LOS ANGELES STADIUM <\/strong>\u2014 At least one American is headed to the round of 16 at the 2026 FIFA World Cup.<\/p>\n Canada coach Jesse Marsch, who was an assistant coach with the U.S. men\u2019s national team when the Stars and Stripes reached the same stage under Bob Bradley in 2010, on Sudnay became the first manager at this summer\u2019s tournament to win a knockout round game, as his Reds topped South Africa 1-0 on a 91st minute strike by veteran midfielder Stephen Eust\u00e1quio.<\/p>\n The Canadians will now play for a place in the quarterfinals against the winner of Monday\u2019s round of 32 contest between three-time World Cup runner-up Netherlands and Morocco, which reached the semis four years ago in Qatar.<\/p>\n But Canada\u2019s history-making run \u2014 they\u2019d never advanced from group play or even won a World Cup game before this summer \u2014 in a competition that the country is co-hosting along with the United States and Canada didn\u2019t begin with glory.<\/p>\n Expected to beat plucky Bosnia and Herzegovina on June 12 in the first World Cup match played on Canadian soil, Marsch\u2019s team settled for a come-from-behind 1-1 tie in Toronto that helped stop them from topping a group that also contained Qatar and Switzerland.<\/p>\n (Photo by Ulrik Pedersen\/NurPhoto via Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n Now the Bosnians stand between the USA and a place alongside their northern neighbors in the round of 16. Mauricio Pochettino\u2019s side faces the Golden Lilies on Wednesday in the San Francisco Bay Area. It\u2019s a potential trap game for Pochettino\u2019s side \u2014 not that Marsch, the former Premier League and Bundesliga boss who was passed over for the U.S. job when Gregg Berhalter was rehired in 2023 \u2014 is at all concerned about how his mom nation fares.<\/p>\n “Doug, I appreciate your question,” he told me when I asked what Pochettino\u2019s side had to be wary of against Bosnia to advance. “But I don’t really care.”<\/p>\n That didn\u2019t stop the Princeton University graduate and former Chicago Fire captain, who made two international appearances for the U.S. during his playing days, from weighing in.\u00a0<\/p>\n “It’s up to the U.S. to figure out, and they can learn from the matches that Bosnia played,” he continued. “I know a couple of players on their team, and Bosnia is a group of fighters, so they were not easy to play against.<\/p>\n “I was very complimentary of them after the game. I thought we could have been better in the match, but I think that whoever they play, they will give a really hard match.”<\/p>\n Sunday\u2019s match was played in Southern California because Canada finished second in Group B. All three of Canada\u2019s first round contests were played north of the border. The win over the Qataris and loss to the Swiss took place in Vancouver. Sunday marked the first time a World Cup host had ever played a game in another country other than their own.<\/p>\n “It’s a shame we couldn’t do it in Vancouver, right in front of our fans,” Marsch said. “Nonetheless, I think you saw the team\u2019s character, quality, mentality, togetherness. “It\u2019s a pleasure to be their coach.”<\/p>\n (Photo by Jared C. Tilton – FIFA\/FIFA via Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" POPULAR SEARCHES BROWSE BY LOS ANGELES STADIUM \u2014 At least one American is headed to the round of 16 at the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Canada coach Jesse Marsch, who was an assistant coach with the U.S. men\u2019s national team when the Stars and Stripes reached the same stage under Bob Bradley in 2010, on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":5726,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5727\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}