{"id":2118,"date":"2026-06-23T07:04:01","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T07:04:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jacksonvillemovingnews.com\/?p=2118"},"modified":"2026-06-23T07:04:01","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T07:04:01","slug":"usmnt-in-the-world-cup-semifinals-why-a-former-player-believes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jacksonvillemovingnews.com\/?p=2118","title":{"rendered":"USMNT in the World Cup semifinals? Why a former player believes"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The U.S. men’s national team are riding a never-seen-before high at the 2026 World Cup.<\/p>\n

Read more \u2018Country Roads\u2019 is taking the World Cup by storm<\/a><\/p>\n

With two wins over Paraguay and Australia and Turkiye being eliminated early, the U.S. secured its spot in the knockout rounds with a game to play for the first time in history.<\/p>\n

Of course, things can change quickly in single-game elimination knockout games. But for the time being, ambitions are exceeding new heights with the U.S. on home soil.<\/p>\n

The main question now involves how far the team can go, which ranges on factors like opponents, form and injury questions — especially with Christian Pulisic nursing a calf problem. <\/p>\n

Former U.S. defender Heath Pearce, who played for the country from 2005-2012 and also hosts the “Orange Slices” podcast, broke it down from multiple angles.<\/p>\n

The first is about assessing the collective chemistry and collaboration of the team, both players and coaches. Could they come together under Mauricio Pochettino and be inspired? So far, Pearce sees the forging of something special with the energy being created.<\/p>\n

“It’s so easy when you look at a team and you go, well, yeah, they’re just all fighting together. That’s very hard to do, right? Because at the international level, it just takes one player to not be on the same page for your collective press to get broken down, for your defensive shape to get broken down, for your patterns on offense to fall apart,” Pearce said in an interview with NBCU Local. “And this team has really been on the same page, and there’s this cohesion that we’ve always had in our national teams, and I think as we’ve gotten to this group of players where we go, this is the most talented group we’ve ever had.<\/p>\n

“They’re playing at the biggest teams, the biggest clubs, on the biggest stages. But do they have that same level of grit, fight, and mentality and cohesion that our past teams had that maybe lacked some of that wider range of quality that this group has? And what we’re seeing is a coming together of sort of the past and the present that are really starting to build something special that I think.”<\/p>\n

Read more Miami Heat acquire Giannis Antetokounmpo in blockbuster trade with Bucks, according to reports<\/a><\/p>\n

Another aspect involves the U.S. possibly looking too much into who it could meet next. With the introduction of eight third-place teams qualifying for the new Round of 32, there’s more uncertainty on who the first opponent could be. <\/p>\n

Pearce, who played for FC Dallas, New York Red Bulls, Chivas and more at club level, explained how the U.S. should be thinking with the players being high in confidence.<\/p>\n

“You don’t want to get lulled into, what is at least on paper looks like, a leaning game in your favor,” Pearce said. “You want it to be winnable, you want it to be manageable, but you also want to have to play your best to go through because in group-stage type tournaments and when you look at sports that have playoff formats, it’s not the team that won in MLS for 28 weeks that goes on to win it. It’s the ones that are hitting that stride going into the playoffs. And so you want to ride that momentum and build on it.” <\/p>\n

So, how far can the U.S. go having been eliminated in the Round of 16 vs. the Netherlands in 2022? The Stars and Stripes’ best finish was third place in 1930, the first ever World Cup. But that edition featured just 13 teams compared to 48 now.<\/p>\n

Pearce broke down the two routes that can happen, admitting the U.S. hasn’t been “super challenged” up until this point, but that’s also because they’ve done well to dictate the opposition.<\/p>\n

“I think two things can happen,” Pearce started. “One, the U.S. could reach a semifinal. And in reality, they could reach a semifinal with a difficult draw in the way that they’re playing in the belief and the mentality that they have. That’s not me buying into the collective hype of this team right now. They just have a little bit of a special sauce that, yes, it requires them to be perfect on their day. Yes, it requires them to be very, very good for 90 minutes. But in two games, they’ve shown two different ways that they can play, but at a minimum, they’re gonna be really, really difficult to play against for any team. And then the other draw or the other factor is that they could have a a manageable draw to a quarterfinal or a semifinal. <\/p>\n

“And so both routes, I think a measure of success is a quarterfinal. I think the U.S. can reach a semifinal because there’s, I’ve been in very few, I’ve been in a lot of teams in my life, but very few of them where you go, okay, something’s happening here. And I think with this group right now, you can feel something happening.” <\/p>\n

Read more FCC takes aim at Disney\u2019s push for public support amid regulatory probes<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe U.S. men\u2019s national soccer team chose \u201cTake Me Home, Country Roads\u201d by John Denver as their postgame song after wins. Here\u2019s how it happened.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Heath Pearce, a former center-back for the U.S. men’s national team, believes the Stars and Stripes can make a deep run at the 2026 World Cup.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2117,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2026-world-cup"],"yoast_head":"\nUSMNT in the World Cup semifinals? Why a former player believes - Jacksonville Moving News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jacksonvillemovingnews.com\/?p=2118\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"USMNT in the World Cup semifinals? 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