A year ago, not even the famously bold Zlatan Ibrahimovic believed that the United States could contend for the World Cup title. His view changed after the cohosts won their first two games to clinch top spot in Group D less than 10 days into the tournament.“If you didn’t believe before, I will repeat: start believing,” Ibrahimovic said on a recent television broadcast.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of listIbra – as the Swedish football icon is known – and the USA were handed a reality check in a 3-2 loss to Turkiye on Thursday night in Inglewood, California. However, the result did little to dampen the team’s enthusiasm.“Next round is a clean slate,” USA defender Mark McKenzie said. “Again, we want to go far in this thing; we want to win the whole thing. We understand there’s work to be done. We’ve got a team full of hungry guys ready to make that happen.”The USA have a chance to regain momentum and credibility against Bosnia and Herzegovina in the round of 32 in Santa Clara, California, on Wednesday.Faces, formation and flairLast June, though, USA were in the midst of a four-game losing streak that included a 2-1 defeat to Turkiye in front of a predominantly Turkish crowd of 34,023 in East Hartford, Connecticut. While USA still cannot defeat the Turks, they did not face any problems against Paraguay and Australia, winning their first two World Cup matches for the first time since 1930.So, what changed?First, Mauricio Pochettino figured out his lineup. Only four players remain in the starting XI from a …
