SANTA CLARA, Calif.—Before the U.S. national team’s round of 32 game against Bosnia and Herzegovina on Wednesday, manager Mauricio Pochettino emphasized that the Americans understood their mortality at this tournament. No matter how heavily favored they were before kickoff, this game, he explained, was “the final of the World Cup.”
“And if we were capable to go through,” he added, “the next one is going to be another final of the World Cup.”
Now, America can plan for at least one more at its home tournament after surviving the first of its do-or-die tests at this tournament. The U.S. held on for a 2-0 victory over Bosnia at Levi’s Stadium, despite being reduced to 10 men by a red card for the final half-hour of the match.
The missing man was none other than striker Folarin Balogun, who scored the first U.S. goal—giving him a team-high three for the tournament. But in the 64th minute, after a video review, he was sent off the pitch after stepping on an opponent’s ankle.
Without Balogun, though, the Americans didn’t just hold on. Despite being undermanned, they managed to withstand an emboldened Bosnia attack and find the back of the net again when Malik Tillman curled home a free kick in the 82nd minute.
Despite the nervy conclusion, the U.S. finds itself on a historic run at this World Cup. The victory over Bosnia marked America’s third of the tournament—more than it had notched in any previous edition. But what has them especially excited now, though, is the path opening up ahead of them: a round-of-16 matchup against Belgium and beyond that, who knows? A quarterfinal against Spain? A semifinal against France? The temptation to look ahead has rarely been stronger.
“It’s a massive, massive improvement if we want to compete and we want to achieve things that sometimes were only in our dreams,” Pochettino said.
As the U.S. celebrates its 250th anniversary, its national soccer team has spent this summer unshackling itself from its own stunted history. The Americans, who once went 40 years without qualifying for a World Cup, are using this tournament to reposition themselves in the game. And on Wednesday, they rid themselves of two troublesome streaks in a single evening. Not only did they beat European opposition for the first time in nearly five years, they also won a World Cup knockout game for the first time since 2002.
Back then, the U.S. had downed Mexico in the round of 16, only to fall to Germany in the quarterfinals. Next, to reach the quarterfinals once again, they’ll go up against another European power after Belgium stormed back from 2-0 down against Senegal to win 3-2 earlier in the day.
The Americans opened the scoring through Balogun in the 45th minute after a period of sustained pressure led to a Bosnian turnover at the back. He muscled his way past a defender and poked the ball home, establishing the 24-year-old as America’s top goal-scoring presence. That made Balogun only the third American player to score three at a World Cup, after Bert Patenaude in 1930 and Landon Donovan in 2010.
But Balogun’s next major contribution, 16 minutes into the second half, did just as much to shape the game. While tussling for the ball, he stepped directly on an opponent’s ankle and received a straight red card, which will keep him out of the next game. What mattered on Wednesday was that it left the Americans down a man—and without their most effective attacking threat.
That didn’t seem to faze the U.S. Pochettino reorganized his team and insisted they keep pressing forward. Their initiative paid off when defender Stjepan Radeljić held back Sergiño Dest just outside the box. Tillman stepped up to take the free kick and floated it over the wall of Bosnians into the net.
As substitutes poured off the bench in celebration, they could finally breathe a sigh of relief. Two irritating streaks of American futility were over—but the U.S. adventure at its home World Cup wasn’t ending yet.
Write to Andrew Beaton at andrew.beaton@wsj.com and Joshua Robinson at Joshua.Robinson@wsj.com
