IRVINE, Calif. — United States forward Folarin Balogun said he can “feel the difference” in the atmosphere around the World Cup now that the knockout stage has begun.
After finishing atop Group D, the U.S. is set to play Bosnia-Herzegovina on Wednesday in Santa Clara, California, in the round of 32. Whereas in the group stage teams can survive a poor result, that isn’t the case now that the tournament is single-elimination.
“I can feel the difference in just the atmosphere,” Balogun told reporters before Sunday’s practice session. “It’s knockout football, so you lose, you go home. So for me, there’s a change in my mindset and mentality as well.
“Not that I wasn’t taking it seriously before, but you can just go into another gear because you want it more. I don’t want the journey to end.”
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Balogun has two goals in the tournament and forced an own goal against Australia. He said he wouldn’t think that the U.S. will have done well in the tournament if it loses Wednesday. He expects that he and his teammates will deliver.
“It’s crunch time,” he said. “This is the business end and this is the stage where, in my opinion, the big players step forward and the big players carry the pressure and make things happen.”
The U.S. will be battling history, having won just one knockout stage match at any World Cup — the epic 2-0 defeat of bitter rivals Mexico at the 2002 tournament.
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The U.S. is also riding a 12-game winless streak against European opposition, with its last win coming Dec. 18, 2021, against Bosnia. The U.S. has a 13-game winless streak in the World Cup against European opposition as well, with the last win coming against Portugal in 2002.
But winger Sergiño Dest believes that this is a different American team.
“We all are a little bit older. We’ve got a lot of more experienced players at the moment,” Dest said. “We also got some new players, but I feel like everybody’s really confident, and it helps if you win the first two games and you get the first in the group.
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“We just have a lot of belief that we can do it.”
Balogun added that the U.S. won’t be thinking about the past come Wednesday.
“From my personal experience, the best way to break history is not to think about what hasn’t been done, just to think about what you need to do,” Balogun said. “Just to think about what needs to be done in order to progress.”
