The US Men’s National Team just did something it hasn’t done since Ronaldo was wearing a questionable haircut at the 2002 World Cup: win a knockout-round match. Under head coach Mauricio Pochettino, the USMNT ground out a victory despite being reduced to ten men, ending one of the longest droughts in American soccer history.

For a country that will co-host the 2026 FIFA World Cup alongside Canada and Mexico, the timing couldn’t be better. And for the crypto industry, which is embedding itself deeper into global soccer than ever before, the implications stretch well beyond the pitch.

Pochettino’s turnaround and what it took

Pochettino was appointed as USMNT head coach in August 2024, inheriting a squad that had been stuck in a frustrating cycle of early tournament exits. His contract runs through the conclusion of the 2026 World Cup, giving him a clear mandate: make the US competitive on home soil.

The knockout-round win is the first tangible proof that mandate is being met. The team didn’t just win — they won while playing a man down, the kind of gritty, tactically disciplined result that Pochettino built his reputation on during stints at Tottenham Hotspur and Paris Saint-Germain.

Before this result, the last time US Soccer celebrated a World Cup knockout victory was in 2002, when the team beat Mexico in the Round of 16 in South Korea. That’s a gap spanning five World Cup cycles and an entire generation of American soccer fans who had never seen their team advance through a win in the tournament’s elimination rounds.

The 2022 World Cup in Qatar saw the US exit in the Round of 16 after a loss to the Netherlands. The 2014 cycle ended with a Round of 16 defeat to Belgium.

Crypto meets the World Cup: Kraken leads the charge

While Pochettino reshapes the squad on the field, the commercial landscape around the 2026 World Cup is being reshaped off it. Kraken was announced on June 9, 2026, as the first Official Crypto Exchange Supporter of the FIFA World Cup, a landmark deal that plants a crypto brand squarely in the middle of the world’s most-watched sporting event.

Beyond exchange-level sponsorship, fan tokens and prediction markets are drawing increasing attention from global audiences heading into the tournament. Several national teams around the world have already launched dedicated fan tokens on platforms like Socios, built on the Chiliz blockchain, giving supporters voting rights on minor club decisions and access to exclusive content.

The USMNT, notably, does not have a dedicated fan token. That’s a conspicuous gap given that the team is about to play in a home World Cup with a freshly energized fanbase and a coach who is delivering results for the first time in over two decades.

What this means for crypto investors and the fan token market

The absence of a US Soccer fan token creates an interesting dynamic. It means the market hasn’t priced in any USMNT-specific token activity yet, which could make any future announcement a meaningful catalyst.

Investors watching this space should pay attention to two things. First, whether US Soccer moves to fill the fan token gap before or during the tournament. The commercial incentive is obvious, and the infrastructure on platforms like Chiliz already exists. Second, how Kraken’s World Cup sponsorship translates into user acquisition and trading volume.

National teams that have already launched fan tokens, including several from South America and Europe, have a head start in building digital communities around their World Cup campaigns. If US Soccer doesn’t act, it risks ceding that engagement layer to rival federations that are already fluent in the language of blockchain-powered fandom.