Month: July 2026

It will be great to get back to Seattle, a great soccer city that brought an incredible atmosphere to the stadium for the USA’s win over Australia during the 2026 World Cup group stage. This game is not going to be easy, as Belgium will present us with the biggest challenge of the tournament so far. That’s how it goes: the deeper your tournament run, the tougher the competition, regardless of opponent. We got a boost on Sunday morning when striker Folarin Balogun had his red card suspended. The USMNT likely had backup plans in place, but the unexpected FIFA reversal should allow coach Maurico Pochettino to keep his preferred starting lineup for a huge matchup. And Balogun should stay in the starting XI and retain his place during what has been a breakout tournament for him on a global stage. With three goals, he’s our top scorer at this point in the World Cup. Let’s get to your questions ahead of this massive game. Is every game the rest of the tournament the biggest in men’s soccer history? — @jacobimoore.92 Simply put, yes. At every stage, with every success, the stakes and opportunity are magnified. The dream continues to build and become that much more real for everyone involved — fans, coaches and especially the players. Everyone in the country takes notice with every extra moment. In 2010, after our moment at the World Cup, it was different. After the 2010 World Cup, we were all over the place in Los Angeles, and there was a huge spotlight. Now, though, there are many more means of consuming things today — social media, television, streaming — that amplify it all. Do you think Pulisic will finally get his “World Cup moment” against Belgium? — @benjinator800 He already had one in the last tournament in 2022 with his game-winner against Iran, but there are going to be many more opportunities as this run continues. As a former player, what has it been like following this US run? — @blake.newton48 It’s been emotional. This group is fun, and it has given everyone hope. Being in the stadiums for these games to take in everything to do with the atmosphere, the post-game celebrations — it has been amazing. Who should raise the 12th man flag aka the US flag in Seattle? — @sullyvol The first names that come to mind with Seattle connections that would get the crowd going: Ken Griffey Jr. or Marshawn Lynch. Another great option: Clint Dempsey because he played in that stadium for the Sounders. Mo Salah is the best Mo in the game. — @Reece617707 You’re not wrong. A shoutout to Mo Johnston, my first coach as a professional with Toronto FC.​Latest Sports News from FOX Sports

SEATTLE STADIUM — Through more than 20 years covering the U.S. men’s national team in countries across the globe, I have never seen an American squad play with the ferocity that Mauricio Pochettino’s version has at the 2026 FIFA World Cup. I’ve never seen so much quality, so much depth, never seen attackers who can beat elite defenders off the dribble the way Christian Pulisic and Sergiño Dest have consistently this summer. The USA has never had a scorer as efficient and well-rounded as Folarin Balogun who, as the whole world now knows, is now eligible to play in Monday’s pivotal round of 16 match against Belgium (8 p.m. ET on FOX and FOX One). It has never had players better at their respective positions than box-to-box midfielder Weston McKennie or left back Antonee “Jedi” Robinson. I’ve never witnessed mainstream America get behind this squad like it has over the last four weeks, not even in 2002, when a Brooklyn-born lacrosse coach named Bruce Arena somehow led a team that had finished dead last at the World Cup four years prior within a whisker of the semifinals. With three wins and nine goals in four games heading into Monday’s contest, there is no doubt: this is the best the U.S. has ever played in a World Cup. And none of it will matter if Pochettino’s side can’t win this next one, too. Soccer’s quadrennial bonanza is the ultimate results business. With a victory in Monday’s match, Pochettino will never have to buy a glass of wine in this country again. If he loses, it wouldn’t be a mere disappointment. It would make Pochettino — who has repeatedly said that his goal is to leave a legacy behind whenever he moves on — the architect of a very public failure on home soil. The stakes are that binary, as much as the 54-year-old Argentine tried to downplay at his pre-match press conference Sunday. “I think the players are responsible to create the legacy,” he said. “I am a small part, because in the end, it’s the players that are creating the emotional relationship with the fans.” Maybe. But Pochettino arrived with a reputation as a truly all-world coach, a man who had succeeded at the highest levels of the European club game. The expectations here are therefore elevated, especially given all the Americans have already accomplished this summer. Monday will be the sixth round of 16 game the USA has played since 1990. The Americans were eliminated at this same stage four years ago, and in 2014, and in 2010 — and none of those games were played in America, much less America’s best soccer city. Sure, the hope is that the millions of new USA fans who have been created since that World Cup opening 4-1 win over Paraguay on June 12 will stick around no matter the outcome on Monday. Pochettino believes they will. “Tomorrow, win or not win,” Pochettino said, “the legacy is already there.” But America loves winners. The U.S. men will never get a more favorable first-round draw than they got at this World Cup, and they will never have a better opportunity to advance to the last eight than they have here in Seattle. Part of the reason soccer began exploding from coast-to-coast over the last three decades was the men’s national team’s obvious potential. I remember coming home from little league baseball practice one day in 1993 to find my Scottish father, with a smile on his face and a beer in his hand, watching the U.S. close out a 2-0 victory over England. That 2002 team upset title dark-horse Portugal in its opener. Just in the last 15 years alone, the Americans beat Italy in Genoa, Germany in Cologne and the Netherlands in Amsterdam. Hell, seven months after missing the cut for the 2018 World Cup, the worst U.S. team in modern history held eventual champs France to a 1-1 tie in Lyon. Pochettino lost his first six games against European nations, finally breaking that streak last week against tiny Bosnia and Herzegovina. Hardly a world-beater, with all due respect to the Golden Lillies. Now the former Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea manager’s mandate — his responsibility — is to beat an aging Belgium side and advance to the quarters. Losing in the round of 16, again, this time in a 70,000-seat venue filled overwhelmingly with their own supporters, in front of what will surely be the most watched soccer game in U.S. history, can’t be waved away as acceptable. Not for a coach with Pochettino’s résumé, not for a guy who is getting paid at least four times what his predecessor, Gregg Berhalter, earned in bowing out to the Dutch at the same stage at Qatar 2022. Jürgen Klinsmann’s 2014 squad took Belgium to extra time in the round of 16 before succumbing. Bob Bradley did the same in 2010, losing to Ghana after winning a group that included England. And while Arena’s U.S. didn’t survive group play in 2006, that quarterfinal run 24 years ago in Korea/Japan remains the Americans’ best showing since the inaugural World Cup in 1930. None of those coaches had the advantage of playing at home. Any excuse Pochettino might have had not to beat the Red Devils evaporated on Monday, when FIFA controversially ruled that the red card Balogun received against the Bosnians would not rule him out vs. the Belgians. The status quo won’t cut it — not this year, with this coach, with this team, in this moment. This is the game that Pochettino was hired to win.​Latest Sports News from FOX Sports

