SANTA CLARA — Mauricio Pochettino listened closely as a reporter taught him Al Davis’ famous motto for the Raiders.
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“Just win, baby?” the U.S. coach repeated back with a smile. “OK.”
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If the United States does that as expected Wednesday against Bosnia and Herzegovina at Levi’s Stadium, it will make for a smooth entry into the World Cup’s already unpredictable knockout phase.
“For us, it’s the final of the World Cup tomorrow. If we don’t think in this way, we are going to struggle,” Pochettino said Tuesday at the 49ers’ home stadium. “We’ve seen already, in the games after the group stage, how difficult it is. No one game was easy.”
Bristling at the notion Team USA is a strong favorite after winning Group D, Pochettino cited Monday’s shootout losses that eliminated Germany and the Netherlands as the Round of 32 got underway. His counterpart for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sergej Barbarez, was more willing to accept the framing.
“Look, of course they are favorites, with their place on the table, and they’re hosts,” Barbarez said. “We’ve never had a problem with being an underdog. This word doesn’t mean anything to me. You can throw it around. What matters is what happens on the pitch.”
The United States’ World Cup history consists of only one win in eight knockout-phase games, in 2002 with a 2-0 victory over Mexico to reach the quarterfinals. Even worse, the U.S. is just 1-13-7 against European teams in the World Cup since 1990, beating only Portugal in 2002.
“Maybe it’s pure coincidence,” Pochettino said. “Tomorrow we have a good opportunity to fight against history.”
After failing to advance out of its group in 2014, Bosnia and Herzegovina’s path to this game came via last week’s 3-1 win over Qatar, which followed a 1-1 tie with Canada and a 4-1 loss to Switzerland. It took shootout victories, over Italy and Wales in March, to secure a second World Cup berth since 2002.
When the World Cup opened three weeks ago, FIFA ranked Bosnia and Herzegovina 64th in the world. The U.S. was 17th, then opened with impressive wins over Paraguay and Australia to clinch the group before last Thursday’s mostly meaningless 3-2 loss to homeward-bound Turkey.
Monday’s shootout-driven exits of the No. 8-ranked Netherlands and No. 10 Germany didn’t go unnoticed by the Americans.
“It’s our chance to go far in this tournament,” U.S. defender Chris Richards said before Tuesday’s training at PayPal Park. “Also, now we’ve seen two big boys fall. It’s a matter of us getting through this game, putting forth a good performance and hopefully we continue that. It’s starting to open up. It’s very exciting for us.”
Forward Christian Pulisic said he feels great after a calf issue kept him out of their win over Australia; he was a second-half substitute against Turkey.
So, how are he and his teammates at penalty kicks?
“It’s an extremely hard thing to do, for sure, to go up and take penalties,” Pulisic said. “For the people that go up and shoot, it takes a lot of courage. And it’s not easy.”
Richards agreed after watching Monday’s games, saying: “In the moment you’re a fan, then afterward, you realize this is the same tournament. It’s a weird dynamic. We saw upsets, so it’s about making sure we don’t allow that to happen to us.”
Only once in last year’s windup to the World Cup did the U.S. go to a shootout, beating Costa Rica in the CONCACAF Gold Cup quarterfinals. U.S. goalkeeper Matt Freese saved three kicks, while the penalty lineup featured Tyler Adams (goal), Malik Tillman (goal), Sebastian Berhalter (miss), Alex Freeman (goal), John Tolkin (save) and Damion Downs (goal). Tolkin and Downs are not on this roster.
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Mind you, the United States has never gone to a World Cup shootout. “Ultimately you don’t want to get there, but we do a lot of training throughout the year, honestly, with penalty shootouts,” Richards said.
A shootout decided the last World Cup played stateside: Brazil defeated Italy at the Rose Bowl in 1994.
Bosnia’s Barbarez made sure to compliment this World Cup’s co-hosts, saying of the U.S.: “This is a team that deserves huge respect from me for the way they play and use this euphoria around them for this World Cup.”
Barbarez added that he did not feel disrespected by viral comments from a Los Angeles-based television reporter, who quipped last week that she didn’t know the location of Bosnia and Herzegovina (in Southeastern Europe, bordering Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro).
“This is the consequence of today’s culture with social media, and everything comes out,” Barbarez said. “… We are a small country and sometimes things like that happen.”
Upsets happen, too.
“They have a very experienced attack, so we have to make sure we do our very best in the back to take that away from them,” Richards said. “Our guys up front have been flying throughout the tournament, so it’s about getting the ball to them and let them do what they do.”
Ermin Mahmić has scored two of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s goals. Captain Edin Džeko, 40, is their all-time leading scorer and has subbed into their past two games after sitting out their opener.
“Everybody knows Džeko as a well-respected striker in the world,” Richards added. “It’s a chance for me to also play against one of the best. I’m excited for it.”
Eight teams will be eliminated by kickoff at Levi’s Stadium, where near-capacity crowds flocked for five group-stage matches, averaging 68,503 fans.
Now comes the marquee attraction, the home country, looking to win only its second knockout-stage game ever while staving off an upset.
“That’s the beauty of the World Cup. There’s gonna be upsets,” Pulisic said. “All the games (Monday) were fantastic, so we’re expecting nothing easy tomorrow. We have to go and perform extremely well at the highest level.
“Does it give us hope? I mean, there’s still so many good teams in the tournament that can cause problems, and we just want to be one of them.”
Just win, baby.
“If we’re capable of going through, the next one is going to be another final of the World Cup,” Pochettino said. “That needs to be our mentality.”
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