FOX Sports’ Maurice Edu Talks USMNT & Breaks Down the 2026 World Cup w/ Rich

For the first time, the World Cup semifinals are chalk. The top four teams in the FIFA rankings, France, Spain, Argentina and England, are all still standing. Maurice Edu, who earned 46 caps for the U.S. men's national team and now works as a Fox Sports soccer analyst, walked Rich through a final four that keeps rewriting its own storylines.

Start with France and Spain, the one Edu likes most. France was his pick to win the whole thing, and he says they have lived up to it. They have been the best team in the attacking phase, they have gotten better defensively, and after conceding twice in the group stage they have yet to give up a goal in the knockout rounds. Kylian Mbappe, Edu said, has been absolutely elite, 20 goals in 20 World Cup games, and when it is all said and done Edu thinks he will be the best World Cup player anyone has seen. Spain has a good track record against France and has conceded just one goal all tournament, but Edu believes their attack has not been efficient enough. Their teenage star, who just turned 19, has one goal, though their defense keeps leaving the door open for late winners.

Rich raised the wild subthread beneath all of it. Mbappe could catch Messi for the most World Cup goals ever, meaning the record could change hands twice in a single tournament. Edu agreed, adding that Erling Haaland scored seven in his first World Cup before Norway bowed out, and that Jude Bellingham, at 23, already has whispers of being the best English player ever. The knock some English fans hold against Bellingham, Edu noted, is that he does not play his club football in the Premier League. If it comes down to England versus Spain in the final, the country that houses Real Madrid, the headlines would write themselves.

England and Argentina is the trickier call. Edu leans Argentina on experience, with so many players from the 2022 champions and Messi, whom he flatly called the greatest footballer ever. In the last round Messi had a quieter game, so others stepped up, Julian Alvarez with a screamer and Lautaro Martinez with a goal. That was Alvarez's first goal of the tournament, Edu pointed out, and it came in extra time against a confident Switzerland side.

Those late swings came with controversy. Edu was in the stadium when Alexander Sorloth, in a 2v1, failed to slide the ball to an unmarked Haaland. He gave some credit to defender John Stones for the positioning but said Sorloth still had to find a way, and that Norway will look back at chances they never took. On Breel Embolo's red card for flopping against Argentina, Edu did not hesitate. There was no contact, he said, it was a flop, and the referee got it right. Once Switzerland went down a man, Alvarez's wonder goal saw them off.

Then Rich asked Edu to finish a sentence. The 2026 U.S. men's national team performance in the World Cup was, and Edu landed on "memorable." Memorable, he explained, because the first two games were more dominant and entertaining than he expected, because the U.S. won a knockout round game and scored the most goals it ever has in a World Cup, and because the loss to Belgium stung for the performance more than the result. More than 30 million tuned in for that game. The team, Edu said, inspired the country and set a challenge to take the next step by the time the tournament comes around again.