The United States was still in World Cup play on Wednesday, July 1, 2026, when it faced Bosnia in a round of 32 match in Santa Clara, Calif., near San Francisco. Two days later, Mauricio Pochettino was in Seattle, stepping out to throw the ceremonial first pitch before a game between the Seattle Mariners and the Toronto Blue Jays.
That is why the question, Is The US Still In The World Cup, is being asked now: the team’s tournament run and its coach’s public appearance fell almost on top of July Fourth, turning a soccer result into a quick national check-in. Pochettino, the head coach of the United States men’s national soccer team, became the public face of that moment when he walked out in Seattle on Friday, July 3, 2026.
The match itself carried more than one sharp turn. Tim Ream controlled the ball during the round of 32 game, while Folarin Balogun celebrated with Sergino Dest after scoring. But Balogun later received a red card, and Christian Pulisic stood by after the dismissal, leaving the United States to navigate the rest of the match with a man down.
That mix of progress and punishment is what makes the result matter, even without the score being spelled out here. A team that is still alive in World Cup play can look settled one minute and exposed the next, and Balogun’s goal and red card capture both sides of that reality. The appearance in Seattle underlined the same point: the United States was still very much in the tournament conversation on July 3, even as one of its biggest names was managing the aftermath of the July 1 match.
What remains unresolved is the simplest question of all: how far this United States side will go from here, and whether the next chapter of its World Cup run will be defined more by the scoreline that was not included than by the players who made the night memorable.
