USMNT Star Talks Mindset for 'Crunch Time' of World Cup Knockout Stage
USMNT striker Folarin Balogun has felt a charged energy in the air with the Americans heading to the Round of 32 against Bosnia and Herzegovina on Wednesday.
"I can feel the difference in just the atmosphere," he told reporters Sunday. "It's knockout football, so you lose, you go home. So for me, there's a change in my mindset and mentality as well. Not that I wasn't taking it seriously before, but you can just go into another gear because you want it more. I don't want the journey to end."
For the United States, quite simply, a loss on Wednesday would represent a pretty massive failure for the most talented roster in the history of the program.
"It's crunch time," Balogun acknowledged. "This is the business end and this is the stage where, in my opinion, the big players step forward and the big players carry the pressure and make things happen."
Balogun, 24, has done his part thus far, scoring two goals in the World Cup and forcing an own-goal against Australia. He's been one of the team's stars to step up in a major way thus far, and that will need to continue as the Americans try to make a deep run at a tournament they are co-hosting with Canada and Mexico.
"We all are a little bit older. We've got a lot of more experienced players at the moment," wingback Sergiño Dest told reporters. "We also got some new players, but I feel like everybody's really confident, and it helps if you win the first two games and you get the first in the group. We just have a lot of belief that we can do it."
