“The real pressure in this World Cup has been not to win but to impress, to play with promise and some style,” louisahthomas writes.
With just under fifteen minutes to play in the first half of the United States’ group-stagematch against England, Weston McKennie collected the ball on the right side of the field, where he had been shading all day. He shielded the ball with his body and, with a smooth, sudden turn, swept it into the path of his stride. He flew forward, up the right flank, and then stopped and lofted the ball across the top of the box to Yunus Musah, who was drifting in above the penalty area, unmarked.
That was the way the match seemed to go. McKennie, Musah, and Tyler Adams, the United States’ midfield trio, were superb on the ball and off, dominating the center of the field—diffusing England’s chances, while using their dynamic speed, creativity, and technical skills to ignite U.S. attacks. Pulisic was dangerous throughout on the left. England had the edge on possession, but the U.S. were the ones dictating play and sending cross after cross in front of the goal.
The American squad is young—with an average age of twenty-five, the second youngest team in the tournament—and its players are just starting to find their footing in Europe’s top leagues. The focus is more on 2026, not 2022. The real pressure in this World Cup has been not to win but to impress, to play with promise and some style.
This is how America has, for much of its history, liked to think of itself—young, vital, on the cusp. England, the old colonial empire, made for a gratifying measuring stick, as if the Al Bayt Stadium, in Al Khor, Qatar, were magically transformed into Valley Forge. The reality, of course, is that we are in the twenty-first century, and the men’s national soccer team has only suddenly seemed like an appealing avatar for an ambitious nation. U.S.
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