IRVINE, Calif. — There’s some irony in the average age of this U.S. national team being, on the scale of the World Cup, reasonably young, at 26.
They’re in the sweet spot.
Young enough that most of them are in their primes.
Old enough that 13 were at the last World Cup and can carry the experience into the knockout rounds.
When they talk about it being a once-in-a-lifetime chance, it’s usually in the context of a home World Cup, but left unsaid is that this generation — even if a lot of them are back in 2030 — won’t have another shot this good.
“You see so many of us are either married or with kids, started families. Obviously progressed in their careers also. You mature in life,” Gio Reyna said before Monday’s training. “I guess it’s just a feeling, an understanding of maturity, decision-making. Being more calm, understanding situations.”
Four years ago, they were the youngest team at the World Cup, all wide-eyed.
They came into the Round of 16 against the Netherlands and, essentially, got overwhelmed by a deeper, more experienced, more talented side.
That won’t happen against Bosnia-Herzegovina on Wednesday, not least because Bosnia — while it certainly has every chance to win — isn’t any of those things in comparison to the USMNT.
The Americans aren’t only the favorites.
They’re the more experienced team, the one less likely to be eclipsed by the sheer size of a moment.
“It gives a sense of balance and calmness to the team where maybe you’ve been there and done it before,” Reyna said. “Just everybody’s four years older. A lot of us were either teenagers or early 20s in that moment [in Qatar]. Some of us are still pretty young but a lot of us are close to our primes or are getting into that mode.”
Crucially, they also feel like a fully formed product.
Where four years ago — even four months ago — there were holes and questions about their best route to winning, those have, mostly, been answered.
The wins over Paraguay and Australia were as commanding as two national team performances have ever been at a World Cup; the question is whether they can access that again as opposed to whether it’s possible at all.
Add all of that up and you get a team that can be relaxed coming into such a massive moment.
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“Would it be weird if I told you I don’t really feel too much pressure at this moment?” captain Tim Ream said. “I just think there’s so much pressure that we put on ourselves. It feels very different this time around. Not because it’s the Round of 32 or anything. I think we put so much expectation on ourselves as players.
“I think we felt more pressure for that first game against Paraguay than anything, and that’s coming from ourselves, not from anything on the outside. For us, for me, it’s a game we’re in. It’s a game we have to put everything into and put in a performance the way it happened in the group stage.”
That doesn’t mean they aren’t treating it with appropriate gravity.
“I always like to say it’s just another game of football, but at the end of the day, I think everybody knows, World Cups only come around every four years,” Reyna said. “Especially on home soil, this opportunity will really never come back.”
Even if, as has been rumored, the U.S. hosts again in 2038, it won’t come back for these players, in a moment where all the ingredients add into such an excellent opportunity.
“Everybody is so confident,” Sergiño Dest said. “We just have a lot of belief that we can do it — one, two and then three down.”