Pulisic and Balogun Reunite in Do-or-Die Knockout Match

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.