Landon Donovan on the USMNT’s Big Knockout Round Expectations

Winning changes the math. It also changes the expectations, and Landon Donovan walked through exactly how high they should climb for the U.S. Men's National Team now that the group stage is nearly behind them.

The danger, Donovan explained, was the version of this tournament that did not happen. There was a scenario where the U.S. finished second or third in its group and drew a much tougher opponent in the round of 32. Instead, the team set itself up perfectly.

"Knock on wood now," Donovan said, the U.S. is positioned to face a third-place team in that next round, the kind of opponent it should beat and will be favored against. The U.S. still has one more group game on Thursday, but the path has opened up.

From there, Donovan described the snowball. Momentum, excitement, crowd, energy, all of it builds and piles pressure on the opponent. He kept returning to the idea that if the U.S. advances past the round of 32 into the round of 16, it might draw a team it is even with, or only a slight underdog against. All those intangible factors, he said, could carry it through.

Win that one, and suddenly you are in the quarterfinals. On paper, Donovan said, you are a definite underdog there, but with all that momentum it becomes maybe an even match-up. That is how these runs build.

He singled out one date. With the U.S. set to play in San Francisco on July 1st, Donovan said the scene there is "going to be absolutely crazy," and he expects the U.S. to win that game.

The conversation shifted to the players living it. Donovan, once the breakout name everyone knew when he first joined the national team, was asked what this new younger generation is experiencing as they break through, with fans suddenly realizing certain players represent the U.S.

Donovan said he could only speak to it on a smaller scale, because the sport simply was not as big when he played. His last World Cup was 2010, in South Africa, "literally the other side of the planet from America." He called it an incredible experience, things that changed his life forever, and probably the reason he was sitting there talking about it.

These players, he said, are getting that on a far bigger scale. The difference is the phone in everyone's hand. Feeds flooded all summer with the goals, the crowds, the team singing "Country Road" after a match, and the discovery that Alex Freeman's father played for the Packers.

"These guys are becoming mega mega stars," Donovan said. And if the run continues deep into the tournament, the way he sees it, it will change their lives forever.