'We want to lift a trophy at the end of this' - USMNT find World Cup soundtrack in 'Country Roads' as Seattle singalong fuels belief in magical summer

In the hours before kickoff and the hours after the final whistle, Seattle partied. The streets were filled with jerseys from every era. Turn your head and you'd see a vintage '94 denim jersey standing next to a modern red-and-white-striped shirt. There was no shortage of Clint Dempsey representation, given his Seattle connections, while the name "Yedlin" appeared on the back of plenty of 2010s-era kits, too. A poster hung in the window of a building high above the stadium reading "USA Roldan," honoring another one of the city's hometown heroes.

Those are just individual examples. There were thousands of them throughout downtown Seattle on Friday. Families gathered alongside supporters groups, while there were plenty of Bloody Marys to go around ahead of the early kickoff. Australian fans, eager to play their part, showed up with inflatable kangaroos and no shortage of gusto. They even got their new American friends to participate in a shoey or two, much to the delight of the crowds around the stadium.

For a mile in each direction, streets were shut down, music blared and people celebrated. Before the game, they celebrated the moment. Afterward, they celebrated the win.

FOX cameras captured portions of the atmosphere, but they couldn't capture it all. Such was the noise around a stadium that had established itself as a cathedral of American soccer, but not necessarily a cathedral of the USMNT, who had been away for far too long because of Seattle's preference for turf fields.

On Friday, though, the stadium not currently known as Lumen Field became the center of a USMNT memory. It began quickly, as helicopters flew overhead while fans wrapped up their rendition of the national anthem.

"You're seeing the helicopters go above, it's extremely special," Folarin Balogun said. "It just gives us that, not that we need it, but it gives us that last bit of motivation before we go out there to just go out there and really go crazy."

Balogun and his teammates gave others reason to go crazy, too. There was legitimate seismic activity in the area for each of the two USMNT goals, one turned in by Australia's Cameron Burgess and one headed home by Alex Freeman. There were peaks and valleys of noise, of course, but those peaks were otherworldly, while the valleys weren't very low at all. Throughout the match, there was a steady energy, and it all peaked in the moments after the final whistle.

At the moment, the USMNT doesn't have a song. There are plenty of examples elsewhere. Any Argentina gathering is sure to descend into the group screaming "Muchachos" at some point. France have a song of their own commemorating their 2018 World Cup win. Play an Oasis song around England fans and see what happens, while Scotland have seemingly made every upbeat song their own during the country's non-hostile takeover of Boston.

Might the USMNT's song be "Country Roads"? At the very least, might it be the song of the summer?

"It's just being proud of the country," defender Auston Trusty said. "I think 'Country Roads' is a very American song. To hear that in the stadium, everyone singing along? If you're American, you probably know that song. Everyone's singing and celebrating the win, and you're smiling and happy with your teammates.

"It's a dream come true. It's a feeling that I can't really describe. It's just a dream come true."

There have been other songs for fans to sing in full voice. Bon Jovi's "Livin' on a Prayer" got pretty loud. "Free Bird" is, of course, a pretty famous goal song. But, for a few minutes, that rendition of "Country Roads" felt different. Multiple USMNT players said so themselves.

"These are my brothers," Chris Richards said. "I think all of us know that part of being American is knowing 'Country Roads,' so we were all singing it together. It was cool, again, to hear everything from the crowd, and the crowd knows they've been our 12th man so far in this tournament. If we need that extra one percent, they're always there for us, so it's been amazing."

There was a sense, both in and around Seattle and on social media, that belief is growing. The USMNT's players are feeling that, too.

On multiple occasions, Pochettino has been asked explicitly if he believes the USMNT can actually win the World Cup. He answered the same way every time: Of course. If you don't believe that, there's no point, he'd reply. This is America, he'd say, and America, of all places, doesn't believe in second best.

Over the last few weeks, his players have repeated that message: that they believe it's possible. Surely it isn't, though, right? The USMNT haven't made it past a quarterfinal in the team's modern history. By beating Paraguay and Australia, two teams nowhere near the elite level, they've won back-to-back World Cup games for the first time in 96 years. There is no historical evidence indicating that this U.S. team can lift the trophy at the end.

That doesn't seem to matter anymore.

On Friday, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, one of the game's most unique voices, sat on FOX and said he believes in the USMNT. He outlined the reasons why. It's about the soccer, yes, but also about the moment at the end. His belief stems from goals, but it also stems from songs.

"If you didn't believe before, I will repeat: Start believing," Ibrahimovic said. "They have the country behind them, and when you have this support, it's difficult to beat you."

Richards feels that way, too.

"Every game, every time that we play, we want to win," he said. "I don't think it's ridiculous to say that we want to win it. Obviously, we've got a lot more games before we get to that moment, and we take it one game at a time. We want to lift a trophy at the end of this."

After Friday, the next steps toward that trophy became clear. The U.S. have officially topped the group, which means Thursday's match against Turkey is largely meaningless. It means that Pochettino can rest stars carrying yellow cards, as well as one star, Christian Pulisic, who is battling an injury, if he's so inclined.

Then, it'll be a short trip from Orange County to the Bay Area for the Round of 32. From there, who knows? American players believe this could be a long summer. American fans are starting to believe, too.

If this summer is a long one, if the run does continue as it has started, there will be more moments like Friday. When the USMNT beat Paraguay and sent the country into a frenzy, the question was whether it was an isolated incident. By toppling Australia, the USMNT proved it wasn't. The old saying tells us that twice is a coincidence, but three times is a pattern. What can the USMNT do to make that pattern continue?

"At the end of the day, you're here for yourself, you're here for the team, but you're here to change the game in America, the perception of soccer, the perception of football in America," Trusty said. "You hear that atmosphere and feel the entire vibe of the game. I think as people who are fans of the sport, but also who are becoming fans of the sport through watching us play and watching this entire environment at the World Cup, that's what it's about."

Up comes the next test, the next turning point in a summer that has already had two. And if that does happen, if more steps are taken and more memories are made, it's safe to know what they'll sound like.

"Take me home, country roads."

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