'There's an expectation for this group' - Fox Sports analyst Maurice Edu on USMNT friendly losses, whether Christian Pulisic can break scoring slump and if he'd roll the dice on Gio Reyna

Mic'd Up: The USMNT are coming off a duo of friendly losses, but Maurice Edu, who was a USMNT regular in his playing days, asserts that hope remains for the World Cup

At first, Maurice Edu was a dreamer. Now, he's a little bit more of a realist. The former USMNT and MLS midfielder, who now broadcasts for FOX and Apple TV, was brimming with confidence when the World Cup field first took shape. The passage of time has given him a little more clarity.

"Before I did any real looks at anything, the brackets or whatever, I was like, 'we're gonna get to the semis'," Edu tells GOAL. "But as a country on the men's side, we've only ever won one knockout game."

And so expectations have to be tweaked a bit. A quarterfinal, Edu claims, will be a fine showing for the U.S. And there's nothing wrong with that whatsoever. Winning football matches is hard. Winning World Cup games? Well, that's even more difficult.

"I'm just trying to be realistic about what's difficult. These are real countries with quality players, but I think we'd be proud if we got to a quarterfinal. That means we won knockout stage games against probably a strong European opponent," Edu says.

He knows about this all, of course. Edu played in a World Cup. And this summer, he will cover it for Fox Sports. Even as a fan, from the outside, he knows the buzz, energy, and, yes, anger, that can arise surrounding a national team.

"At the moment, the fan base is very emotional. There's an expectation for this group of players. There's an expectation for a home World Cup," he adds.

The U.S. come into the tournament in a strange state. They lost back-to-back games against Portugal and Belgium, by a combined aggregate score of 7-2. Christian Pulisic, their star man, isn't making it happen - and hasn't scored for the national team since 2024. Meanwhile, there is constant discourse around the state of others. Gio Reyna remains polarizing. Edu would take him to the tournament.

"Some people will say it's not warranted based on how much he's playing at his club level. But if you're asking me to make the decision between bringing another attacking player who has game-changing ability. I'll roll the dice, and I'll probably do it," he adds.

For now, it's all noise. Squads won't be revealed for about six weeks. A ball won't be kicked for over two months. Now is a time for speculation - and perhaps just a little bit of hype, too. Edu talks all things USMNT, Pulisic, Folarin Balogun, and more, in Mic'd Up, a recurring feature in which GOAL taps into the perspective of analysts, announcers, and other pundits on the state of soccer in the U.S. and abroad.

NOTE: This interview has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.