hit from Ruben Neves. That was one of three stops he made on the night.

Three minutes later, Pochettino sent in Folarin Balogun for Tillman and Joe Scally for Weah, putting the U.S. in a two-striker setup — effectively a 3-4-1-2 instead of a 3-4-2-1. The next subs, in the 79th, made it a 4-4-2: Brenden Aaronson and Gio Reyna entered for Freeman and Sebastian Berhalter.

Trusty was the last U.S. player to exit, replaced by Mark McKenzie in second-half stoppage time after cramping up. It was a sour ending to what had been a very good game overall for Trusty, on his own and in tandem with Chris Richards.

At the final whistle, it was pretty clear that the score didn’t matter to either team. But it will have to U.S. fans. Their hopes for a statement win in 2026 before the World Cup now rest with the tournament squad’s two warmup games, against Senegal and Germany in early June.

"Yes, he felt frustrated, but that is what we want, and what we expect."

Mauricio Pochettino analyzes Christian Pulisic's night as a striker:

www.inquirer.com/soccer/usmnt…

#USMNT

[image or embed]

— Jonathan Tannenwald (@jtannenwald.bsky.social) April 1, 2026 at 12:07 AM

ATLANTA — The U.S. men’s soccer team wanted to test itself against Europe’s best this month, and it got what it asked for on Saturday.

It also failed that test in front of a pro-American crowd.

Belgium rolled over the Americans, 5-2, playing just as well against the U.S. starters as against the many second-half substitutes.

U.S. manager Mauricio Pochettino sprung some surprises with his starting lineup, the biggest being Matt Turner replacing Matt Freese at goalkeeper. Freese had played 12 straight games before Saturday, and seemed locked in as the World Cup starter.

There was also a surprise with the 10 players in front of Turner. Pochettino switched out of the three-centerback setup that was so successful in the fall, going with an attack-minded 4-2-3-1 instead.

The starting group would have been remarkably attack-minded against any opponent, but especially one of Belgium’s quality. Tim Weah and Antonee Robinson were the outside backs, and Christian Pulisic, Malik Tillman, and Weston McKennie lined up in midfield behind striker Folarin Balogun.

As risky as the setup felt, the U.S. took it to Belgium early. McKennie got the best in a series of looks, denied from 8 yards by a great save from goalkeeper Senne Lammens in the 17th minute.

Belgium put the ball in the net first in the 37th, but Turner got lucky that a rebound hit Charles De Ketelaere’s arm before he stuck it in.

The U.S. then went right down the field, earned a corner kick, and McKennie was shockingly open when Robinson’s service landed at the 6-yard line.

Belgium equalized in the 45th with a mighty hit from Zeno Debast. Jérémy Doku started the play with a sprint in from the left flank, then shot hard, but Turner punched it out. Debast corralled the ball, no one pressed him, and the centerback fired through the crowd from some 30 yards.

If Turner didn’t look great on the play, it might have been worse that no U.S. player pressed Debast before he let fly, even if him shooting was unexpected.

Turner then finished the half with one more punch-out save, denying Alexis Saelemaekers’ bouncing shot off a corner from 18 yards.

Pochettino’s first substitution was Cristian Roldan for Cardoso at halftime. But that didn’t stop Belgium from taking control of the game. Amid notable misses from Pulisic and Weah, Amadou Onana put the Red Devils up, 2-1, in the 53rd.

Lots of U.S. players looked bad on the play. Mark McKenzie was caught one-on-one with the terrific Doku on the flank. Roldan came to help, but neither closed the play down, then a trio of Americans failed to stop Saelemaekers from passing the ball back to Onana. Tanner Tessmann was then late to close down Onana, and the shot followed from atop the box.

Five minutes later, Tim Ream was called for a handball in the box, and Belgium had a penalty kick. There was a long video review to judge the contact, but referee Esteban Ostojich stuck with his call, and De Ketelaere converted from the spot.

Mass subs started in the 63rd, when Pochettino sent in Max Arfsten, Alex Freeman, and Sebastian Berhalter for Robinson, Tessmann, and Weah.

Dodi Lukébakio slammed in the fourth in the 68th, catching Arfsten twice along the way: in a two-on-one with Thomas Meunier on the right, then in a one-on-one as he cut in to shoot.

Pochettino then made four more subs, and with it switched out of a four-back formation to three. Patrick Agyemang, Ricardo Pepi, Gio Reyna, and Joe Scally entered, with Scally taking up a right centerback post; and Balogun, McKennie, Pulisic, and Tillman exited.

Lukébakio struck again in the 82nd, off a give-and-go with Timothy Castagne. Lots of U.S. players were guilty again here. Lukébakio almost walked past Ream, Berhalter, and Arfsten before his pass, then Scally and McKenzie stood to try to block the shot instead of pressuring the shooter.

Agyemang got a consolation goal in the 87th, cashing in a loose ball after Pepi jumped on a poor backpass attempt by Youri Tielemans.

That was a good sign of the Americans’ mentality in the midst of a rout. But the rest of the game was a sign of how far the U.S. remains behind the world’s elite.