USA's statement win + can Brazil lift a sixth World Cup?
episodePreviously titled “USA's statement win + can Brazil win a sixth World Cup?” — renamed by the publisher on Aug 3, 2026
Transcript
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
The Athletic FC.
Hi there and welcome to the Athletic FC podcast with me, Adam Leventhal. So what a start for the US, smashing Paraguay 4-1 in their opener. Canada, meanwhile, needed a late Laren Leveller in Toronto. Today on day three, we'll talk about Brazil's quest to win a sixth World Cup and look ahead to Scotland's opener against Haiti. And joining me in the studio to do so is The Athletic's Tim Spears. How are you, Tim? Great. Thanks, Adam. How are you doing? Yeah, very good.
How did the USMNT perform in their 4-1 win over Paraguay and why did it matter?
Very good indeed. Did you watch the US game?
Yeah, I watched it this morning, actually, as in not silly o'clock this morning, but at like seven.
Yeah.
So I didn't want to do what Art did yesterday. It sounded like a bit of an ordeal. And, you know, you need to kind of get a routine in place, I think, for the coming weeks. Yeah. So the morning UK time is, unless we're working, of course, is going to be sort of dead time for matches. So that's when I'm going to catch up on the overnight football. But I wanted to watch it spoiler free, the USA game. Ah, okay. So I set the page on iPlayer before I went to bed last night. It's the last thing I did before I went to sleep so that I could wake up and just press click, press play and not know what had happened. So it was great. I loved it. Watched it on 1.2 speed so that I could get here in time to do the podcast.
That's really cool. Yeah, it was good. Really good. Great game.
Yeah. A brilliant game. A brilliant game. And we'll get stuck into that. Art de Rocher is here as well. You didn't stay up either, did you?
No, I was way too tired.
After your exploits watching South Korea and Czechia the night before. And you're looking great once again.
Thank you. I hope this gets a bit more approval than the Bosnia kit did yesterday. But no, I caught up on the States game when I got up on the highlights. But I did watch Bosnia versus Canada. It was very entertaining.
Yeah, it was. It was. And we'll talk about that as well. So the boys are here. Henry Bushnell was in Los Angeles for that U.S. opener with Paraguay. Let's get his take to start off with.
What a night for the U.S. men's national team. Just covered the U.S. 's 4-1 win over Paraguay in the World Cup opener here at SoFi Stadium near Los Angeles. And it was almost a perfect night, save for one Paraguay goal and maybe a minor Christian Pulisic injury that's probably going to be fine. It was everything coming together for this U.S. national team at just the right time. It was Fuller and Baligan. It was the fans who... you know, for many years, weren't really behind this team and now suddenly are. It was Mauricio Pochettino's system. It was Christian Pulisic playing well. It was even Gio Reyna, who, by the way, just told us that his wife is pregnant and he was waiting for the perfect moment to announce it.
And he decided that a goal in the World Cup opener was that moment. And I think now for this U.S. team, we've really moved to a new era. This U.S. team for so long was about potential. And there was talent, but some players were always injured or absent or they weren't quite gelling together. We kind of sensed it in the two weeks leading into this World Cup and the friendlies that they were coming together at just the right time. And... I think we just saw them come together. And now this team, there's no telling how high this team can go. I'm not saying they're going to go win the World Cup. I'm not even going to say they're going to win two knockout games. We have to take one game at a time, of course, and maybe slow down.
But you're seeing resale ticket prices already explode for the Australia game. The country is really going to get behind this team. Weston McKinney talked about how maybe the country will see now that soccer is not really a boring sport. It's actually pretty entertaining. And I think this is just going to be the start of a really special few weeks and maybe a month for this U.S. team.
Brilliant from Henry Bushnell. He was so excited, wasn't he? I mean, it's perfect for them because it ticked all the boxes. It had the big build up, you know, the great start, the great goals.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:02–0:42
2
How did the USMNT perform in their 4-1 win over Paraguay and why did it matter?
0:42–7:01
3
What did Henry Bushnell observe at SoFi Stadium about the US team and fan atmosphere?
7:01–22:44
4
Which US players stood out (Balogun, Pulisic, McKennie) and what do their performances reveal?
22:44–40:00
Speakers
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