Christian Pulisic vividly remembers watching it with his family. So does Tyler Adams, who saw it with his friends from soccer camp. Memories of Tim Howard catching an Algerian header in Pretoria, and hurling it upfield to ignite the counterattack that would lead to Landon Donovan’s instantly iconic goal. The goal that spared the United States men’s national team’s blushes at the 2010 World Cup, sneaking them out of the group stage at Algeria’s expense. One of the most iconic moments in US socer history.

Pulisic was a few months from turning 12. Adams had just turned 10. Matt Turner would be 16 the next day, and Howard’s heroics made him wonder if he ought to devote himself fully to becoming a goalkeeper.

By the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, Pulisic, Adams and Turner were the USMNT’s star player, captain and starting goalkeeper, respectively.

World Cups drag on for weeks. The group stage already felt like an interminable slog when there were 32 participating teams. With a field of 48 in 2026, the first round alone will stretch to 72 matches – more than the entirety of the last edition of the tournament put together – over 17 days in June. Knockout rounds lumber along, too, with only the rest days breaking the spell. This time around, it will take 21 more days to winnow down the last 32 to a champion.

This much wall-to-wall soccer can only be remembered by the biggest moments. By the bursts of action when a country stops breathing for a few beats and entire four-year cycles are defined. The trick is to somehow make those memories, for your nation and for the next generations. For the frustration to dissipate, however briefly. In a shot. In a punch. In a save. That’s the beauty of the sport.

Next summer, the US men’s national team will have at least three opportunities to make indelible imprints on the minds of tomorrow’s would-be fans and potential future national teamers. Friday’s farcical draw at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC assigned Mauricio Pochettino’s team Australia, Paraguay, and one of Turkey, Romania, Slovakia and Kosovo – pending a play-off.

The job, beginning against Paraguay at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California on 12 June, is to deliver as many of these impressions as possible. For the US, it isn’t to win the World Cup. Not realistically, at any rate. It’s to leave a legacy on a distractable nation spoiled for indelible moments from other sports, on a culture consumed in fractions and flashes and 30-second clips.

Really, the Americans should be playing more than three games. At least four. Probably five. Perhaps six.

“The last World Cup, we couldn’t set a bar or a standard for anything,” said midfielder Tyler Adams. “We didn’t know what to expect. We hadn’t been through the process. We didn’t know what it was going to be like. Now, we’re a lot more mature. We’ve grown a lot as individuals and as a team. Everyone is going to want us to say that winning it is obviously the goal. But I think setting the benchmark of [going] the furthest the US has gone is also realistic.”

At the 1930 World Cup, the Americans reached the semi-finals, which was also the first game of a four-team knockout round at the first edition of the World Cup, which bears little resemblance to today’s mega event. The modern high-water mark, which Adams was more likely referring to, was the quarter-final push in 2002. That tournament, in which the US beat Mexico in Korea in the round of 16, was the only time the Yanks have ever won a World Cup knockout match in seven attempts.

But while the historical record isn’t great, there have also never been 32 teams in the second round of this tournament before. The odds of facing someone beatable are better.

“No matter what round we lose in, we won’t be happy,” said forward Christian Pulisic. “We’re going to push as hard as we can and try to make a good run.”

The good news is that the US beat Australia and Paraguay in friendlies in October and November, respectively, by identical 2-1 scores. And by Fifa’s flattering rankings, the USMNT’s 14th place is the highest of the group by far. Paraguay is 39th; Australia 26th. Turkey, Romania, Slovakia and Kosovo are ranked 25th, 47th, 45th and 80th, respectively. (Then again, Turkey simply dispatched the Americans in another friendly in June, by a 2-1 score that flattered the scale of the loss.)

The bad is that by the more stagnant Elo ratings the Americans’ 34th place would actually be the lowest in the group if Turkey takes the final berth. In sum, the United States’ Group D has the second-highest average Elo rating among participants of any 2026 World Cup group.

The format is forgiving, however. Winning Group D will mean the US faces a third-placed opponent in the round-of-32. Even coming in second isn’t an entirely bad outcome, given that the Yanks would then face the runner-up of Group G headlined by Belgium and otherwise populated by Egypt, Iran and New Zealand. Doable, surely, so long as it’s not the Belgians, who eliminated the USA in extra-time of the round-of-16 in Brazil in 2014. A third-place finish would spell trouble, assuming the Americans even finished in the top eight of 12 such finishers and avoided elimination: a date with a group winner, likely Germany, France or Portugal.

Which is to say that between the momentum of the USMNT’s recent record, the coalescing talent of an unprecedented generation, and the benefits of being one of the three home teams, there really is no excuse for the Americans not to play in a fifth game at this World Cup. The round-of-16. At a minimum.

Pochettino, however, preached caution and respect for the opposition. “If you are Argentina, maybe you can look at what’s after [the group stage],” the head coach said. “With USA, the first game is the final of the World Cup. The second and third game needs to be the final of the World Cup, too.”

And after that, the more World Cup finals you play, the better your chances of anybody remembering them.

• Leander Schaerlaeckens’ book on the United States men’s national soccer team, The Long Game, is out in the spring of 2026. You can preorder it here. He teaches at Marist University.