The U.S. was missing its World Cup star. It didn’t miss a beat.

World CupThe U.S. was missing its World Cup star. It didn’t miss a beat.The U.S. men will play in the knockout stage of the World Cup after beating Australia 2-0 on Friday in its second consecutive win.Listen to this article with a free account00:0000:00U.S. head coach Mauricio Pochettino looks on after the FIFA World Cup match against Australia at Lumen Field in Seattle on Friday.Soobum Im / FIFA/FIFA via Getty ImagesShareAdd NBC News to GoogleJune 19, 2026, 11:56 PM EDTBy Andrew GreifMissing its playmaking star, and facing an Australian team that had frustrated it only seven months earlier, the U.S. had all the elements for a World Cup letdown Friday.Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.Instead, the U.S. won again, made more history (again) and became among the first teams to secure its place in the tournament’s knockout stage.No Christian Pulisic? No problem — for now.With Pulisic sidelined by a calf injury, Folarin Balogun replaced his role as a playmaker by running up the pitch’s left side and creating havoc for Australia and chances for his teammates. The 2-0 victory marks the first time the U.S. men have won successive World Cup games since 1930. The result left the U.S. scoreboard-watching as the team flew from Seattle back to its home base in Southern California: A win or draw by Paraguay against Turkey late Friday would ensure the U.S. would win its group, with one group-stage game against Turkey still to play next week.“We’re delighted,” Balogun said.For a second straight game, the U.S. won because of things it has lacked in previous World Cup runs, and even during the 20 previous months that coach Mauricio Pochettino spent as U.S. coach: confidence and tactics.After a dominating, 4-1 U.S. win over Paraguay to open the tournament last week, Paraguayan coach Gustavo Alfaro described a pentagon-shaped formation that U.S. players had regularly created in the midfield, a shape that gave the U.S. a...