Schmitt

The USA men’s World Cup play going into the round of 16s has been one of their strongest overall performances to this point in their history of Cup play.

America has controlled time of possession and looked strong defensively in group play, as it won its group D to go on to the round of 32s against Bosnia and Herzegovina in one of the most exciting games in the Cup to this point.

The entire game was riddled with highly questionable calls with USA having a goal called back due to an offside call and a very suspect red card issued to America in the 60th minute of play forcing the team to play a man down for the remainder of the game and protect a 1-0 lead.

USA had controlled possession and play against Bosnia, scoring its first goal just before halftime. Playing down one man with an 11-10 disadvantage, a beautiful free kick by USA’s Malik Tillman sealed the 2-0 win for the team as the Americans were tough on defense and continued to attack shorthanded.

They now face Belgium in the round of 16 at 8 p.m. on Monday on FOX.

USA head coach Mauricio Pochettino has been extremely pleased with the performance of his team. After showing complete dominance in a 4-1 win over Paraguay and a 2-0 shutout of Australia, USA faltered in its first half against Turkey and played strong in the second half only to suffer disappointment when Turkey slipped in a goal just seconds before the final whistle to nab the 3-2 win.

Favorites to grab the Cup title include France (scoring more than three goals in every group game), Argentina (the defending Cup champions), Spain (did not concede a goal in group play) and Brazil (may have best draw to semifinals). The Cup championship game is slated for July 19 in East Rutherford, N.J.

USA, Canada and Mexico playing host to this year’s tournament has had some interesting firsts. This has been an expanded World Cup with the new 48-team field providing 40 additional matches for fans.

The Iranians, whose attendance was questionable due to security reasons, were made to stay in Mexico and cross over into the U.S. shortly before kickoff to their games with very little prep time for the game and had to leave and return to Mexico immediately after. Despite this, Iran did not drop a game as it came up with three ties against New Zealand, Belgium and Egypt for three points in its group. This was not enough to get Iran through to the next round, however.

Locally …

The Team Energy u-19 premier girls team, in its final effort to win a national championship, will travel to the 2026 U.S. Youth national championships from July 13-20 in Murfreesboro and Smyrna, Tenn. (just outside Nashville).

The tournament includes group play through July 15, followed by quarterfinals on July 17, semifinals on July 18 and the national championship game on July 20.

The Blair County FC 814 United Green u-11 girls team made history by competing in the first-ever United States Youth Soccer national championship in Ellicott City, Md.

The girls dropped their first game to the Council Rock United FC Bucks. They bounced back with an impressive 5-2 victory over Virginia’s BRYC Academy and a 4-1 win over Maryland’s SMS premier team.

The girls fell just short of advancing to the championship game but played at an outstanding level all weekend. This is a team with an incredibly bright future.

Tom Schmitt writes a monthly soccer column for the Mirror.