USMNT Beats Bosnia With 10 Men for First World Cup Knockout Win Since 2002

For most of the last two decades, the World Cup knockout round has been where American soccer dreams go to die. Ghana ended the run in 2010. Belgium did it in 2014. The Netherlands did it four years ago. And every time Team USA got close, somebody sent us home.

Wednesday night in Santa Clara, that pattern finally broke. The United States beat Bosnia & Herzegovina 2-0 to reach the Round of 16, and it did the job the hard way, holding on with 10 men for the final half hour.

It was the first World Cup knockout win for the United States since 2002, and only the second in the program’s entire history. This time, nobody sent our men’s team home.

Folarin Balogun gave the lead, then gave Bosnia an opening

Balogun has been the face of this tournament for the Americans, and he looked ready to take it over again. He had a goal waved off for offside in the first half and came within inches of a couple more.

The breakthrough arrived right in the nick of halftime. Tim Ream forced a turnover at midfield, Tyler Adams flicked it ahead, and Malik Tillman slipped a pass through the middle. As luck would have it, the ball deflected off a sliding Bosnian defender and dropped to Balogun, who rolled a left-footed finish under goalkeeper Nikola Vasilj.

It was Balogun’s third goal of the tournament, enough to pull him level with Landon Donovan for the second most by an American at a single World Cup, one shy of Bert Patenaude’s record of four from 1930.

Then the night turned. In the 64th minute, Balogun chased a loose ball, tangled with defender Tarik Muharemovic, and came down on the Bosnian’s ankle. Brazilian referee Raphael Claus went to the monitor and, after a long review, produced a straight red card for serious foul play.

There was no malice in it, and Balogun looked stunned as he walked off the pitch. His coach felt the same way. “For me, never is it a red card,” Pochettino said, insisting his striker had simply been fighting for the ball.

How did a 10-man USMNT hold the lead?

As you might expect, Bosnia smelled its chance. Sergej Barbarez’s side pushed bodies forward and turned the final half hour into a siege, the exact kind of moment that has broken American teams before.

Truth be told, an older U.S. side might have wilted right there. This one did the opposite. Christian Pulisic even had a goal of his own ruled out for offside as the Americans kept pushing instead of parking the bus.

The reward came in the 82nd minute. Sergino Dest was hauled down just outside the box, and Tillman stepped up and curled a 19-yard free kick up over the wall and down past Vasilj. “We had to dig deep for that one,” Pulisic said, and the way the U.S. closed it out with a man short backed him up.

Belgium and an old ghost come next

The win sets up a Round of 16 meeting with Belgium on Monday in Seattle, and the history is not friendly. Belgium knocked the United States out of the 2014 World Cup 2-1 in extra time.

For better or worse, the Red Devils arrive both hot and a little fortunate. They reached this stage by erasing a two-goal deficit against Senegal and winning 3-2 on a Youri Tielemans penalty in the dying seconds of extra time.

There is a real price attached to Wednesday, too. Balogun’s red card carries an automatic one-game suspension, so Pochettino has to solve Belgium without his leading goal poacher, leaning on options like Ricardo Pepi and Haji Wright.

However, none of that dimmed the moment. When the final whistle blew, players, coaches, and fans belted out John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads, “ the kind of scene that only shows up with a knockout win the United States had waited 24 years to feel.