SANTA CLARA, Calif. — The United States men’s national team enters its most important match in more than two decades Wednesday night when it hosts Bosnia-Herzegovina in the Round of 32 at Levi’s Stadium, a win-or-go-home moment that represents the clearest opportunity this generation of American players has had to erase a 24-year drought without a World Cup knockout victory.

Kickoff is scheduled for 8 p.m. ET. Should they beat Bosnia, it would be only the second U.S. World Cup knockout win ever, after a 2-0 victory over Mexico in 2002.

The United States finished atop Group D with six points, comfortably booking their knockout spot with a 4-1 win over Paraguay and a 2-0 victory over Australia before rotating heavily for an inconsequential 3-2 loss to Turkey in the group finale. Mauricio Pochettino’s side has been one of the more dynamic attacking teams of the tournament’s opening phase, with their first two group matches alone producing six goals, and with the knockout stage now beginning, the full arsenal is available again.

Yellow cards have been wiped clean, meaning Tyler Adams, Weston McKennie, Chris Richards and Folarin Balogun are all available. Christian Pulisic also returns, while both Tim Ream and Antonee Robinson are rested and refreshed.

The most anticipated aspect of Wednesday’s lineup is the reunion of Pulisic and Balogun in the starting eleven together for the first time in any meaningful capacity at this tournament. Pulisic suffered a calf injury in the group stage, limiting him to 45 minutes against Paraguay and a half-hour substitute appearance against Turkey, while Balogun was deliberately rested for the Turkey match to avoid accumulating a yellow card that would have triggered a suspension in the knockout rounds. The two attackers appeared together for only 45 minutes across the group stage.

Pulisic told reporters on Tuesday that he is “feeling good.” The expectation is that he will start against Bosnia and Herzegovina and be the star this team needs to keep pushing through the World Cup.

Balogun called for the team’s big players to step forward, saying: “The knockout stage is the time when big players step forward, and the big players carry the pressure and make things happen.”

Balogun enters Wednesday having scored twice at the tournament so far and leads the American scoring charts heading into the knockout rounds. The Monaco striker’s movement off the ball and ability to time runs in behind central defenders has been a consistent threat across the group stage, and with Pulisic now fully available to operate in the left half-space and drive at opponents, the combination gives Pochettino’s attack a dimension that was absent during the injury-affected group stage.

The predicted U.S. lineup in a 4-2-3-1 formation places Balogun leading the line, Pulisic and Dest wide, McKennie advanced and Adams screening alongside Tillman. The defensive unit features Freeman, Richards, Ream and Robinson across the back line.

The tactical identity Pochettino has established centers on the right side of the field, where Alex Freeman, Sergino Dest and McKennie have created consistent overloads that have proved difficult for opponents to handle. Freeman, one of the tournament’s breakout performers, has already established himself as one of the more surprising individual stories of the competition, showcasing a combination of defensive discipline and attacking instinct along the right flank that few observers had fully anticipated heading into the tournament.

Bosnia-Herzegovina arrive in Santa Clara having qualified for the knockout rounds for the first time in the nation’s history as an independent football-playing nation, an achievement that head coach Sergej Barbarez and his squad have every reason to celebrate even before kickoff. Their group stage record was uneven, with a 1-1 draw against Canada followed by a 4-1 hammering at the hands of Switzerland and then a 3-1 victory over Qatar securing their third-place passage as one of the eight best third-placed finishers across the 12 groups.

Bosnia and Herzegovina have never kept a clean sheet in their six World Cup matches — no side has ever played more at the finals without one. But Bosnia’s strength lies in its physicality, with the squad the tallest at the tournament with an average height of 1.85 meters. They have made good use of that towering presence, scoring three goals from corners.

Captaining Bosnia is 40-year-old striker Edin Dzeko, widely regarded as the greatest player in the country’s football history with 73 international goals. USA captain Tim Ream said his team are wary of the Balkan nation’s talent, especially after they knocked out four-time world champions Italy in the World Cup qualifiers.

One player to watch particularly closely on the Bosnian side is 18-year-old Kerim Alajbegovic, the RB Salzburg winger who started two of Bosnia’s three group stage matches and whose pace and creativity represent Bosnia’s primary threat in transition. Ermedin Demirovic, who scored 12 Bundesliga goals for Stuttgart this past season, will start up front alongside Dzeko, giving Bosnia a physical and productive partnership capable of testing the American central defenders in both open play and on set pieces.

