The U.S. men’s national team can begin scouting its next World Cup opponent after Bosnia-Herzegovina beat Qatar 3-1 in Seattle on Wednesday, all but confirming that nation will face the Americans in next week’s knockout match at Levi’s Stadium.
With the victory, the third-place Bosnia-Herzegovina is exceedingly likely to advance to the Round of 32 in the expanded field, after earning four points in group play with a minus-1 goal differential. Canada also finished with four points in Group B, but had a goal differential of plus-5.
The eight best third-place finishers across the 12 groups advance to the knockout round. While nine groups still must complete play between Thursday and Saturday, the chance of eight teams finishing ahead of Bosnia-Herzegovina is less than 1 percent, according to The Athletic’s projection model. The Group D winner (the U.S.) was set to face the third-place team in Group B (Bosnia-Herzegovina) in nearly all of the permutations FIFA released for seeding the knockout rounds.
The U.S. will play Turkey in Los Angeles on Thursday evening to finish out group play having already clinched Group D with wins in its first two matches over Paraguay and Australia. Turkey is eliminated after losing its first two games to the same nations.
The cheapest ticket to get into the July 1 U.S. game in Santa Clara is more than $2,500 on Ticketmaster’s website as of Wednesday afternoon, down from Saturday’s prices, which were above $3,000 the morning after the Americans clinched the group and the date at Levi’s Stadium.
Should Bosnia-Herzegovina advance to the knockout round, it would mark the first time in national team history at the World Cup. Bosnia-Herzegovina has played in only one other World Cup — 2014 in Brazil.
Kerim Alajbegovic scored in the 29th minute to give Bosnia-Herzegovina a lead it would never relinquish. An own goal by Qatar’s Sultan Al-Brake off a volley by Edin Dzeko made it 2-0, then Hassan Al Haydos cut the lead in half just before halftime. But Ermin Mahmic sealed it for Bosnia-Herzegovina in the 80th minute.
The U.S. match will be the last of Santa Clara’s six games in the tournament.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this story.