{"id":215407,"date":"2026-06-30T04:13:39","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T04:13:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/world-cup-knockouts-whos-coming-to-boston-and-whats-next-for-the-u-s-team-wbur\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T04:13:39","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T04:13:39","slug":"world-cup-knockouts-whos-coming-to-boston-and-whats-next-for-the-u-s-team-wbur","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/world-cup-knockouts-whos-coming-to-boston-and-whats-next-for-the-u-s-team-wbur\/","title":{"rendered":"World Cup knockouts: Who's coming to Boston and what's next for the U.S. team – WBUR"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A new stage of the World Cup has begun: the knockout rounds.
And that means new countries \u2014 and their legions of fans \u2014 are coming to Gillette Stadium. The action kicks off with a Round of 32 match between Germany and Paraguay today at 4:30 p.m. in Foxborough.
Here\u2019s a quick primer to catch you up on the matchup, what’s next at “Boston Stadium” and the road ahead for the U.S. men\u2019s national team.
Let\u2019s start with Germany, who are heavy favorites in Monday\u2019s match.
This is actually the first time the country has advanced out of the World Cup\u2019s group stage since 2014 (when they won the whole thing<\/a>). But they sealed qualification to the knockout rounds quickly with a (frankly rude) 7-1 beatdown of this World Cup\u2019s smallest country, Cura\u00e7ao, in their first game, and a 2-1 comeback against a young and talented Ivory Coast team. (They lost their final game 2-1 to Ecuador.)
Germany has a deep lineup of English Premier League and Bundesliga stars (Bayern Munich\u2019s Jonathan Tah and Jamal Musiala, Liverpool\u2019s Florian Wirtz and Arsenal\u2019s Kai Havertz, to name a few). But so far, this tournament\u2019s breakout player has been super-sub striker Deniz Undav<\/a>, who had three goals and two assists in Germany\u2019s first two games, despite playing about only a third of the minutes.
Two potential causes for concern: Germany\u2019s starting defender Nico Schlotterbeck will miss the rest of the World Cup with an ankle injury. And the team\u2019s 40-year-old recently unretired goalie Manuel Neuer hasn\u2019t been his old (younger) self<\/a>.
Off the field, the country\u2019s breakout star has been \u201cFreddy,\u201d a somewhat mysterious<\/a> German fan whose social media posts roadtripping across the U.S. for the World Cup have made him an online celebrity. And yes, it appears he has arrived in Boston<\/a>.
You have to scroll pretty far down in FIFA\u2019s rankings<\/a> from Germany to find Paraguay.
This is their first World Cup since 2010, when the small\u00a0 South American country made an impressive run to the quarterfinals and nearly beat eventual champions Spain<\/a>, if not for a missed call and a saved penalty kick.
After losing their opening game in this year\u2019s tournament 4-1 to the U.S., Paraguay hasn\u2019t allowed a goal. And that\u2019s sort of their hallmark: defense. Centerback Gustavo G\u00f3mez, who captains the team (as well as his Brazilian club Palmeiras) is \u201cconsidered by many to be the best defender in South America,\u201d according to The Guardian<\/a>.
It\u2019s the other end of the pitch where they struggle. Of all 48 teams in this World Cup, Paraguay\u2019s \u201cexpected goals\u201d metric of 1.25<\/a> was the second lowest, above only dismal Tunisia. Julio Enciso, an attacking midfielder with experience in the top English and French leagues, is the team\u2019s main playmaker and assisted both of Paraguay\u2019s two group stage goals.
Fans may also recognize Miguel Almir\u00f3n from stints at Newcastle United and MLS\u2019s Atlanta FC. He\u2019s back for today\u2019s game after a suspension for becoming the first player to get a red card at the World Cup under a new rule<\/a> against players covering their mouth while talking to an opponent.
Boston\u2019s final World Cup match could be a who\u2019s who of trophy contenders.
