SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Mauricio Pochettino wants his team to touch the moon, and they are getting ever closer to the stars. 

Twenty-four years after USA 2, Mexico 0 in Jeonju came USA 2, Bosnia-Herzegovina 0 on a sun-splashed Wednesday in Santa Clara. Of course it had to be dos a cero again. The U.S. waited a generation and the long-lasting 36 minutes that followed Folarin Balogun’s red card between knockout round victories at a World Cup. Every second was worth it. 

“Game by game, we’ve started to prove people wrong,” Chris Richards said, “and prove ourselves right.” 

The losing streak against UEFA is over, with wins against Bosnia sandwiching a nearly five-year drought. So too is the knockout stage losing streak and so too, just maybe, is the inferiority complex that’s plagued American soccer when it comes up against so-called soccer nations. The true test of that will come next week in Seattle when the USMNT faces Belgium, which knocked them out in Brazil 12 years ago and which beat them 5-2 in a friendly back in March. 

Balogun being sent off 61 minutes in for landing on Tarik Muhamerovic’s ankle — a call decided after a lengthy VAR review — changed the tenor of a Round of 32 match the USMNT had been, if not dominating, then certainly in control of. 

Folarin Balogun scored the USMNT’s first goal on July 1, 2026. BENJAMIN FANJOY/EPA/Shutterstock

The Bosnians, though, failed completely to take advantage. Instead of attacking the way they should have, they failed to break down a 10-man USMNT defense, and the game devolved into something overly physical. 

Without the red card, that might have favored Bosnia. With it, Stjepan Radeljic’s challenge on Sergiño Dest just outside the box handed the Americans the opportunity they needed to put the match away. 

Malik Tillman scored the second goal for the U.S. off a free kick. FIFA via Getty Images

Malik Tillman, who had assisted Balogun’s opening goal, who had been so silky all evening, did not let it go to waste. Earlier in the match, he had to change his cleat after getting stepped on. With the new boot, he dipped a gorgeous free kick over the wall and into the corner for a 2-0 lead that, 82 minutes into the match, gave the U.S. what it so desperately needed. 

“I know some guys doubted me that I could go over the wall,” Tillman said afterward, his sock a Curt Schilling-esque shade of red around his right big toe. “But I practiced this in training and I’m happy it went in.” 

Weston McKennie and Sebastian Berhalter of the United States celebrate victory after the FIFA World Cup 2026 Round of 32 match between USA and Bosnia and Herzegovina at San Francisco Bay Area Stadium on July 1, 2026 in Santa Clara, California. Getty Images

Given how leads have so easily fallen to bits in the knockout stage of this World Cup, the relative lack of drama here came as a shock. Give immense credit to Tim Ream, Richards and a U.S. back line that — so frequently questioned coming into this tournament — stood tall at the moment they were needed most. Richards, so good in the air, seemed to win every duel in the second half. Matt Freese, rarely tested before Wednesday, proved himself in total command. 

“The whole focus is 11 guys — 10 sometimes — making sure that we don’t concede,” Ream said. “And if we do our jobs on both sides of the ball, everybody — and I mean everybody — we give ourselves an incredible opportunity to continue to move on.” 

Tillman, though, ought to be the man of the match. He has been an unsung hero the entire World Cup, and has now helped pilot the U.S. into the Round of 16, already a better tournament result than Germany, his birth country, which he spurned to play here. 

The first 64 minutes cut a much different tone than the last 26. 

The World Cup bracket after Wednesday night.

This USMNT — Pochettino’s USMNT — does not sit on its hands and wait for the game to come to it. The Americans probe and search and then they smash and grab. Balogun, the breakout star of this World Cup, had one goal called back for offside and two penalty appeals denied before there was nothing left in his way, the striker sweeping in Tillman’s pass with his left foot after 44 minutes. 

Those appeals, it turned out, were only the start of Balogun’s problems with Brazilian referee Raphael Claus. The U.S. will be without its star striker against Belgium too as a result. That, however, is a problem for tomorrow. 

Folarin Balogun was handed a red card in the second half. Getty Images United States’ Folarin Balogun (20) gets a pat on the head from Bosnia’s Sead Kolasinac (5) as United States’ Christian Pulisic (10) stands by after receiving a red card during the World Cup round of 32 soccer match between the United States and Bosnia in Santa Clara, Calif., near San Francisco, Wednesday, July 1, 2026. AP Photo/Martin Meissner

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“We want to change the sport in America,” Weston McKennie said. “And I feel like we’ve been doing that, and we have a chance to make it even bigger.” 

Pochettino’s exhortation to his team, released in a video by U.S. Soccer on Wednesday morning, was to go where only Americans have ever gone. 

“The objective is to touch the moon,” Pochettino said. “I want to touch the moon.” 

The journey will be much harder without Balogun on the ship. But right now, the sky looks to be no limit at all.