Kurtenbach: The USMNT can play the beautiful game. Can they still win ugly?

The United States men's national soccer team is prettier than ever, but beauty doesn’t win bar fights.

And make no mistake, the World Cup is just a glorified pub brawl with better corporate sponsorship and louder singing.

And Friday’s U.S.-Australia game? Well, there’s going to be broken glass everywhere.

Despite a sparkling 4-1 win in their opening act at this tournament of all tournaments, the Americans still have some heavy lifting to do in Group D.

Sure, they likely need just one more point to safely advance to the knockout rounds. But a win is absolutely necessary to take the group and secure a favorable draw in the Round of 32.

But Friday’s clash against Australia in Seattle isn’t merely about surviving and advancing.

No, it's about proving this supposed golden generation has some actual iron in its blood.

We know the Aussies do.

So when these two proud nations - both of which stubbornly and correctly call the sport soccer - collide on Friday, we might just get the game of the tournament.

It will be loud, it will be physical, and it will be completely unapologetic.

More importantly, it will be the ultimate test of just how far the U.S. has come as a soccer-playing nation.

Or, perhaps, we will find out exactly what it has lost along the way.

There is absolutely no debate that this American squad is the most technically gifted in the nation’s history. They can shoot, pass and dictate tempo in ways that would make the ghosts of teams past weep with unadulterated joy. Look at how far we’ve come.

But there is often a trade-off for those soft first touches.

Does this US team still have its trademark, gritty American spirit? That sheer, unrelenting obnoxiousness made past iterations consistent overachievers on the sport’s biggest stage.

The U.S. used to be the ultimate "greater than the sum of its parts" operation.

They weren’t going to tiki-taka you, they were gonna-kick-ya-in-the-shina.

They probably couldn’t run around you, but they would happily put their heads down and run right through you.

Through sheer belief, immense cardio and unyielding hard work, they could play with anyone in the world on any given night.

It didn’t matter if their most exciting players were merely fringe guys riding the bench somewhere in a second-rate European league or playing only in MLS.

They were tough.

They were supremely annoying. (It’s a compliment.)

They were an absolute nightmare to play against for 90 long, agonizing minutes.

And that’s the exact style of soccer Australia still plays today.

The Socceroos don’t care about your expected goals or your possession metrics.

They care about breaking your spirit and bruising your shins.

They played that exact brand of brutal counter-attack soccer to perfection against the Turks in Match 1, battering a more technical and brash Turkey squad 2-0, leaving nothing but broken spirits and complaints for the team in red.

It was a masterclass in collective, cynical, blunt-force trauma.

So now, the question facing the Americans is painfully simple:

Can they match that grit?

If you know this team’s history, it seems laughable to consider, and yet it must be.

Can they find the hardness that defined guys like Oguchi Onyewu and Michael Bradley? Those were men who treated the field like a UFC cage, happily leaving skin and teeth on the grass.

If this current crop of Americans still has that fire and strength deep inside them, they are going to be a terrifying out in this tournament. Because if you combine that vintage American brawn with their undeniable world-class skill, it’s a potent combination that can carry the US far beyond the group stage.

No, if that shows up, they won’t just survive Friday; they will make real noise in July.

But if the tradeoff for all this technical talent was, in fact, that essential hardness, then the U.S. is in serious trouble.

Because Australia will smell that weakness from the opening whistle, just like they did when these two teams played in a “friendly” in Colorado last October, a match that saw Christian Pulisic sidelined after 14 minutes following a crunching two-footed tackle from Socceroos defender Jason Geria.

Just like they did with Turkey last week.

They can and will exploit that weakness - if it shows - again and again on Friday.

They will drag the Americans into the mud and see if they start crying about their dry-cleaned shorts.

And if the U.S. drops points on Friday, it will be left in a perilous spot.

The Americans will be limping into their final group match against that other technically gifted squad in the group, Turkey. And the stakes could be sky-high for one, if not both teams.

Yes, Friday's game in the Pacific Northwest is massive in its own right. It’s a World Cup clash with no quarter given.

But it's also a massive referendum on the entire project of U.S. Soccer - the ultimate litmus test for a program that has spent two decades trying to reinvent itself as something different, something more continental. Something it believes is better.

These Americans proved last week that they can play the beautiful game.

Now we find out if they can still win an ugly one.

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This story was originally published June 18, 2026 at 3:08 PM.