SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) \u2014 Malik Tillman stepped up for a free kick with a bloody sock and a new right boot after being stepped on by an opponent as the United States scrambled to protect a one-goal lead, down a man in a World Cup knockout round.<\/p>\n
Tillman delivered the goal of his life, and one of the biggest ever by a U.S. man at the World Cup, sending this American soccer fairytale into the round of 16.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been dreaming about this game,\u201d Tillman said after scoring the final goal in a 2-0 win over Bosnia-Herzegovina on Wednesday night. \u201cI\u2019ve been dreaming about maybe taking a free kick and scoring a free kick. I\u2019ve practiced this in training and I think today I showed what I can do.\u201d<\/p>\n
The round of 32 win set up a Monday matchup in Seattle against Belgium as the U.S. hopes to make a deep run on home soil. The Red Devils beat the Americans 2-1 in extra time at 2014\u2019s round of 16.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s about to keep dreaming,\u201d said U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino, who belted out \u201cTake Me Home, Country Roads\u201d as it played over the public-address system after 10 minutes of stoppage time. \u201cIn football all is possible if you believe.\u201d<\/p>\n
Folarin Balogun put the Americans ahead in the 45th minute with his third goal of the World Cup, then was sent off in the 64th for a red card.<\/p>\n
Balogun dominated the first half and scored in the 45th minute. The Americans had to scramble after his foul for awkwardly stepping on Tarik Muharemovic and preserved the shutout despite playing short-handed for more than 30 minutes.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt felt so comfortable, even down to 10 men,\u201d captain Tim Ream said. \u201cThat\u2019s the way you want to feel. You don\u2019t want to have that panic set in. You want have that calm and focus and we had that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pochettino became the first U.S. coach with three World Cup victories, and the Americans gained just their second World Cup knockout round win. They made it to the semifinals in the first tournament in 1930 by winning their group and won a round of 16 matchup against Mexico in 2002.<\/p>\n
Balogun leads the U.S. with three goals, but will miss the Belgium match because of an automatic suspension for the red card, assessed by Brazilian referee Raphael Claus after a video review. Balogun stepped on an ankle of Tarik Muharemovic, apparently not intentionally.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously the ref made a decision that he made, but I think it\u2019s questionable,\u201d midfielder Weston McKennie said. \u201cI think there\u2019s been many other plays like that throughout the tournament on other players that a card wasn\u2019t given at all. It\u2019s disappointing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Balogun matched Landon Donovan in 2010 for the second-most goals by an American in a World Cup, behind only Bert Patenaude\u2019s four in 1930.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course he\u2019s a great player,\u201d Tillman said. \u201cWe have great players who can replace him, and give the best they can, and hopefully score some nice goals as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
The win snapped a 10-game losing streak for the U.S. against European teams dating to a tie against England in the 2022 World Cup. The Americans had lost seven games and tied six against European nations in World Cup play since beating Portugal in their 2002 opener.<\/p>\n
The U.S. had started fast in the group stage matches by scoring in the first 15 minutes of all three games but it was Bosnia that had the better chances early. Matt Freese needed to make two saves early to stop Ermedin Demirovic following a deceptive goal kick that caught the U.S. defense napping and then again on the ensuing corner kick that Kerim Alajbegovic almost scored on directly.<\/p>\n
Balogun took over from there. He had an apparent 31st-minute goal called off for offside and was knocked down in the box on two other opportunities before finally delivering. Ream intercepted a Bosnia goal kick at midfield and passed to Tyler Adams, who flicked to Tillman. The ball, with the help of an errant Bosnian clearance attempt and a deflection, found Balogun in the box. Balogun slid the left-footed shot past Vasilj.<\/p>\n
Balogun punctuated the goal with his version of the LeBron James Silencer celebration, drawing a positive reaction from King James himself.<\/p>\n
Balogun nearly scored again in first-half stoppage time but his shot from in close deflected off the crossbar and out of play.<\/p>\n
Bosnia\u2019s second World Cup trip was a success with a draw against Canada in the opener and a win over Qatar that helped the team advance to the knockout round for the first time. But it ended in disappointment.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had our moments after the red card,\u201d Vasilj said. \u201cYou could feel that there was something. The only thing that was missing was a goal. And then in the worst moment, out of nothing, I would say, a free kick and we conceded a second goal. After that it was really difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) \u2014 Malik Tillman stepped up for a free kick with a bloody sock and a new right boot after being stepped on by an opponent as the United States scrambled to protect a one-goal lead, down a man in a World Cup knockout round. Tillman delivered the goal of his life, … Continue reading U.S. beats Bosnia-Herzegovina 2-0 to advance to round of 16 and keep its World Cup dreams alive<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1452],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1519952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":true,"date":"2026-07-04 12:31:05","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[0],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1519952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1519952"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1519952\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1519954,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1519952\/revisions\/1519954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1519952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1519952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1519952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}