SEATTLE — Rudi Garcia thought it was an April Fool’s joke. Belgium’s manager was floored when he first heard that U.S. men’s national team striker Folarin Balogun’s suspension had been rescinded and that he would be available to play in what’s now becoming an even more dramatic round of 16 clash here on Monday. “I didn’t know that at FIFA’s headquarters, July 5 is the same thing as April 1,” Garcia said at a press conference on Sunday afternoon. “It’s a discovery for me.” The biggest story at the World Cup right now is FIFA’s stunning reversal of Balogun’s already controversial red card from the USA’s round of 32 victory over Bosnia and Herzegovina last week. Balogun was sent off in the 64th minute after a lengthy VAR review overturned the original no-call, forcing the Americans to play the rest of the match with 10 men. A red card typically carries an automatic ejection and at least a one-match suspension. The Belgian federation released a statement saying it was “astonished” and is “investigating all potential options” regarding FIFA’s decision. Meanwhile, the emotions couldn’t have been more different on the U.S. side of things. Players were buzzing at training on Sunday morning, and manager Mauricio Pochettino – speaking after Garcia – was smiling and appeared light at his press conference. “I think we celebrate that decision,” Pochettino said in front of a packed room of reporters. “We were punished enough against Bosnia and Herzegovina to play with 10 men for 30 minutes in a decision that was completely unfair. “But it’s not only because I am the head coach of the U.S. men’s national team, I need to defend my side. I think 99.9% [of people] agree that was an unfair red card.” Pochettino called Garcia a “great coach” and a “great person” and understands his frustration. But added, “everyone that really loves the sport and trusts its ethical integrity, we all celebrate that decision.” Plus, as Pochettino pointed out, there’s a recent precedent. FIFA’s Disciplinary Committee made a similar decision that allowed superstar Cristiano Ronaldo to play in Portugal’s first two games after he received a red card during his squad’s final World Cup qualifier. Under FIFA rules, he was supposed to have been banned for three games, but instead only missed one pre-tournament friendly. Pochettino said he didn’t learn Balogun would be available until Sunday morning, ahead of the team’s training session. He was asked, but didn’t really comment, on any posts or the reported involvement of President Donald Trump. “I was training, then climbing into the shower, eating so quick, and was taking the coffee into the car,” Pochettino joked. “I didn’t have time to see social media.” A U.S. Soccer spokesman told reporters Sunday that “we were engaged in the process with the disciplinary committee.” Pochettino said he was not involved. “I was focusing and trying to prepare the team to face Belgium,” Pochettino said. Pochettino was asked, though, if he was surprised that this has become such a massive story. “That is the power of this sport,” Pochettino said frankly. “That is amazing. It doesn’t surprise me. I came from a culture in Argentina and Europe that football – soccer – is more than a religion. It doesn’t surprise me that in this country, the feeling is starting to grow so quick. “And yes, for sure, if we keep going – pushing maybe one more step tomorrow – you will see that the sport is magic, that the sport is amazing, is so powerful. It can unite people, unite a country like us.”​Latest Sports News from FOX Sports