Opta’s supercomputer calculated a 67.5% chance of USA winning and a 76.6% chance of the Americans progressing via any method, including penalties. The second-most likely result was a draw at 18.3%, followed by a Bosnia win in 14.3% of simulations.

Betting markets reflect that advantage. The USMNT are installed as -650 favorites to advance, meaning a $650 bet returns $100, while Bosnia are listed at +430. The over/under for total goals in regulation is set at 2.5, with the over priced at -138, consistent with a tournament in which the U.S. and Bosnia’s combined group stage matches produced 23 total goals.

The winner advances to the Round of 16 on Monday, July 6 in Seattle, where they will face either Belgium or Senegal following Wednesday’s later match at Lumen Field in that city.

Manager Commentary

As of 03/31/2026

“Relative to the end of last year, our assessment of the macro backdrop has become more cautious, as higher energy prices, tighter liquidity conditions, and rising inflation pressures have created a more challenging environment

Trump’s various lawsuits against media companies netted him $86.5m last year.

The largest payout came from Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram. The filing shows that the company gave the president $24.5m to settle a lawsuit over Trump’s accounts being suspended in the wake of the riots in the Washington DC on 6 January 2021.

Suits against Paramount, owner of the CBS news channel, and ABC News resulted in payouts of $16m apiece.

According to the disclosure, the net proceeds of the lawsuits will go to the Trump presidential library.

Trump also received $22m from YouTube to settle a case he brought over his account being suspended on that platform after the riots in 2021.

That money will be given to the trust that manages the National Mall in DC.

There was payment of $8m to Trump from Jack Dorsey, the co-founder of Twitter – now called X after being bought by Elon Musk – after the president was banned from the platform after the riots.

The documents do not say what that money will be used for.

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Foreign investment risks in Indonesia vary across regions due to infrastructure disparities, congestion, regulation, and supplier performance, demanding localized intelligence for optimal supply chain and site decisions.

Assessing Indonesia’s Supply Chain Risks

Foreign investors often evaluate Indonesia’s logistics by analyzing national indicators and regulations. However, the country’s archipelagic geography, decentralized governance, and uneven infrastructure can pose significant risks at the provincial and district levels. Variations in port capacity, transportation reliability, licensing procedures, and supplier stability mean that localized issues may strongly impact overall supply chain performance.

Regional Variations in Logistics and Operating Costs

Tier-1 regions such as Jakarta, Surabaya, Batam, and Bekasi boast better connectivity but face challenges like congestion, industrial saturation, and tight labor markets. These factors may increase operational costs and prolong delivery cycles. For example, Tanjung Priok port, which handles over half of Indonesia’s international container traffic, exemplifies the pressure points that can disrupt planning in key hubs.

Evolving Infrastructure and Performance Factors

Tier-2 regions like Makassar, Medan, and Palembang typically offer lower costs but lack comprehensive multimodal links and bonded facilities, affecting reliability. As infrastructure projects, including toll roads, port upgrades, and the new capital Nusantara unfold, regional conditions will shift. Without localized insight, investors risk selecting sites that seem viable but may not perform as expected, especially where supply chains are complex and opaque.

The challenger bank is said to have seen interest from a number of potential suitors

Digital bank Atom has failed to attract a desired £600m bid amid a sale process led by its investors, a report suggests.

The Newcastle-based lender is said to been offered below asking price by London-based investor Pollen Street Capital, according to the Financial Times. Atom’s key backers – including BBVA and Toscafund – are reported to be considering halting the sale process as a result.

Yorkshire Building Society and Leeds Building Society are also said to have considered bids for Atom, which last year moved into new headquarters in Newcastle’s Stephenson Quarter. The sale process comes after many years of a mooted flotation for the challenger bank which last year reported it had more than 270,000 customers and mortgage balances of £4.2bn.

Atom was founded in 2013, secured a banking licence in 2015 and after nine years of losses struck a first pre-tax profit of £7m in 2023. The branch-less bank, which now employs more than 500 people, was valued at about £362m when it raised £100m in new equity capital in 2023.

