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They buy the jerseys. Paint their faces. Start scheduling their lives around games. Get so invested they’ll explain the offside rule to anyone who will listen. So many people flood the bandwagon it threatens to tip over, and the whole country is off on a raucous, joyous ride.

This is that time.

If you’re not enchanted with the U.S. men’s national team after their 2-0 win over Australia on Friday, you’re going to miss out on a whole lot of fun these next few weeks.

"That's the biggest goal in this whole thing, right? Let's do something special as a team. Because we believe in one another as teammates and the capability that we all have. But to have a whole nation behind you? That's something so special," Tyler Adams said after the win, which secured the USMNT a spot in the knockout rounds.

"I just want every game to matter to the common spectator or people that don't even enjoy soccer," Adams added. "That's what it's about. That's what the growth of the game is about. And I know we have the possibility to do that."

Expectations were mixed

Expectations for this USMNT squad were not exactly high before the tournament started. The Americans have only gotten beyond the first knockout game once since 1930, and that quarterfinal run was back in 2002. Their performance at last year's Gold Cup was less than inspiring, and then they opened the year with lopsided losses to Belgium and Portugal.

Winning the group felt equally possible as going out after the group stage.

But self-belief, and momentum, can carry a team a long way in a World Cup, and this USMNT has both.

"I've told these guys that this is the most fun, special, enjoyable group that I've been part of," said captain Tim Ream, who, at 38, has been playing with the USMNT since some of his teammates were in grade school.

"That's not to say that other groups weren't special, that other groups weren't fun, that guys didn't put in everything that they possibly could," Ream said. "But there's something about this one that just feels different."

For the second consecutive game, the USMNT won in commanding fashion, thoroughly dismantling a very solid Australia team.

They did it without Christian Pulisic, too.

Playing with confidence

But it's the swagger they have that is going to endear them to their fellow Americans.

This USMNT squad is entertaining; they’ve scored six goals already, one off the team high for an entire World Cup in just two games. They’re opportunistic, opening their scoring with an own goal for a second game.

They also have that grit Americans love from their teams. Alex Freeman spent several minutes on the grass late in the first half after a hard collision with Paul Okun-Engstler. Five minutes later, he was nodding in Sergino Dest’s free kick that had been deflected to put the USMNT up 2-0.

Adams got bodyslammed so many times he can be forgiven for wondering if he wandered into a WWE match, and Folarin Balogun is going to be sore for the next several days after how aggressively the Aussies manhandled, err, defended him.

Yet rather than whining or wilting, the Americans played on, showing the fight manager Mauricio Pochettino had urged them to when the teams played last fall.

Lightning in a bottle

A ride like this can't be manufactured. But you can feel it when it's happening. All you had to do was look around the stadium at the end of the game, when the crowd at Lumen Field serenaded the USMNT players with full-throat rendition of "Livin' on a Prayer," the anthem of all improbable runs.

"We want to be able to win games, but also give everybody in this country something to be proud of," Chris Richards said.

Now, the naysayers will say the USMNT hasn’t played anyone “good” yet. That it's far too early to get overly invested in this group.

While it’s true neither Paraguay nor Australia is the caliber of Argentina or Spain, they’re not slouches, either. It wasn't Qatar or Tunisia the USMNT were feasting on. Both Australia and Paraguay are experienced, solid teams, and the USMNT came away with the maximum points from each of them. Spain can't say that.

We've seen time and again in sports a team getting hot and feeding off its own success. Heck, the New York Knicks just won the NBA title by doing that. Start rolling, and there’s no telling what the USMNT can do. Few predicted their 2002 performance, when the Americans' upset of Portugal in the opening game fueled a quarterfinal run.

(And, if we're being honest, it really should have been the semis.)

"People can say whatever they want and people can be surprised, but the pieces have always been there," Ream said. "It was just putting them all together."

There is a lot of the World Cup still to go. But it already feels as if the USMNT is on the verge of something special.

Get on board now. Or miss out on the fun.