SANTA CLARA \u2014 FIFA allows media to view 15 minutes of a team\u2019s practice on the day before a World Cup match, which is akin to caddie day at the country club pool in the classic movie \u201cCaddyshack.\u201d<\/p>\n
The sign at the pool: \u201cCaddies welcome 1:00 to 1:15.\u201d<\/p>\n
Players form a circle around the coach, stretch a little, jog a little, maybe knock a ball around a little and \u2026 sorry, time\u2019s up.<\/p>\n
But the U.S. men\u2019s national team provided a clue of what it expects Wednesday evening in the round of 32 encounter at Levi\u2019s Stadium against Bosnia and Herzegovina. Aligned across the penalty box were five plastic, yellow practice mannequins, with another three positioned just in front of them.<\/p>\n
If they drove the bus onto the grass and parked it in front of the goal, that would have had the same effect.<\/p>\n
Bosnia and Herzegovina is one of the smallest and lowest-ranked nations to reach the knockout stage of a World Cup, the third-place finisher in Group B thanks to a 3-1 victory against unfancied Qatar in a match where their expected goals production was a mere 0.68. And it is one of the least attack-minded, willingly ceding possession and relying on corner kicks for its primary source of offense (three of its five goals).<\/p>\n
The knockout round blueprint, though, was provided Monday afternoon by Paraguay, a team the U.S. beat 4-1 in the group stage, against four-time World Cup champion Germany. The South Americans with little World Cup pedigree parked the bus and had a mere 25% possession, then won in a penalty shootout after playing to a 1-1 tie through 90 minutes of regulation and 30 of overtime.<\/p>\n
Watching closely was U.S. midfielder Malik Tillman, who was born in Germany to a German mother and American serviceman father who left when he was an infant. He came up through the German youth system and played for Germany\u2019s youth national teams before switching allegiances to a country he\u2019d never lived in. He currently plays for German club Bayer Leverkusen.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a tough one for the whole nation,\u201d Tillman said. \u201cBut in knockout games, anything can happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Added winger Christian Pulisic: \u201cWe already know this. I mean, it\u2019s a World Cup. You\u2019re not 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 shootout, that\u2019s the beauty of the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to be ready for whatever comes. We don\u2019t think it will be easy by any means.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the opposite situation for the U.S. men from the last time they played a World Cup knockout match on home soil. That was in 1994, 20 minutes up the freeway at the old Stanford Stadium in the round of 16 against mighty Brazil.<\/p>\n
The Yanks were the heavy underdogs that day, hanging on for dear life while hoping that the guys in the famed canary jerseys would crumble under the immense pressure of expectation the longer it stayed scoreless. (Brazil got a red card in the 43rd minute, finally scored in the 72nd for a narrow 1-0 escape and went on to win the World Cup.)<\/p>\n
It\u2019s an odd position, then, for a nation that has won just one knockout stage match in its complete World Cup history \u2014 a 76.6% chance of advancing, according to soccer statistical site Opta.<\/p>\n
To that end, coach Mauricio Pochettino and his players have gone to great lengths not to provide the Bosnians with any unnecessary bulletin board material, as Italy did when players were seen celebrating Bosnia\u2019s victory against Wales last March that sent the Balkan nation of 3.1 million to the playoff finale against the Azzurri for a spot in this World Cup. Bosnia had the last laugh, prevailing in a penalty shootout.<\/p>\n
Pochettino and his players might not have said anything inflammatory. A television commentator from the ABC affiliate in Los Angeles took care of that, however.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne thing about Bosnia,\u201d Abigail Velez said on air last week, \u201cI could not point out where it is on a map. I don\u2019t know the first thing about Bosnia, and I don\u2019t want to know. That\u2019s because Team USA, we\u2019re back, we\u2019re better than ever. \u2026 Get prepared, Bosnia, because you don\u2019t want it, you don\u2019t want it like that. But you\u2019re going to get it\u201d<\/p>\n
Her comments quickly went viral across the Atlantic, and Velez issued a sheepish apology on social media. (A double-ouch moment: The president of ABC News, Almin Karamehmedovic, was born in Bosnia.)<\/p>\n
Bosnia coach Sergej Barbarez was asked several times Tuesday about Velez\u2019s comments and the notion of being the prohibitive underdog. He shrugged.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe never have a problem being the underdog,\u201d said Barbarez, a former national team captain whose father sent him to Germany in the early 1990s to avoid fighting in the Yugoslav wars. \u201cThis word doesn\u2019t mean anything to me. You can throw that word out. I\u2019m interested in what happens on the pitch.<\/p>\n
\u201cBelieve me, we will have the desire to play in this match and continue our journey.\u201d<\/p>\n
The question becomes, how?<\/p>\n
They rank near the bottom of teams in the round of 32 in terms of possession, completed passes and expected goals. They have yet to record a shutout in six World Cup matches, the longest such streak in tournament history. They\u2019re No. 61 in the FIFA world rankings, 27 spots worse than Paraguay, 33 worse than Australia \u2014 teams the Yanks dispatched with ease in the group stage. Their best-known player, 6-foot-4 striker Edin D\u017eeko, is 40.<\/p>\n