INGLEWOOD, Calif. — The U.S. national team’s Round of 32 opponent had been all but official since Bosnia-Herzegovina beat Qatar on Wednesday.
But Thursday night, after a 3-2 loss to Turkey, the fait accompli became reality.
Indeed, it will be Bosnia next Wednesday in Santa Clara at 8 p.m. with a spot in the round of 16 on the line.
“They’re a good team. A Round of 32, a do-or-die game,” Sebastian Berhalter said. “We’ll be ready. Hopefully we have all our supporters ready to go.”
This will be the USMNT’s best chance to win a knockout game at the World Cup since it beat Mexico to make the quarterfinals back in 2002, which still stands as its last win in the knockout stage 24 years later.
Since then, it has lost in the round of 16 to Ghana (2010), Belgium (2014) and the Netherlands (2022); this is the first World Cup to feature a round of 32.
Asked about Bosnia on Wednesday, before it became official, Mauricio Pochettino deflected the question, talking instead about the importance of winning Thursday’s glorified exhibition against Turkey.
Having upset Italy to make it to the World Cup before going 1-1-1 in Group B — beating Qatar, drawing Canada, losing to Switzerland — Bosnia will be an underdog, but the U.S. would be foolish to look past it.
Led by talisman Edin Džeko and winger Kerim Alajbegovic, Bosnia has already achieved its best World Cup finish, with a group-stage exit in 2014 being its only other time qualifying since the Balkan nation achieved independence.
Before facing Paraguay in the World Cup opener, the last time the U.S. men’s national team had played at SoFi Stadium, it did so in front of thousands of empty seats.
The seats that were filled at that disastrous CONCACAF Nations League performance were mostly occupied by fans of Mexico, which played the other game in two doubleheaders when the USMNT lost to Panama and Canada.
“Day and night,” Pochettino said Wednesday, when asked to compare the crowd back then to now.
“When you connect, you connect,” Pochettino said. “I think that connection was the most difficult to create. Now when you connect with fans, people are excited and our players, the team is so excited to play tomorrow here and feel the connection, because that’s a unique feeling and emotion. It’s difficult to get in another place, that is the adrenaline that you like to feel in your body when that connection happens.”
Chris Richards, one of four players with a yellow card and thus not expected to play Thursday, said he didn’t expect a long rest before the round of 32 would have adverse effects.
“Fitness won’t be an issue. I don’t think sharpness will be either,” he said. “Obviously it’s good to keep into some sort of rhythm.… I think we’ll be fine next game.”
Cristian Roldan was not listed in the squad Thursday after dealing with a quad injury all week.
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