The U.S. men’s national soccer team had two goals for the Qatar World Cup: Advance out of group play and try to win in the round of 16 and beyond.
The World Cup, U.S. coach Gregg Berhalter has grown fond of saying, is really two tournaments. The first, the group stage, is a four-team competition that simply qualifies teams for the main event, a single-elimination tournament that ends Dec. 18 with a champion.
The U.S. qualified for those playoffs Tuesday, beating Iran 1-0 to move on to the final 16. While past American teams considered it a success just to get out of the group, this team has bigger plans.
“Coming into the tournament, we had two goals,” Berhalter said. “The first was to advance through the group stage and then enter the knockout. And from here, anything can happen. All we need to do is play one game at a time. There’s no need to project how far this team can go.”
Midfielder Weston McKennie apparently didn’t get the second part of that memo because he said Tuesday he doesn’t see any reason the U.S. shouldn’t be playing for a title next month.
“We’re here for a purpose. We’re here for a reason,” he said. “A lot of people didn’t think that we would make it out of the group. The bigger picture is to make it as far as we can in the tournament and possibly play in the final.
