Last week I was in Miami for the World Cup. Scotland and Brazil, with my son, Gabe. I wrote about that one already.
But I have been watching all of it. I am a die-hard U.S. fan, and I have been glued to this team.
Here is what I want to tell you about them.
Coming into this tournament, almost nobody believed. The doubts were everywhere. This roster was not good enough. The moment would be too big. Even the coach's head seemed somewhere else. Mauricio Pochettino's contract runs only through the World Cup, and reports had him meeting with AC Milan about their opening before the tournament even started. Fair questions. Was he all in?
My approach was simple. Let's wait and see.
Well. We have seen.
This team has delivered in spades. They won their group. They have scored goals from everywhere. And Wednesday night, they gave us something I am still thinking about.
You know I am fascinated by teams. I have played on great ones. I have been part of great cultures, in sport and in business. It is the thing I care about most in my work. So, when I watch a group of people start to actually believe in each other, I notice. And you could feel it on this team. The camaraderie. The trust. Real friendship.
Wednesday was the proof.
We played Bosnia in the round of 32. Folarin Balogun, our most dangerous player all tournament, scored the opener. Then he got a red card that should never have been a red card. Down to ten men, with more than half an hour to play, in the biggest game this program had played in a long time.
A team without belief folds right there.
This team scored again.
Malik Tillman bent a free kick over a wall of giants to make it 2-0, a man down. That almost never happens at this level. And when the final whistle blew, the whole stadium sang Country Roads, the old John Denver song, and the players and the coach sang it right back. If you have not seen it, go watch it. I am a lifelong soccer fan and it gave me chills.
I keep coming back to a video I saw last week. Pochettino, talking to his players. Why not you. Why can't you touch the moon. Not get close to it. Touch it.
That is the whole thing.
Because here is what belief actually is. It is not a feeling you wait around to have. It is a decision you make before the evidence shows up. This team decided who they were first. Then they went and proved it, a man down, on the biggest stage there is.
That is the job of anyone who leads. Not to manage the doubt. To name the moon out loud.
Your people will rarely reach higher than the bar you set for them, so set it high, and say it where they can hear it.
"Let's do our best" gets you close. "Touch it" gets you Wednesday night.
And notice they did not celebrate alone. Chris Richards dropped to his knees. The team gathered at midfield to pray, led every post-game by Mark McKenzie.
Belief in each other, and belief in something bigger than themselves. I do not think that is a side note. I think that is the foundation.
If you are not a soccer fan yet, this is your invitation. Jump on.
They play Belgium on Monday night in Seattle. Belgium is a top-ten team in the world. We are just as talented, and I would argue more the way we're playing right now. Twenty-four million people tuned in for the Bosnia game, the biggest audience an English-language soccer broadcast has ever drawn in this country, and I cannot imagine Monday does not pass it.
Two wins from a semifinal. On home soil.
Happy Fourth of July. What a week to love this country and this game!
Why not them. Why not us. Why not you.
See you next Saturday,