It took blood and sweat to produce tears of joy as the short-handed U.S. men’s national team moved to the World Cup’s round of 16 with a gritty 2-0 win over Bosnia and Herzegovina on Wednesday in Santa Clara, Calif.

The USMNT’s first knockout-stage win in 24 years sets up a meeting with Belgium on Monday in Seattle with a spot in the quarterfinals on the line.

Amid the postgame jubilation was the realization that leading scorer Folarin Balogun, who popped in his third goal of the tournament in the 45th minute, will miss the next match. The forward received a red card in the 64th minute on Wednesday, leaving the U.S. scrambling to defend a 1-0 lead.

They did and more when Malik Tillman scored from a free kick in the 82nd minute to seal the win. The result ended the United States’ 10-match losing streak to European teams and also marked the first time the U.S. won three matches in the same World Cup.

Tillman paused after the match to reflect on his wonder goal but also to look ahead to Belgium.

“We have to enjoy this moment now,” he said. “(Against Belgium), we want to go as fast possible, and it won’t be an easy game, but now we will analyze them, we will analyze our game and hopefully we keep going.”

In the post-match interview room, Tillman was in his socks with blood noticeable on the right sock by the big toe. He explained that in the second half, his right boot had been cut open and that shortly before the free kick he had to change footwear.

After a potential Christian Pulisic goal was disallowed in the 78th minute because he was offside, Tillman sent an overpowering shot up and over the wall from 21 yards to the upper left corner. The restart was set up when Sergino Dest drew a yellow card as Stjepan Radeljic grabbed his shirt.

“I know some guys doubted me to go over the wall, but I practiced this in training,” Tillman said. “You never know when it’s going to happen, but luckily today it happened and now I was ready for it. I was very confident, and now I’m happy it went in.”

Balogun gave the U.S. a 1-0 halftime lead with a wicked spin and shot from the top of the box. He followed a formula that worked in the first match against Paraguay when he had an early goal reversed because of an offside call before putting one on the scoreboard that stuck.

This time, he was offside in the 31st minute, but he would not be denied 14 minutes later.

The U.S. kept its defensive shape, pinning Bosnia and Herzegovina deep, resulting in a giveaway that led to the ball pinging off Bosnian defender Tarik Muharemovic.

Balogun ran onto the loose ball, stopped, turned to his left and fired in his third goal of the tournament.

A few minutes later in first-half stoppage time, Balogun pounded a shot off the crossbar from a pass by Sergino Dest.

The match took an ominous turn for the U.S. early in the second half when Balogun was issued a straight red card. When challenging for a header, his right foot landed on Muharemovic’s left ankle.

There was no foul called initially, but referee Raphael Claus reviewed the play and issued the red card.

When play resumed, the U.S. refused to back down while playing smart and composed for the most part.

“We had to dig deep for that one,” Pulisic said. “Obviously, I felt we put on such a good performance and didn’t deserve the red card. I mean, I didn’t see it, but it’s unfortunate. But for us to dig in deep like that and just to get another goal and to defend the way we did took a real team effort.”

Balogun became the first player to score and be red-carded in a World Cup knockout-phase match since France’s Zinedine Zidane tallied and was sent off in the 2006 championship match vs. Italy.

“For me, never was it a red card,” U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino said. “… (After that,) I thought that is a moment that we need to be a team. We need to show that we are a team. I could see in the eyes of the players as a coach we are ready to go and to fight, and that’s amazing.”

–Field Level Media

Pushing for their first postseason appearance since 2020, the Athletics lost their leader and unofficial captain as manager Mark Kotsay announced on Wednesday that two-time All-Star Brent Rooker will undergo season-ending knee surgery.

Kotsay said that the 31-year-old designated hitter will have a procedure to address a cartilage tear in his left knee at a later date.

