USMNT embrace pressure of 2026 World Cup: "We need to dream" | OneFootball

By Charles Boehm

ATLANTA – Christian Pulisic had heard enough, and understandably so.

The US men’s national team are speeding towards perhaps the biggest occasion of their professional lives, the 2026 FIFA World Cup on home soil, where they are expected – required, in the eyes of some – to inspire an entire nation and convert any remaining doubters into soccer lovers.

That’s quite a lot to bear, even for a squad whose core is widely considered to be their country’s ‘golden generation,’ with one World Cup experience already under their belts and one of the planet’s elite managers leading them. The word ‘pressure’ was uttered a whopping 16 times in the press conference featuring Pulisic and his teammate and friend Weston McKennie on Friday, one day before the Yanks battle Belgium at Atlanta United's Mercedes-Benz Stadium, a weighty litmus test for the home nation’s hopes (3:30 pm ET | TNT, HBO Max, Telemundo).

The face of the program for most of the past decade felt compelled to pump the brakes just a bit.

“I mean, you guys want me to feel the pressure, that's for sure,” deadpanned the AC Milan forward after the latest in a string of questions were posed to him on that topic. “There's pressure. It's a World Cup. It's not because of my position in the team, or anything like that. I'm used to this. I wouldn't want to be in any other position. I'm so lucky. I feel privileged to be in this position.

“There's pressure, I feel it. Yes, it's there. But it's nothing that I can't handle. I'm going to attack it head-on. We are as a team. I don't need to do it by myself. That's the beauty of it. I have guys like this, I have my whole team behind me, the staff, the country of fans, and I'm just going to do the best I can. That's all I can do.”

Dreaming big

Pulisic tends to be careful, even withdrawn in front of the microphones. So this was a revealing glimpse inside the collective mindset of a group seeking to stay grounded as the hype around this huge tournament begins to crescendo in earnest.

As hard as he’s worked to cultivate a hard, hungry edge in his squad, head coach Mauricio Pochettino hopes the team and their supporters dial up the joy rather than the demands as the moment of truth approaches, harking back to the USA’s global stars in other games.

“In my past,” said the Argentine on Friday, “I watch all the sports, American sports, and the things that I really enjoy, that in all the athletes that were involved in different sports, they play free, trying to perform and to entertain and to give entertainment to the people, the fans.

“When you are free, you perform. When you feel happy, you perform. You don’t need to feel the pressure, because the pressure is a thing that, if you don't deal perfectly with this, it can be heavy.”

Pochettino recalled his memories as a player on Argentina’s 2002 World Cup team, when a highly touted Albiceleste side crumbled under the weight of expectations among their fanatical supporters.

“Argentine people feel the pressure, because football is about to survive,” he explained. “You start to play football because you love the game, but also, you know, to survive. And it was really an energy that was so heavy, and we didn't deal with that. That is why the challenge is to transform – that we host the World Cup and the expectation that we have in energy, integrate amazing energy between the fans and us.

“The players need to feel the support, and the belief, the trust, the confidence. Say, ‘Hey, we believe in you. We believe in you.’ One thing that I told [the team] the other day is, ‘Why not us, why not us, why not us?’ We need to really believe that we can be there. We need to dream – dream, because dreams inspire reality.”

Massive tests

This all elevates the importance of this month’s duels with European elites Belgium and Portugal that much further, because if the USMNT are to make a plausible case for being home-country Cinderellas this summer, they’ll need capable showings against adversaries of this caliber.

“We decide to bring this type of opponent because we wanted to play against good teams, teams that can show our reality,” said Pochettino, calling on his group to showcase a comparable level of quality to November’s promising wins over Paraguay and Uruguay.

“Now is the time to truly compete against others,” he later said in Spanish. “Belgium is a great national team, led by a great coach whom I know very well and deeply admire. It is a squad brimming with quality; the Belgian player is a technical player, one who blends physical strength with technical skill. Theirs is an agile style of football, a style that evokes many positive emotions, not least from an aesthetic standpoint … Therefore, tomorrow we will face a very difficult opponent.”

The current USMNT grew up admiring past World Cup heroes like Landon Donovan, Tim Howard and Clint Dempsey; now they’re ready to embrace their own opportunity to leave a legacy.

“With pressure comes responsibility,” said Seattle Sounders FC and US midfielder Cristian Roldan this week.

“I think the responsibility that we possess at the moment is to create our own moments, create our history for the next generation, for the kiddos that are watching to be inspired to be the next Christian Pulisics, the Weston McKennies … to create those long-lasting memories for the next generation.”

Cristian Roldan inspired by Clint Dempsey & Michael Bradley