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SAN JOSE, Calif. — The U.S. team spent Monday like millions of other interested followers of the World Cup, watching thrilling games from other venues that included a major upset with Germany falling to Paraguay, three games that went down to the wire and two nervy shootouts.
Then the reality quickly set in that they would soon be back in the spotlight themselves, with a round of 32 match against Bosnia-Herzegovina on Wednesday that will go a long way to determining how successful this World Cup will be.
"In the moment you're a fan, and then afterward you realize that this is also the same tournament that we're playing. I think it's a weird dynamic," U.S. defender Chris Richards said Tuesday before the team's final practice ahead of the knockout round. "But we saw an upset yesterday, so it's making sure that we don't allow that to happen to us."
After starting the tournament with convincing wins over Paraguay and Australia that clinched the top spot in the group before a meaningless loss to Turkey last week, the Americans enter this knockout round as the favorites to advance for a change against a Bosnian team that has never made it past the group stage before this year.
But history is against the team as the U.S. men have had little success in the past in the knockout round of the World Cup or against European opposition.
While the Americans made it to the semifinals at the inaugural tournament in 1930 by winning their group, their only win ever in a knockout round came in 2002 when they beat rival Mexico 2-0 in South Korea before losing to Germany in the quarterfinals.
In the eight other tournaments since the U.S. returned to the World Cup in 1990 for the first time in 40 years, the U.S. lost its first knockout game — the round of 16 instead of the round of 32 — four times, failed to make it out of the group three times and failed even to qualify in 2018.
Christian Pulisic said the approach doesn't change in this round and that mood around the team remains light even with the high stakes in this part of the tournament. Pulisic said he's healthy and ready to start after missing one game with a calf injury and playing the last game as a second-half substitute.
"You just want to extend it as long as you can, because some of the best memories I have in my life was last World Cup in Qatar," Pulisic said. "Now being here, it's just special to be here. You just don't want it to end. So there's definitely a lot of enthusiasm within the team."
The U.S. lost its knockout game four years ago to the Netherlands 3-1. That came after a 2-1 loss to Belgium in 2014 and is part of a long run of futility against European teams.
The U.S. is 1-13-7 against European teams at the World Cup since 1990, with the only win coming in 2002 in the opener against Portugal. The Americans are winless in their last 13 matches against European squads at the tournament since then.
While Bosnia, 61st in the FIFA rankings, lacks the pedigree of many of those past European opponents, the Americans know this matchup won't be easy. The Bosnians secured a spot in the World Cup for the second time ever by winning penalty shootouts against Wales and four-time World Cup champion Italy in the European playoffs and then advanced out of the group thanks to a draw in Toronto against host Canada and a 3-1 win over Qatar.
"Every team brings different challenges," Richards said. "Ultimately the Bosnia team, they were good defensively and good going forward. It's making sure that we take care of business on both ends. They have a very experienced attack so it's making sure we do our best in the back to take that away from them."
With a victory on Wednesday, the U.S. team would advance to the round of 16 next Monday in Seattle against the winner of Wednesday's game between Belgium and Senegal.
It only gets tougher after that with powerhouses like Spain still alive in their half of the bracket, but the results so far in this tournament with teams like Germany and the Netherlands getting knocked out early show what's possible.
"It's our chance to go farther in this tournament," Richards said. "We've seen two big boys fall. So it's just a matter of us getting through this game and putting in a good performance and hopefully we continue that. It'll start to open up. So it is very exciting for us."
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