“This is a big blow,” Kotsay said. “It’s a middle-of-the-order bat. It’s a guy that produced for us offensively for the last three seasons with 30-plus homers. In terms of replacing Rook, there’s not one guy that is going to come in here and step in with that type of production. We’ll do our best to fill that void and make the best of the situation.”

Injuries this season have taken a toll on Rooker, who entered 2026 with 99 home runs over the previous three seasons, including a career-high 39 in 2024, when he also drove in a career-high 112 runs.

In April, he sustained a strained right oblique that kept him out for 15 games. Upon returning April 25, Rooker hit just .216 with a .709 OPS and eight homers in 36 games before the knee issue surfaced, sidelining him since the June 8 game. A cortisone shot on June 10 did not do the trick.

“There’s not one instance of the injury,” Kotsay said. “This could have been something that just over time continued to deteriorate. The cartilage in itself caused that bone bruise. That’s from a lack of cartilage in the knee. We tried the conservative measure of doing the injection. Obviously, with the baseball activity increasing, it just continued to be an issue.”

Rooker ends his season hitting just .200 with a .670 OPS, 10 home runs and 29 RBIs in 48 games.

The A’s will also miss Rooker’s presence and leadership, especially for the younger players who often turn to him for hitting tips. The slugger will not join the team on the road, but he is expected to be present and available to offer his expertise at home games.

“In terms of the leadership, that’s not going to change,” Kotsay said. “He’s still going to be a part of the group on a daily basis. When he has the surgery, he’ll be rehabbing here with the team so he can still provide that leadership.”

Joey Meneses, who was thriving at Triple-A Las Vegas before a recent call-up, is among the players likely to fill the DH spot.

Rooker began his major league career in 2020 with the Minnesota Twins, who selected him with the 35th overall pick in the 2017 draft. In 573 games with the Twins, San Diego Padres, Kansas City Royals and Athletics, Rooker is a .254 hitter with an .815 OPS, 119 home runs and 322 RBIs.

–Field Level Media

Josh Bell, Kody Clemens and Luke Keaschall belted home runs while Taj Bradley matched his career high for strikeouts as the visiting Minnesota Twins claimed the rubber match of their three-game series against the Houston Astros with an 8-3 victory on Wednesday.

Bell extended his career-high 16-game road hitting streak with a two-run blast in the top of the first inning before Clemens socked a three-run homer an inning later.

The Twins wasted little time chasing Astros right-hander Tatsuya Imai (5-4) from the mound.

Imai, who won his third consecutive decision while posting his third scoreless outing in his last start at Detroit, was ragged from the onset. He surrendered a leadoff double to Trevor Larnach and, three batters later, grooved a 2-1 slider that Bell tattooed to straightaway center field.

Bell notched his 11th homer of the season with a seismic 452-foot blast that cleared the batter’s eye. Imai followed by loading the bases with a pair of walks around a Victor Caratini single, but escaped the first inning without any additional damage. He wasn’t as fortunate in the second.

Imai walked three more batters in the second, including Keaschall and Brooks Lee, before Clemens came to the plate with one out. Clemens followed with his 14th home run, a 399-foot drive into the home bullpen in right-center that lifted the Twins to a 5-1 lead.

Imai, who needed 34 pitches to complete the first, departed after walking Bell. He allowed five runs on four hits and five walks over 1? innings, marking his third start of fewer than two innings.

Bradley (7-3) surrendered his lone run in the bottom of the first when Jose Altuve worked a leadoff walk and scored on Isaac Paredes’ double-play grounder. Bradley closed the first with a strikeout of Christian Walker, the first of 10 consecutive batters he retired via the strikeout.

Nick Allen snapped that run with a groundout to open the fifth, but Bradley closed his outing by recording a called third strike on Paredes. He worked five innings and allowed four hits and three walks with 11 strikeouts.

Larnach delivered a two-run single in the top of the fifth. Keaschall answered the Astros’ two-run sixth with a solo homer, his third, in the eighth.

–Field Level Media