A deal with Pollen Street Capital could have preceded a merger with Tandem, another digital-based lender which Pollen owns. The private equity firm is also linked to Newcastle-registered LSL Property Services via its Pivotal Growth joint venture which aims to grow a tech-led UK mortgage broker.

Atom has been a pioneer of the four-day week, and has talked positively of remote working. Last year, it made a multimillion-pound move from Durham to Tyneside, taking up residence in the historic Pattern Shop building. At the time, the bank said the shift of headquarters was “an important investment in the future of the franchise and one that will help us to drive delivery of the business plan and the realisation of our strategic vision”.

The sales process behind Atom comes after a period of big deals in the UK banking market, including Nationwide Building Society’s £2.9bn takeover of Newcastle-based Virgin Money and Coventry’s acquisition of Co-op Bank. In the bank’s 2025 report, Atom chairman Lee Rochford said valuations in the sector has progressed strongly and that the deals “further entrenched the dominance of high street brands”, raising questions about competitiveness in the market.

Nationwide earned a £2.3bn windfall from its acquisition of Virgin, where it has pledged to keep all branches open until at least 2030 – even where the two brands have locations close to each other.

Atom Bank did not comment on the reports.

Samuel Smith’s Old Brewery in Tadcaster, North Yorkshire, is one of the most private and secretive businesses in the UK – its reclusive owner Humphrey Smith rarely spoke to the media and ran a unique brewing empire rooted in 1950s pub tradition

The half-mast Union flag atop The Old Brewery provided the sole indication at the notoriously tight-lipped Samuel Smith organisation that its reclusive proprietor had passed away.

It was flying beside the 140ft (43m) chimney, which dominates the centre of Tadcaster, situated just a couple of hundred metres from its marginally taller counterpart at the competing John Smith’s brewery.

While Heineken-owned John Smith’s has long been absorbed into the global corporate brewing industry, Eton-educated Humphrey Smith devoted the past 60 years to ensuring Sam Smith’s became synonymous with family-run traditional beer-making anchored in a vision of pub culture from the 1950s.

The company’s website declares: “Our pubs are havens from the digital world – there are no TVs or background music. The use of mobile phones, laptops and other tech is not allowed in our pubs. Friendly pub conversation is encouraged (no swearing! ) together with the responsible enjoyment of our beers.”

Numerous accounts exist of Smith arriving in person to reprimand both customers and landlords, including an episode at a pub in Sheffield in 2020 when a couple claimed they were dismissed after they couldn’t serve his preferred pudding. In 2011, campaigners organised a “kiss-in” when a Sam Smith’s pub in Soho, central London, purportedly ejected two men for a public display of affection.

Mr Smith himself never granted interviews to the press and his company maintained the same approach. His appetite for confidentiality – particularly surrounding his wealth and commercial affairs – meant that Samuel Smith’s is amongst a tiny minority of British enterprises not to submit public financial accounts.

Mr Smith transformed the firm into a private unlimited company in 1982, rendering it exempt from filing accounts or disclosing its assets, though this structure also means all owners bear personal liability for its debts.

The company’s website proudly boasts that its pubs exclusively stock Sam Smith’s beer and cider, with all other produce sourced locally. A post on a real ale enthusiasts’ page described Smith as “an absolute titan of the British brewing world”.

It read: “Love him or hate him for his strict rules banning smartphones, tablets, music, and even swearing, he ran his pubs entirely his own way to preserve the classic, tech-free British pubs experience. Whether you cherished the peace or found the rules baffling, there is no denying his massive impact on our pub heritage.”

York Campaign for Real Ale (Camra) chairman Christopher Tregellis commented: “It is difficult to differentiate between him as a man and the business itself. The two seem to have been closely aligned.

“The business had a reputation as being very traditional and sometimes arbitrary. They seemed prepared to keep large parts of their pub estate empty and unused and would often close pubs at very short notice, depriving local customers of community assets without them knowing why.

“Their pubs are known as purveyors of fairly priced beer and they have a commitment to cask ale which is obviously valued by Camra. The passing of Mr Smith presents the brewery with an opportunity to modernise its approach whilst preserving its good aspects, and we hope to see this happen.”

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