The United States men’s national team is heading back to Seattle after they defeated Bosnia & Herzegovina 2–0 on Wednesday. Behind goals from Folarin Balogun and Malik Tillman, the USA won a knockout round match in the World Cup for the first time since 2002 and will now face Belgium on Monday in the Round of 16. Belgium clinched their spot when they erased a 2–0 deficit to beat Senegal 3–2 in overtime.
The USA started strong against BiH and appeared to grab the lead when Balogun made a nice turn and finished inside the near post with his left foot, only for the assistant referee’s flag to correctly catch him leaning offside.
Not to be denied, though, Balogun struck again just before halftime, taking a pass from Tillman and muscling it into the goal.
This one counts! Balogun scores and hits the Silencer again, 1-0 USA
— CJ Fogler (@cjzero.bsky.social) July 1, 2026 at 5:48 PM
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Although the USA wasn’t quite able to keep up the same level of dominance in the second half, they were still dictating the terms of the match and seemed to be coasting to victory. At least until VAR intervened, determining that Balogun committed a red card offense when he stepped on the foot of a defender in the 64th minute.
Undeterred, the USA seemed to extend their lead when Christian Pulisic scored in the 78th minute only for that to be flagged offside as well.
Tillman then put the game away in the 84th minute when he laced a free kick from about 19 yards out past goalkeeper Nikola Vasilj. It marked the first time the USA had scored a World Cup goal on a direct free kick since Eric Wynalda in 1994.
Malik Tillman's gem makes it 2-0 USA
— CJ Fogler (@cjzero.bsky.social) July 1, 2026 at 6:50 PM
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Key takeways
Dominant again: Watching the USA dominate literally any opponent at the World Cup is simply not something any of us having a working memory of happening. Gritty? Sure. Opportunistic? Sometimes. But this is now the third time in four games that the USA has imposed its will on an opponent, dominating those matches effectively end to end. Even after playing down a man for more than 30 minutes, that was again the case against Bosnia & Herzegovina. It was quite a thing to watch.
Coping without Flo: The one negative to come out of this game was the red card to Balogun. While the USA managed fine without their striker in this one, it will be a different kind of test on Monday when they have to play arguably the most important game in the program's history without the three-goal scorer. Balogun has simply been playing at a different level than any previous USA striker and no one on the roster is capable of replacing him purely on a 1:1 level. That said, Ricardo Pepi will almost certainly be the player who will get that chance and has shown an ability to at least finish at a similar rate as Balogun.
Bring on Belgium: The USA will have an opportunity to win two knockout games in a single World Cup for the firt time in program history and will be attempting to do it somewhere they’re a perfect 7–0–0 in competitive matches. If the atmosphere for the Australia game is any indication, there will be an absolutely electric and partisan crowd rooting for the USA. It’s going to be epic.
