Resolves to the highest level the US makes it to. Note that this is agnostic between winner/second place and third/fourth places.
Policy if the rules are changed: "preliminaries" refers to the round containing 32 teams (or, if there is no such round - say if group stage filters from 48 to 16 - the last round in the cup with more than 16 teams), and "won't make it" refers to failing to reach this round. If the 2026 cup adds a round (so that it has 64 teams overall), losing on that round could still count as "not making it".
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@amoebus in case of a change of rules, the round of 32 would count as the preliminaries (and the group stage would count as not making it).
@ShakedKoplewitz Thanks for clarifying. (Note that it's already confirmed that there will be 48 teams, and the current plan is to 'add a round', though the details of what will happen before the Round of 16 are still subject to change.)