The USA Men’s team have had their best start to a World Cup since 1930, defeating Australia 2-0 to make it two wins out of two in their co-host World Cup. With six goals scored and just one conceded in their opening two matches, and the top spot in Group D already secured, the question now is how far can the co-hosts really go? Are these results simply good performances against bad teams or are they poised for a deep run?
The first pushback to any sort of praise for the USMNT will be that their opposition has not been of the highest standard. However, as the saying goes, you can only beat what’s in front of you, and the US have done that with ease. The US came in as the group’s pot one team given they are the co-hosts of the competition, but despite that, and their superior FIFA ranking before the competition kicked off, many felt this would be a relatively even group, with the US ranked 17th, Turkey ranked 22nd, Australia ranked 27th, and Paraguay ranked 41st. So now the US have secured top spot in the group before a ball is even kicked in the third round of matches, thanks to two comfortable victories, it is unfair to cite the ‘weaker’ competition they have played.
What this team has proven is that in this tournament they are a side to be reckoned with. How many other teams in the competition so far have proven they would have dispatched the US’ opponents with the same ease? France, England, Germany, Argentina, Norway and that’s about it. That is not to say the US are the sixth best team in the tournament, however, many fans often underestimate the difficulty of games at major tournaments. Look at Spain, they couldn’t score in 90 minutes against Cape Verde, yet are still no doubt one of the favourites. Outside the category of ‘contenders’, the US have established themselves as one of the best teams in this tournament. Take Argentina, France, Spain, England, Germany, and the Netherlands out, are there any other teams that the co-hosts would enter a match against, at home, and feel they were the inferior team? Portugal is the obvious choice but they are yet to provide evidence of that at either this tournament or their last major tournament. Brazil and Morocco could certainly go far but have not proved to be world beaters so far. Norway certainly have a strong case given their dominance in qualification and the talent they possess going forward. However, the point is, this US team does not have any opponents outside of the top teams that will truly strike fear into them. The first two games of this tournament have proven they will comfortably beat inferior opposition, something some big nations have struggled to do so far.
Of course, the World Cup is not a round robin tournament, and with the US having officially topped their group, we can try and predict their route through the competition. The Round of 32 matchup for Pochettino’s men will take place in San Francisco on July 1st. The opponent is of course still unknown and is hard to predict given it will be a 3rd place team, however the odds on favourite at the moment is Bosnia and Herzegovina, a team ranked lower than the ones the co-hosts have already dispatched. Into the Round of 16 and the winner of Group G will likely be the US’ opponents, which one would think will be Belgium. On home soil in Seattle, a famously hostile environment in two different sports, including football (soccer), against a side that has failed to live up to expectations in multiple tournaments, that is a game the US could easily come out on top in.
A win against Belgium would be one of the greatest results in the history of the USMNT. If that were to happen, they would likely face Spain in the quarter-finals. Despite Spain’s struggles early on in this tournament, it is hard to see the co-hosts coming out on top here, so a quarter-final does feel like their ceiling. If they did defeat Spain, though, that’s when Americans would really start to believe. However, if they were to reach ‘only’ a quarter-final, that would no doubt be a successful home World Cup. It would not just evolve the game massively in the country but would also prove to the world that this team can compete with the footballing powerhouses across the globe, and would be a stepping stone for greater things.
Of course, there are a lot of hypotheticals here, but there is no doubt that the US have had the perfect start to their co-host tournament, and they have guaranteed that they will play every remaining game at home. The USMNT have shown the world that they have elevated from the status of just making up the numbers. This team, with a home advantage and an excellent manager, now have a huge chance to prove to the rest of the footballing world that they can compete with the big nations in this competition.