Three takeaways from the USMNT's win against Bosnia & Herzegovina: Why not us?

The United States are through to the Round of 16 at the 2026 World Cup! The Americans got their first knockout-round win at a World Cup since 2002 on Wednesday night, beating Bosnia & Herzegovina 2-0 in Santa Clara, California.

It wasn't the most straightforward win – more on that later – but the United States took care of business

🇺🇸 United States Starting XI vs Bosnia & Herzegovina Freese; A.Robinson, Ream ©, Richards, Freeman; Adams, Tillman; Pulisic, McKennie, Dest, Balogun BENCH: Turner, Brady, Trusty, Reyna, Pepi, Aaronson, M.Robinson, Berhalter, Arfsten, Wright, Weah, Scally, Zendejas

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— SixOneFive Soccer (@sixonefivesoccer.com) July 1, 2026 at 5:39 PM

Here are three key takeaways from the match.

The vibes are elite

It's hard not to feel good about this US team. Whether it's the dominance of a 4-1 win over Paraguay (which, by the way, looks pretty darn good now) or the guts to see out a result down a man for 30 minutes, this team has consistently risen to the occasion. Even more importantly, the country has gotten behind the team.

Players and fans singing "Country Roads, Take Me Home" after matches will be one of the more enduring images from this tournament. It feels like the moments the sport has been waiting for in this country.

Anecdotally, the amount of family and friends who otherwise don't care about soccer (or any sports) but are fully bought into this team and this tournament has blown me away. At the risk of sounding overly optimistic... is this the tipping point?

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The red card

Folarin Balogun is having one of the best World Cups ever for an American. Three matches, three goals, and making his case as one of the best young strikers in the global game. His goal to open the scoring on Wednesday was the latest in a string of impact moments for the striker.

His sending off in the 64th minute fully changed the match. The United States were heavily outplaying Bosnia, and looked capable of scoring multiple goals in the last 30 minutes as the game became more and more stretched.

As far as the red card itself? As soon as referee Raphael Claus was sent to the monitor, I knew it would be a red card. Viewing the foul in slow motion or as a freeze frame looks objectively really bad, the kind of serious foul play that warrants a red card.

That's the thing, though: the game doesn't happen in slow motion. Claus wasn't looking at the entire play, just Balogun's boot coming down on Tarik Muharemović's ankle. VAR stripped all context from the decision, like the fact that Muharemović had pushed Balogun off balance, that Balogun wasn't looking at him (or even aware that his leg was where it was), and that Balogun was in the natural motion of putting his foot down in stride.

Common sense says that this was an accident, in no way malicious and fully unintentional. VAR, though, skews towards the harshest possible interpretation, slowed down to make every offending incident look exponentially worse.

The US response to the red card was exceptional. Bosnia never felt like they'd take control of the game, let alone equalize. In the second half, they had just seven touches in the penalty area, despite playing with a man advantage for over 30 minutes. Ultimately, Balogun's sending off didn't cost them this game.

It did, though, rob Balogun of a chance to continue his excellent form at the tournament, with three goals already. It also makes the United States' Round of 16 showdown against Belgium exceptionally more difficult. It's disappointing that yet again, refereeing will have an outsized impact on this tournament.

"Why not us?"

Mauricio Pochettino was confident after the win, asking "why not us?" about the USMNT's chances at winning it all.

Sure, it sounds like bravado and it's probably completely implausible. But honestly... why not?

Results from the USMNT have been as good as any at this World Cup, winning 4-1 against a Paraguay team that put out Germany, playing some of the best attacking soccer at the tournament, and have the backing of some of the best home crowds the country has ever seen.

Belgium will be difficult, but they're beatable. After that? Anything feels possible.

Why not just go for it?

The World Cup is coming to the United States this summer, and more people than ever are curious about soccer in this country!

If you know someone who might be interested, consider sending them a gift subscription to SixOneFive Soccer, where we'll be covering the USMNT and the tournament at large. They might even get hooked and stick around for the MLS season!

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