{"id":518892,"date":"2026-06-30T21:53:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T21:53:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/518892\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T21:53:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T21:53:12","slug":"after-last-32-upsets-us-approach-is-simple-were-not-going-to-go-crazy-usa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/518892\/","title":{"rendered":"After last-32 upsets, US approach is simple: \u2018We\u2019re not going to go crazy\u2019 | USA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Few knew what to expect from the newly hatched last 32 when Fifa expanded the field for the 2026 World Cup<\/a>. After Monday, we\u2019ve gotten an answer: it resembles international knockout soccer as we\u2019ve known it to be. Favorites (such as Germany and the Netherlands) can\u2019t rest on their laurels. Complacent play can, and often is, punished.<\/p>\n

The outside expectation is that the US enter Wednesday\u2019s last-32 clash with Bosnia and Herzegovina as favorites, especially so given they will have a considerable home-field advantage at San Francisco Bay Area Stadium.<\/p>\n

But ultimately, the last 32 is still the knockout stage, with elimination on the line.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a World Cup,\u201d said Christian Pulisic, who was part of the team who lost in the last 16 against the Netherlands four years ago. \u201cYou\u2019re never going to 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 a penalty kick shootout, and that\u2019s the beauty of the game. We have to be ready for whatever\u2019s to come tomorrow. We don\u2019t think it\u2019s going to be easy by any means, so we have to put on a really high level performance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bosnia and Herzegovina ground their way through Group B, drawing with co-hosts Canada in their opener and winning their final group game against Qatar. In between was a humbling defeat to Switzerland, where they held the Swiss scoreless until Johan Manzambi and Rub\u00e9n Vargas catalyzed an eventual 4-1 rout.<\/p>\n

Manzambi and Vargas are among Switzerland\u2019s most technical players, able to pull off audacious and nifty passes and movements beyond defenders in tight parameters. Thankfully for the US, Mauricio Pochettino has plenty of beguiling lock-pickers to rely on against a low-block opponent, including Pulisic, Weston McKennie, Malik Tillman and Gio Reyna.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of different ways,\u201d said Pulisic, who added that he feels back to 100% fitness after a left calf injury forced him to miss minutes in the group stage. \u201cI\u2019m not going to give away our whole plan, but yeah, not just being one-dimensional, moving the ball, and trying to find ways to break through.\u201d<\/p>\n

The US will certainly back themselves. They barnstormed through Paraguay and Australia to win Group D in two games, were able to rest key starters against Turkey and face a side that claimed just one point from games against fellow knockout qualifiers.<\/p>\n

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Ever since this generation of players began to emerge in the wake of that 2017 defeat in Couva<\/a>, where the US failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup, they\u2019ve spoken about wanting to show domestic fans and the world alike that American soccer can be more than industrious if unglamorous. After impressive performances in the first two games, this team have a hunger to play with similar verve in the knockouts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, try to stick to your style, but ultimately, the team that puts in the most effort and sticks to their principles usually will win the game,\u201d said Chris Richards. \u201cWe\u2019re not going to go crazy if plan A doesn\u2019t work, but we also understand that there are good teams that also deserve to be here. Mostly, we know that how we played so far throughout the tournament has been very successful, so we\u2019re going to try to stick to that\u201d<\/p>\n

Part of that game model also relies on defenders keeping a stable base even as the team ahead of them evolves to unsettle an opponent.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody takes pride in clean sheets,\u201d Richards said. \u201cFor us defenders especially, we take pride in blocking shots and heading the ball away. The guys who are in the backline, we all like to defend. I think that\u2019s rare. I think sometimes, you see players that maybe shy away from kind of doing the dangerous stuff, but ultimately, if our goalie isn\u2019t doing much in the back, then we\u2019ve had a successful day. We enjoy it a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wednesday\u2019s game will be the defense\u2019s first test against a team who funnel their attack to a target-man forward. The wing-back tandem of Antonee Robinson and Sergi\u00f1o Dest will also have plenty to contend with from the young wing duo of Esmir Bajraktarevi\u0107 and Kerim Alajbegovi\u0107.<\/p>\n

The ageless Edin D\u017eeko still leads the line for Bosnia and Herzegovina, 12 years after making his World Cup debut in Brazil. The Schalke striker played exactly 64 minutes in each of his two starts against Switzerland and Qatar, failing to score but helping mightily with his hold-up play against the latter.<\/p>\n

At 40, D\u017eeko may not move as quickly as before, though breakneck sprints were never his calling card. Richards won\u2019t shy away from what could be a scrappy veteran\u2019s shift.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve played some experienced strikers in my career,\u201d Richards said. \u201cHe\u2019s a guy that I think might be Bosnia\u2019s kind of figurehead, when you think of their international soccer team. For me, it\u2019s making sure that I don\u2019t get kind of dragged into his games. Obviously, he\u2019s [been] at the top level for a reason for a long time, so it\u2019s making sure that I do what I do best, which is [to] frustrate people. Ultimately, I plan on coming out on top of that battle.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Few knew what to expect from the newly hatched last 32 when Fifa expanded the field for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":518893,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":["post-518892","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=518892"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518892\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/518893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=518892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=518892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=518892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}