IRVINE, Calif. — After eight years of waiting, there’s no more runway.
The U.S. men’s national team arrived Saturday night in California and spent Sunday resting and recovering before the world’s media descends on their World Cup base camp here in Orange County.
For a group that has played very few meaningful soccer games over the last 3 ¹/₂ years, there is no meaningless soccer left.
Only a home World Cup they’ve been quietly building toward since then, and a spotlight about to be flipped on at a level the sport has never seen in these 50 United States.
How does this group of 26 feel?
“Ready,” captain Tim Ream said Saturday.
The Americans had lost 2-1 to Germany, but left Chicago feeling — not without justification — that their momentum had continued to build in a dress-rehearsal game where they went toe-to-toe with one of the best teams in the world.
There is still so much to prove, and the lack of a win over an elite European or South American side remains a glaring hole in this team’s résumé.
But Group D doesn’t include any of those teams.
The trio of Paraguay, Australia and Turkey aren’t pushovers, but on home soil, the USMNT should expect not just to come out of the group, but to win it and enter the knockout stage with momentum.
“The response, the character, the resilience [against Germany], all those things you want to see, we can raise our quality now,” Tyler Adams said. “That’s something you can tune up. Passing, final plays, finishing, all those kinds of things, but to see that mentality from everyone — and it’s not just the guys that started, all the guys that came off the bench as well — that’s what you need. You need a team.”
Mauricio Pochettino spent over 18 months since his hire trying to instill a culture, and a belief, into this team.
He wanted the Americans — like players in top soccer countries globally — to come into every camp feeling like their World Cup spot was at stake.
After Saturday’s match, he relayed a conversation this week with one of U.S. Soccer’s top donors, Dan Cathy, who reminded him that “Culture eats talent for breakfast.”
“Maybe my expectation with my colleagues 1 ¹/₂ years ago, when we signed with the U.S. men’s national team, [was] to be excited for today,” Pochettino said. “That was my problem, and we started to fight against a very relaxed place. Because we started to live the World Cup 1 ¹/₂ years ago. Maybe it was our mistake. But yes, we are so excited.”
No one needs reminding that, although this USMNT might be the most talented American national team ever assembled on the men’s side, it’s far from the favorite.
A quarterfinal would be hailed as an achievement.
The goals conceded against Germany, in which a Chris Richards-less back line continued to look vulnerable and in which the USMNT was caught out on a set piece, served as a reminder that getting there will be a serious challenge.
So too did the chipper attitude after what was, whatever caveats you want to throw at it, a loss.
Even this late in the process, and even after a pair of tuneup friendlies in which the USMNT — save for the first 15 minutes against Germany, when it looked totally overwhelmed — played as well as it has under Pochettino, so much about its ceiling is based on what it could be, as opposed to what it has been. So much hinges on Richards’ ankle, and the center back’s race to be ready to play 90 high-level minutes by Friday night.
“Feeling good after these friendlies, but at the end of the day, it means nothing,” Christian Pulisic said. “We have to go out and we have to perform when it matters on Friday.
“What an opportunity we have in front of us.”
