Get free access to the most comprehensive World Cup coverage in The Athletic app.CHICAGO — The U.S. men’s national team will open the World Cup on Friday against Paraguay, and the expectation should be that it will win its group.Over the last few days, the team that will shoulder the hopes of a nation has proved capable of causing problems for world-class opposition. That remained true Saturday despite a 2-1 defeat to Germany, a match that contained plenty of positives and showcased the requisite fight and knowhow no matter the result.Playing at home in an evenly-matched but not overwhelming Group D (Paraguay, Turkey and Australia), finishing top is a fair bar to set — especially for a team that has long believed it has a chance to make history and go further than any U.S. men’s squad before them.This is a group that has grown up together and cares about each other. Four years ago, they made a pact. The mission was to change American soccer forever. The opportunity to do that has been in a specter on the horizon a long time. The reality of it? It’s finally here.What happens over the next few weeks will be the culmination of an imperfect journey, one that has exposed this team’s flaws and tested its resilience. It began in 2018, when a core group of mostly teenagers was asked to rebuild a program from its lowest moment of failing to qualify for the World Cup. Four years later, they were the second-youngest team at the 2022 Qatar World Cup, and earned a trip to the knockout stage.But the last three and a half years, when potential was meant to be realized in full, have been painful.All 634 days since Pochettino was hired in September 2024 have been some part of a tear-down-and-build-up process toward this summer: The bad results and the good ones; the positive moments and the most difficult lessons. Pochettino took the hard route because he believed, after the U.S.’s group-stage exit at the 2024 Copa América, that it was the only way to get this team to where everyone once believed it could be.