Team USA celebrates Fourth of July ahead of Belgium match

SEATTLE — Before he got involved in drills for his goalkeepers and started firing shots, Mauricio Pochettino walked the perimeter of the soccer stadium Saturday morning at the University of Washington and greeted the assembled mass of media, volunteers and invited guests.

Primarily, the coach of the United States men’s national team said good morning. But he also dropped in this nugget: “Happy birthday.”

That message was not directed at a specific individual. But rather for the country that celebrated its 250th birthday Saturday and that Pochettino is trying to lead to heights accomplished only once before in the modern era of the FIFA Men’s World Cup.

The Fourth of July will always be about hot dogs, fireworks, barbecues, parades and, most often, baseball. But this year, soccer has its place in the forefront. For only the second time in the history of a World Cup played in summer, July 4 arrived with the U.S. still taking part.

In 1994, the U.S. lost to Brazil 1-0 on July 4 at Stanford Stadium in the round of 16, the only other time the Americans were still participating in a World Cup when the holiday arrived. That loss to the eventual champion Brazilians was the conclusion to a tournament that galvanized the next generation of soccer interest and investment in the game in the U.S.

And July 4 arrived again Saturday with the World Cup again being played in the U.S., with the national team still alive in the tournament and with the chance again to ignite another step in the growth of the game.

This group certainly has the attention of the country headed into Monday night’s round of 16 showdown with Belgium with a spot in the quarterfinals at stake.

Initial data said nearly 25 million watched the Fox broadcast of the U.S. win over Bosnia-Herzegovina in the round of 32, with another 8 million watching the Spanish-language telecast on Telemundo. Tickets for Monday’s match at the venue formerly and soon-to-be known again as Lumen Field start at $1,500 to get in the door.

Fans — die-hard, casual or new — are paying attention.

“(It’s an) opportunity to obviously continue on in the tournament, opportunity to continue to inspire tens of millions of people, inspire kids,” U.S. captain Tim Ream said Saturday. “And it’s an opportunity for us to win another knockout stage match.”

There was a certain appreciation being acknowledged by the U.S. team about what it has already accomplished, the moment Monday provides and the fact it’s all happening around the time of the July Fourth holiday and celebrating the 250 th anniversary of the country.

The U.S. roster is a byproduct of the melting pot that is the country they are representing. Six of the 26 players on the roster were born outside of the U.S. Folarin Balogun was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., but grew up in London. Sergiño Dest was raised in the Netherlands but is able to represent the Stars and Stripes as his dad is a U.S. citizen. Malik Tillman, who scored the magical curling free kick that cemented the round of 32 win over Bosnia-Herzegovina, was born in Germany, the son of an American serviceman and German mother.

“We’ve said this as a group with all our different backgrounds, where we all have grown up, it’s a true representation of what America is,” Ream said. “It’s a melting pot of people, personalities, of characters. Like I said, it’s a perfect representation.”

Dest said his dad wished him a happy Fourth of July but didn’t delve into the larger meaning of playing for the national team.

“I feel like we’re on the right track on the pitch. We’re doing really great. We continue to fight for each other and the country as well,” Dest said.

In line with the festivities of the day, the U.S. team was expected to spend Saturday night hanging out with friends and family at a rooftop location and take in the fireworks over Lake Union.

Eventually, all the focus will return to Belgium, a team that thumped the Americans 5-2 in a friendly in late March. The U.S. starting lineup that day featured five players expected to start again Monday but was missing several key pieces. At the same time, the lineup Belgium used only had a handful of starters as well.

That loss was the sixth straight to Belgium all time, although the sides don’t play that often. The only U.S. victory over the Belgians came in the group stage of the 1930 World Cup, the first ever played.

And while the score line from that match back in March might be concerning for fans of the home side, the U.S. team’s form has looked better than Belgium over the whole of the tournament to date.

“We’re two very different teams now than we were in March, and we’re both trying to move on in a biggest tournament in sports history,” Ream said. “So obviously there are things you can learn, there are things you can look back on, there are things that you can look at as positives and things that you know can be better.

“But for us it’s not really thinking about the result, it’s more we’re in a new environment. This is a completely different game than in March, and we’re going to go out there and look to perform in the same way that we have.”

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