The winner of today\u2019s Germany-Paraguay game will face the winner of tomorrow\u2019s France-Sweden game on July 4 in Philadelphia. And the winner of that <\/em>game will be back in Foxborough on July 9 for the quarterfinals. The other half of that quarterfinals game will be either the Netherlands or Morocco, who play in the Round of 32 tonight, or tournament co-host Canada, who won the first knockout stage game Sunday against South Africa.
That means we could<\/em> host a rekindling of the longstanding Germany-Netherlands soccer rivalry<\/a>. Or a 2022 World Cup semifinals<\/a> rematch between France and Morocco. Maybe even a game with Canada making a Cinderella run and thousands of fans traveling down over the border. (The biggest question: If the Netherlands make it, where will Boston host the Orange Army\u2019s big dance parties?<\/a>)
After winning their group,<\/a> the U.S. men\u2019s national team will play Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Round of 32 on Wednesday night (8 p.m. ET) in San Francisco.
The U.S. should<\/em> win this game. Bosnia and Herzegovina came into the tournament ranked 62nd and is considered one of the weakest teams to advance to the elimination stage.
But underestimate the Balkan team at your own peril. Bosnia knocked out Italy in World Cup qualifiers<\/a>, played Canada to a tough draw on the co-hosts\u2019 home soil<\/a> and sealed a third-place berth into the knockout rounds with a 3-1 over Qatar last week.
Their lineup features several tough, experienced players. Leading the frontline is 40-year-old striker, captain and Bosnian legend Edin D\u017eeko, who helped Manchester City win two English Premier League titles, and has led the German and Italian leagues in goals during his career. And the defense is anchored by 33-year-old centerback Sead Kola\u0161inac, who played for Arsenal for several years before moving on to the French and Italian leagues.
Bosnia\u2019s lineup also includes a familiar face for Boston-area soccer fans. Esmir Bajraktarevi\u0107, a 21-year-old winger, came up through the New England Revolution\u2019s academy and played three seasons for the Revs, before signing with the Dutch club PSV Eindhoven. Bajraktarevi\u0107 was born in Wisconsin to Bosnian refugees who fled the Srebrenica genocide and got the tongue-in-cheek nickname \u201cMilwaukee Messi\u201d while playing for the Revolution. WUWM has more on Bajraktarevi\u0107\u2019s backstory here<\/a>.
Next rounds<\/strong>
If the U.S. beats Bosnia, they\u2019ll face a tougher challenge in the Round of 16: Belgium or Senegal.
It would be a potential revenge match against Belgium, who eliminated the U.S. from the 2014 World Cup in the same round<\/a>. While Belgium\u2019s so-called \u201cgolden generation<\/a>\u201d is now in its twilight years, the team is 10th in FIFA\u2019s rankings and won Group G, despite some early unconvincing results. Meanwhile, Senegal is one of Africa\u2019s best teams and recently won the continent\u2019s AFCON tournament \u2014 but the title was controversially stripped from them<\/a>.
Ironically, the U.S. also recently played both teams in pre-tournament friendlies. In March, they got blown out 5-2 against Belgium in what coach Mauricio Pochettino called a \u201creality check<\/a>\u201d (though it\u2019s worth noting they were playing with a mostly different backline compared to now). More recently, the U.S. beat Senegal by a score of 3-2 in one of their final pre-tournament games<\/a> in late May.
If they advance to the quarterfinals, the U.S. would likely then see a European soccer power\u00a0like Spain, Portugal or Croatia. But now, we\u2019re getting ahead of ourselves.
Nik DeCosta-Klipa is a senior editor for newsletters at WBUR.
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Support WBURA new stage of the World Cup has begun: the knockout rounds.And that means new countries \u2014 and their legions of fans \u2014 are coming to Gillette Stadium. The action kicks off with a Round of 32 match between Germany and Paraguay today at 4:30 p.m. in Foxborough.Here\u2019s a quick primer to catch you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":215408,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-215407","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215407\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}