THE UNITED STATES National team is through to the round of 16 at the 2026 FIFA World Cup after a convincing 2-0 win over Bosnia & Herzegovina on Wednesday in Santa Clara, California. The win was not easy as Bosnia defended well early to absorb pressure. Then once the U.S. team had the lead, it was forced to play with 10 men for well over half an hour.

As everyone predicted, Mauricio Pochettino made the decision to go with the same lineup that he used against Paraguay. That is clearly his top lineup but against Australia, Pulisic was hurt and it forced a tactical change. Then against Turkiye, Pochettino needed to bench players sitting on yellow cards and rest other veterans.

From the opening whistle, the U.S. team was in control of the pace and the tempo. But unlike the group stage games, the U.S. team did not score early. Instead, this game required patience, fighting against the urge to be frustrated and forcing chances that are not there.

The team passed the tests with flying colors. Minutes after Folarin Balogun had a goal called back, the Monaco forward scored a goal that counted for a 1-0 lead.

BALO'S BEEN KNOCKING AND BALO'S GONNA DELIVER pic.twitter.com/4LBsGLozcw

— U.S. Soccer Men's National Team (@USMNT) July 2, 2026

In the second half, the U.S. continued its dominance of possession but was put into a bad position when Balogun was shown a red card for landing on the ankle of Bosnia’s Tarik Muharemovic.

The U.S. team had to then shift to a defensive approach, but it still was able to maintain possession better than most teams with 10 players.

In the 82nd minute, Malik Tillman put the game out of reach when Sergino Dest drew a foul in a dangerous position and Tillman hit a wonderful free kick past Bosnian goalkeeper Nikola Vasilj.

From there, the U.S. team was able to close the game without much of a problem.

Here are thoughts on the game

Excellent Spine

The top story of this game was just how well the team’s spine played, from the central defenders up through the central midfielders. This is where the U.S. team won the game.

The midfield

In the midfield, it started with Malik Tillman who was the Man of the Match for a complete performance, not just the free kick goal. He drew two fouls and won 7/11 of his ground duels to help win possession. He then was instrumental to setting up Balogun’s goal.

“He’s having an unbelievable tournament, an absolutely unbelievable tournament,” captain Tim Ream said of Tillman. “And to get his reward with a goal that basically seals the game is so special.”

The moment was Malik's. pic.twitter.com/IIe154NNWz

— U.S. Soccer Men's National Team (@USMNT) July 2, 2026

But it wasn’t just Balogun either.

Weston McKennie and Tyler Adams were also critical to the U.S. team winning the midfield battles in terms of winning possession and making smart passes.

Central defense

Tim Ream and Chris Richards are both having excellent tournaments and the pairing works.

For Ream, he has the best passing range of a U.S. national team central defender by a wide margin. Against Bosnia and Herzegovina, he had a complete performance in terms of defending, passing, winning aerials, and loose balls.

Fresh off the @USMNT's win against Bosnia and Herzegovina, Tim Ream spoke with Tom Rinaldi ???????? pic.twitter.com/NMMgTpZOYB

— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) July 2, 2026

But the partnership between Richards and Ream allows both players to play to their strengths. Ream is often not tasked with getting into a foot race, which is his weakness at his age.

Richards is a near perfect complement to Ream as he is faster, positionally sound, and is also a good passer.

On the right side, there is Alex Freeman who plays as a central defender in possession. He is one of the best domestically produced American players in several years. He is so important to implementing Pochettino’s tactics and his athleticism is off the charts. In this game, he completed 59/61 of his passes but also moved forward into the attack at times to give the team an overload on the right side.

A professional performance

In the aftermath of the game, one of the most popular ways to describe the U.S. team’s win and performance was that it was very professional. This is absolutely correct.

The U.S. team stuck to its game plan and never got frustrated. It never let negative emotion creep in, when at times it could have. Even when Balogun was sent off, the team knew what it wanted to do and what it had to do.

At the same time, the U.S. team was very intense in the way it played. Bosnia and Herzegovina could not match the U.S. team’s skill or intensity and that made for a desciive victory.

Playing without Balogun

When looking ahead to the next game against Belgium in the round of 16, the biggest story is how the U.S. team will play without Balogun. As we saw in the U.S. team’s win over Australia, Pochettino is capable of a surprise. Without Pulisic in that game, not many were expecting to see a two-striker formation with both Balogun and Ricardo Pepi.

There are a couple of different approaches Pochettino can use, but the most likely is to insert Pepi in for Balogun and make no other changes.

More angles of the red card shown to Balogun and the US ???? pic.twitter.com/Rh4zjoJTHI

— FOX Sports (@FOXSports) July 2, 2026

Pepi and Balogun play the striker position very differently. Balogun likes to make runs behind the defensive line. Pepi has a few different dimensions to his game, namely that he loves to clean up opportunities in the box and he also likes to run with his teammates during build-ups as opposed to ahead of his teammates.

The best example of this was the U.S. team’s pretournament friendly against Senegal where Pepi had an excellent first half. He did not score, but he was highly effective, often with Pulisic in the build-up of several counterattacks.

Pochettino has tried a few different approaches without Balogun (playing with Wright up top against Australia in last October’s friendly and playing with Pulisic as a “false nine” against Portugal in March), but the most likely approach is to mimic the way the team played in the first half against Senegal at the start of the World Cup camp. It worked very well in that game and it was fun to watch.

What is clear is that it is shaping up to be the biggest day of Pepi's career.

Historical win

While this is an expanded World Cup with a more forgiving format, the U.S. team’s accomplishments should have fans excited about the present and the future.

This is the first World Cup where the U.S. team has won three games.

This is only the second time the U.S. team has won a knockout game. The other time was against Mexico in the round of 16 in 2002.

This is only the second time the U.S. team has beaten a European opponent at the World Cup since 1990. In 22 games, the U.S. has won twice, drawn seven times, and lost 13. Its only other win was against Portugal in 2002.

But even more important is that none of these wins have been upsets. The U.S. team has earned the respect of its opponents, who are all forced to sit deep and play defensively.

When the U.S. team plays against Belgium, it will be the underdog but it likely won’t be bunking the way it did when the two teams faced each other in the knockouts in 2014. That game went to extra time, but Belgium was always in control. The U.S. team rarely was able to control the ball. Instead, it took a phenomenal performance from Tim Howard to keep the game close.

All the public enthusiasm for the team is very healthy and hopefully this winning will inspire more kids to play and watch the sport. Then later, pass it onto the next generation.