Update: The U.S. lost 4-1 to Belgium on Monday night in the round of 16.

Philadelphia Union co-owner Richie Graham announced a new $50 million investment fund in 2019 built off a simple thesis: The 2026 men’s World Cup would transform soccer in the U.S., and with it, businesses around the sport.

Graham’s For Soccer venture cast a wide net, backing properties focused on social media, marketing, youth tournaments and community organization. For the World Cup it is working in various capacities with FIFA, the New York/New Jersey host committee, trading card maker Panini and English football’s governing body. For Soccer also recently relaunched a podcast co-hosted by U.S. defender Mark McKenzie.

While the investment premise has already borne out, according to For Soccer’s chief business officer Marc Horine, the U.S. Men’s National Team’s round of 16 game against Belgium on Monday night in Seattle is an opportunity to cement a new benchmark for soccer in America.

“The growth is already happening—we’re seeing it every day through rising fan engagement, increased brand investment, and record participation, but a [win Monday] would bring even more people into the sport,” Horine told Sportico in an email. “Just as the 1994 World Cup changed the trajectory of soccer in the U.S., this tournament has the potential to do the same for the next generation.”

For Soccer isn’t alone. There have been billions invested in soccer in America over the last half-decade—MLS team sales, youth tournaments, infrastructure, media, etc.—much of it hoping the sport will emerge from this summer with a wider, more avid fanbase. As Sportico wrote last month, the fate of the USMNT will have an outsized impact on whether that happens. Each extra game the team plays will leave a deeper impact on a larger set of Americans.

All of which adds to the stakes against Belgium, the team that eliminated the U.S. in the 2014 World Cup. A win would guarantee at least four more days of USMNT coverage, a showdown with either Spain or Portugal, and the possibility for something even bigger.

“Monday’s game is likely to be the most-watched U.S. soccer match in history, and a win would be a monumental moment for the sport,” Horine said.

The USMNT has already had a strong tournament. It won its group with two victories, including an emphatic 4-1 dismantling of Paraguay, then advanced out of the round of 32 with a convincing 2-0 win over Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Even if the attack-minded style of play was a new and improved sight from the USMNT, the group’s results to date have met most experts’ pre-tournament expectations. The team has reached the last 16 in each of the last three World Cups it played in (2010, 2014 and 2022).

Winning the Belgium game, in which the U.S. is actually a slight favorite to advance, would mark a notable step forward. The U.S. has only been to the quarterfinals once since the tournament expanded to enough teams to have that round, doing so in 2002.

Few people have backed soccer in America more in the past decade than Arthur Blank. The owner of the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons, Blank paid a $70 million expansion fee to launch Atlanta United, which made its MLS debut in 2017. Last year, he agreed to pay $165 million to add an NWSL franchise. He also provided the $50 million lead gift for U.S. Soccer’s new national training center outside Atlanta.

“You can feel the passion growing across every generation and in every community,” Blank told Sportico in an email. “The growth of soccer in this country has been earned through vision, commitment and people willing to pour into the game’s future. Moments like this inspire the next generation, they bring people together and they remind us that the sport’s best days in America are still ahead.”

Despite myriad concerns heading into the World Cup, such as transportation and visa issues, the event has so far gone off relatively smoothly. And there’s already evidence that Americans are paying attention to the USMNT—and the sport overall—at totally new levels. Data from Bank of America found that spending by both out-of-town and local consumers jumped year-over-year in the country’s host cities. During U.S. group stage games in Seattle and Los Angeles, the bank said, overall spending in those cities jumped 5% and 6.8% respectively.

The USMNT’s tournament-opening game vs. Paraguay averaged 16 million viewers on Fox, making it (for a brief time) the most-watched USMNT game ever on U.S. English-language television. The knockout win over Bosnia Herzegovina last week averaged 33.5 million viewers across Fox and Telemundo, an NFL-type number that makes it the most-watched soccer broadcast in U.S. history by a significant margin.

Viewership isn’t the only thing growing incrementally as the U.S. team advances. On social media, X posts about the World Cup jumped 92% during the USMNT’s knockout win, with the number of unique posters up 83% versus the team’s final group stage match against Turkey.

After the 2-0 win over Bosnia and Herzegovina, U.S. defender Chris Richards was asked if he thought the team’s run was changing the perception of soccer in his home state of Alabama. “Definitely,” the 26-year-old responded.

“Soccer was by no means a popular sport in Alabama growing up,” Richards said. “Years of evolution and this tournament being close to home—there have been games played in Atlanta as well—have shown Alabama and the South in general that this is a really popular game, and it’s the world’s game.”

The American sporting memory is fairly short. Very few living Americans were around in 1930 when the team went to the World Cup semifinals, and the event certainly wasn’t what it is today. When the U.S. hosted its first World Cup in 1994, most sports fans in the country had little—or no—concept of the sport or the event, which had previously been hard to find on television. Even the USMNT’s run to the quarterfinals in 2002—which included a 2-0 knockout win over rival Mexico—will pale in comparison to the impact of a win Monday night in Seattle.

Part of that is the hosting. The event is here, which has put it front and center for Americans in 11 of the country’s most populous cities. Various national team training camps have spread the event’s footprint even further and viral stories featuring fans off the field (the Viking row), underdogs (Cape Verde) and stars (Kylian Mbappé, Lionel Messi and Erling Haaland each have seven goals) have all contributed to event’s success so far.

But for many in the U.S., the USMNT holds the key to a new level of hype, attention and fandom. And after years of buildup and anticipation, that level is now one win away.