As the pure elation began to ebb, the feeling that overcame me toward the end of the USMNT's demolition of Paraguay in its World Cup opener last week was disbelief. I found it genuinely confusing. The United States men's soccer team simply does not play with as much overpowering quality, as much one-way domination, as much undeniable impressiveness as we saw that day.
For the better part of a decade now, as the largest and most promising cohort of American players made their way to Europe to test themselves in the sport's fiercest crucibles, fans of American soccer have put our faith in the idea that a new day was not only possible, but could even be glimpsed out on the horizon. The thinking went that some day soon, the USMNT would be capable of passages of play, game-long performances, and ultimately tournament outcomes that would've been unfathomable before. As the years wore on, the U.S. did in fact produce better players in greater numbers, who'd all proven their talent more definitively at the highest levels of the club game. And yet, material improvements on the national level were hard to come by—so much so that I at least began to doubt the future vision I'd once thought was imminent. That's what made the Paraguay game so thrilling and so dumbfounding. Just when I'd started giving up hope, the day that had been promised finally arrived.
As certain as one might've been that the Paraguay performance was no fluke, and therefore deserved to be celebrated in its own right as a new high-water mark in American men's soccer, I do have to give a (TINY) bit of credit to Defector's beloved curmudgeon Ray "The World's No. 1 Christian Pulisic Fanboy" Ratto, whose main thought in the aftermath of the USMNT's tourney debut was essentially "Eh, let's see them do it again." It is true that to really make good on the realized promise of the Paraguay match, the U.S. would have to turn it into something more. Australia would surely pose at the very least different sorts of problems than the ones the Americans solved with such aplomb against Paraguay, making it a good and important follow-up test. And while the USMNT's performance against the Aussies in Friday's match wasn't nearly as dazzling as the previous game, I do think they showed enough in the 2-0 victory to keep American fans believing that the Paraguay game was not just a blip, but the start of something.
In many ways, the Australia game was an echo of the one against Paraguay: hitting the same notes, just not quite as resoundingly. Once again, the U.S. overwhelmed the opponent in the first half. The Americans have exhibited the best counter-press in the entire tournament, and suffocated nearly every Australian attempt to create danger before they even got started. With the ball, the U.S. was a fount of incisive combination plays and constantly ripped through the Aussie defense. It seriously blows my mind watching a pair of Americans like Weston McKennie and Sergiño Dest bang little first-time, side-footed passes between each other as they whirl around and through the defense, looking like they should be wearing yellow jerseys with green accents bearing names like "Weverton" and, well, "Serginho." This is exactly the stuff I'd been dreaming about for years, and it was actually happening! Granted, against a stiffer defense this time around, and missing a Christian Pulisic playing like a certain Portuguese namesake in his prime, the U.S. attacks lacked the same effectiveness as was on evidence in the Paraguay game. It was no accident that the U.S. only scored twice, and that both goals were of the scruffier variety. Similarly, facing a more physically robust set of forwards, especially after Australia brought on substitutes Nestory Irankunda and Cristian Volpato, the Aussies did a better job of exploiting the well-known deficiencies of the American defense.
Because of all that, the Aussie win was in no way as commanding as the Paraguay one. At the same time, it felt similarly unprecedented. Typically, a good USMNT game at a World Cup is a tight affair where our boys capitalize on their brief stretches of ascendence with a goal or two and manage well the inevitable periods when the opponent has them on the mat. A decent game usually finds the U.S. more or less deserving a draw. But in what probably counts only as a solid game against Australia, the U.S. was in control of the game for the vast majority of it, was seriously threatened only rarely, and wound up winning by a comfortable margin. The result gave the U.S. two wins in two tries, which already matches the highest number of World Cup victories the men have ever managed, doing so in 2002 and before that way back in 1930. In light of surrounding results, the U.S. has already won its group, a feat the team had only ever accomplished at that 1930 tournament. Just in the terms of American soccer history, what these guys have already done is remarkable.
What's more, the quality of the performances have been great by any standard. This isn't the usual grading-on-a-curve situation. The Paraguay game was the kind of outing that literally every single country in this tournament would love to have, no matter the opponent. No team at this World Cup has put together a more comprehensive team showing than that one. And while the Australia game wasn't as impressive, it too was the kind of well-deserved result against a sneakily dangerous opponent that even the tournament favorites would find encouraging. After all, you don't win the World Cup by blowing out every team along the way, but rather by putting yourself in the best position by winning the games you should and hoping talent and luck combine in your favor in the more difficult challenges.
Let's be clear here: I'm not saying the United States is going to win the World Cup. As good as the U.S. has looked, Paraguay and Australia are both middle-of-the-road opponents, hardly the kind of juggernauts you'll find deep in the knockouts, ones better equipped to land fatal blows at the weak points Australia already highlighted. Even if you believe, as I do, that the U.S. has performed best as a team so far at this tournament, it's undeniable that the likes of France, Argentina, and England have in their games already demonstrated a level of skill and potency that is completely outside of the U.S.'s reach, to say nothing of the other big favorites that are regarded highly highly for good reasons. If I were a betting man, I'd still say that this team's ceiling is probably right around where it always is: somewhere between the round of 16 and the quarterfinals.
And yet, there's no denying that this is by far the best the USMNT has looked at a World Cup in modern history. The players are legitimately excellent, as they've proven for years with their clubs and now are showing on the international stage too. The manager is one of the best, and has clearly struck the right chords internally to get this group singing in a way the team never has before. Their play has been exceptional by any metric. Watching them is a blast, eliciting feelings of awe, pride, and shock that I've never before experienced. On paper, this style of play should be able to compete against anyone. There is good reason to believe that this summer could be special, and if it doesn't turn out so, that the brighter days we've been straining to see for the past 10 years really are closer than ever. In a nutshell, I guess what I'm saying is this: The United States is going to win the World Cup.
