The World Cup has “reached a new speed,” and the USMNT is “moving out of the sleepy side streets of the group stage and onto an unforgiving freeway where everything moves faster,” according to Rick Maese of the WASHINGTON POST. The opening round “went better than most U.S. supporters dared to imagine,” but now “comes the part that will determine what all of that means.” It promises to be the “biggest test to date for a U.S. team that spent the group stage building confidence, collecting milestones and making the tournament look far more comfortable than it usually does.” However, that “comfort has an expiration date.” The Americans have not won a knockout-round game since 2002 and “know the margin for error is minuscule.” But that is “part of what made the group stage so significant.” The Americans “steadied a program that had spent much of the previous two years looking stuck between promise and proof.” Thursday “offered a glimpse of the depth they may need to do that. … Thursday felt less like a conclusion than a transition” (WASHINGTON POST, 6/26).
AWAITING ANSWERS: In San Diego, Mark Zeigler wrote the next time the hosts can play at L.A. Stadium, a July 10 quarterfinal, is “looming.” There is a 99% chance the USMNT’s Tuesday round of 32 opponent will be No. 64 Bosnia and Herzegovina, which “squeaked through a last-chance playoff” by beating Wales in a penalty shootout and then Italy, also in a penalty shootout, despite playing the final 75-plus minutes with a man advantage. The USMNT’s round of 16 opponent was supposed to be No. 9 Belgium. But the talented Red Devils have “continued their World Cup tradition of underachievement and have only a slim chance of landing in the U.S. side of the bracket by finishing atop the group.” That leaves No. 29 Egypt or No. 25 South Korea, teams with “aging superstars who don’t present the same kind of technical challenge and will be clear underdogs” against the U.S. on U.S. soil. Zeigler writes, “Which means: If form holds, if they don’t choke, if they dispatch inferior opposition, if they don’t stub their toe walking to the kitchen, the Yanks are in the World Cup quarterfinals for the first time since 2002.” That all “changes at SoFi on July 10, when No. 3 Spain or No. 8 Portugal await.” That is “when we get answers.” That is “when we find out how good this team really is, or isn’t” (SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, 6/25).
TIME TO GET SERIOUS: In California, Scott Reid wrote the second round, the first round in the tournament’s knockout phase, is “where the World Cup really gets serious.” In most World Cups, that would be the next round, the Round of 32, which starts Sunday. But the first World Cup expanded to 48 teams “isn’t likely to provide any real clarity until the Round of 16.” The knock-out phase is “where we learn if the U.S. two group stage victories are a real indication of how far this team, and by extension American soccer, have come” under coach Mauricio Pochettino. Reid: “Is Team USA really ready to join the world’s elite, or was the group stage just more tease before the usual one-and-done in the knock-out phase?” (ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER, 6/25).
WELL DESERVED: In San Jose, Dieter Kurtenbach wrote the Bay Area was “handed, unquestionably, the worst slate of group-stage games FIFA’s bureaucrats could manifest.” Yet, Northern California “ate it up.” The house was “full every single night, with only 1,617 empty seats tallied across those five matches over the past two weeks.” Kurtenbach: “The soccer gods … actually rewarded that blind devotion. They gave us the big show.” The USMNT is coming to the South Bay (San Jose MERCURY NEWS, 6/25).
FURRY FRIENDS: THE ATHLETIC’s Adam Crafton wrote on the morning after the USMNT opened their World Cup campaign with a 4-1 win over Paraguay, they “received a visit to their California training base from three special guests: Bud, Dew Drop and Bloom,” three terrier/mixed breed puppies. The puppies, born nine weeks ago from the same litter, arrived, to a certain extent, due to a “marketing activation with Purina,” the first official pet care partner of the U.S. Soccer Federation. But this activity was also approved by the Pochettino. Both Purina and U.S. Soccer said that the visit from the puppies “went down so well with the players that ‘active discussions’ are under way for a follow-up session as the team progress into the knockout stages” (THE ATHLETIC, 6/25).
