Ugly World Cup loss to Belgium will make it hard to believe in the future of USMNT, no matter who's in charge
Ugly World Cup loss to Belgium will make it hard to believe in the future of USMNT, no matter who’s in charge originally appeared on The Sporting News.
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It was going to happen eventually. Every World Cup dream ends this way.
But not this way.
A national team that resides in the United States’ position is going to be eliminated at some point in this tournament, most often by some nation with a more established program and longer history of success. It always happens too soon.
But not always this soon.
What is the best word to describe the USMNT’s performance in a 4-1 loss to Belgium in the Round of 16 at the FIFA World Cup? Humiliating? Frustrating? Meager? Baffling? There were moments when each of them might have applied and probably a few where they all fit the occasion.
Everything that had been invested in this moment — from the $6 million annual salary paid to head coach Mauricio Pochettino to rescue this home World Cup to the behind-the-scenes effort that restored striker Folarin Balogun’s eligibility to compete against Belgium — appeared to have been squandered as the USMNT appeared timid, uncertain, imprecise, fragile and ultimately lacking at two essential positions, goalkeeper and central defender.
Of all the losses the U.S. has experienced at this stage of the tournament, this will feel most hollow, and not just because it’s most recent. This one was on American soil. This was played against a Belgium team that barely made it to this stage of the competition. This one was played by the best USMNT generation in their prime. The next time there is a World Cup, it will be played in Spain, Portugal, Morocco and, for one night, Uruguay. And Christian Pulisic, Tyler Adams and Weston McKennie all will be 31, Antonee Robinson will be 32 and Tim Ream will be checking out 55-and-older communities. It might not be this good again for a while, and this, ultimately, wasn’t good enough.
Pulisic, the team’s singular star, had worked toward this opportunity since he wept on the field in Trinidad & Tobago November 2017, when he was a teen who scored the only goal in the 2-1 loss that eliminated the United States from qualification for the 2018 World Cup. He left this game against Belgium after 59 minutes because he jammed his leg into the turf trying to get off a shot in the second half. In five games, he essentially went the distance only once, playing 88 minutes against Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Round of 32.
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“Today, we didn’t show our real quality. Never were we connected with the run of the game,” Pochettino told reporters at the postgame press conference. “I want to congratulate Belgium … It’s a very good team, but I think we never were at our level.
“We started in a poor way. We never were with the flow of the game.
“Today, we were not the same team that during the tournament showed the quality. Today wasn’t our day. We understand that sometimes these type of things happen. But in a tournament like the World Cup, when that happens, you have not another chance. You have no net.”
Belgium coach Rudi Garcia shrewdly evaluated his squad’s performance through the first four games of this World Cup and recognized his older players (Kevin DeBruyne, in particular) and his struggling players (star winger Jeremy Doku) were best left to the side. Benching those two required considerable gumption. The 10 guys he sent out to play in front of legendary goalkeeper Thibault Courtois averaged 27 years of age, and five were 25 or younger. Garcia counted on that group to play confidently.
Pochettino had every reason to expect the same from his squad, especially after Balogun was permitted by FIFA to have his one-game red-card suspension set aside for now, especially with most in the crowd of nearly 67,000 cheering emphatically for the USMNT. He saw the same thing we all did, but he was not going to adopt the excuse that the controversy over Balogun’s restoration became distracting.
“I think we were not good enough today. We don’t need to find another excuse,” Pochettino said. “It wasn’t our day. We didn’t perform in the way we’re supposed to perform.
“All that was happening was around, but it wasn’t a situation that affects us in the group. Like, all the teams can have one day: Sometimes you don’t perform, and nothing is right for you. And today was that type of day.”
This hardly is the first time the Americans were sent out one victory short of the quarterfinals. It happened in 2022. And 2014. And 2010. This was supposed to be different, though. This was different, really, until the USMNT walked onto the playing surface at Seattle Stadium.
They’d won three games, something that never happened before. They’d conceded only a single goal with their regular starters. They’d been the aggressor in each of the victories, scoring more first-half goals than any team in the tournament. They’d been aggressive, assertive, creative.
And then, within the first 60 seconds against Belgium, right wingback Sergino Dest made the decision to allow a ball that could easily have been controlled to cross the sideline deep in his own defensive territory. He had several seconds to play it. Defender Alex Freeman was nearby and available for a pass. Dest let the ball roll out. A throw-in was awarded to Belgium.
That was the beginning of a 25-minute siege the U.S. was fortunate to escape with only a one-goal deficit. That arrived in 9th minute, when three American players were in position to cope with a headed clearance by defender Chris Richards that popped in the air and landed just inside the box. Dest and midfielder Weston McKennie stood directly adjacent as the ball rested on the grass. Malik Tillman was nearby. None made a play for it, allowing Belgium’s Nicolas Raskin to seize it, send a rolling cross in front of goal and watch as teammate Charles De Ketelaere tapped it in.
There was just an instant of belief when Tillman became the first player since 1966 to score a second free kick goal in World Cup play, but Dest’s casual defending allowed Leandro Trossard to send a cross from the end line into the center of the 6-yard-box. Freese might have come away from his line to punch it clear but chose to stay home and count on Ream to win a header. Instead, Ream was overwhelmed by De Ketelaere, whose strike put Belgium in front for good.
With Dest safely out of the game in favor of a lively Gio Reyna, the USMNT actually appeared to be threatening to tie the score and make a game of it for the first 10 minutes of the second half, but when Belgium played a long pass to De Ketelaere, who had beaten Richards, Freese had the chance to extinguish the threat with the kind of clearance that’s become common for top goalkeepers since Germany’s Manuel Neuer perfected the “sweeper keeper” concept. Freese stubbed his left foot on the grass, allowing De Ketelaere to knock it backward to Hans Vanaken, and his shot from 30 yards only had to beat a stumbling Ream.
This wasn’t just the USMNT losing. It was the USMNT looking bad.
Was it the USMNT looking like it needs another new direction?
Pochettino was hired less than two years ago, and he stressed there were considerable challenges taking over the program that close to a home World Cup. There was no qualification process, which limited the number of actual competitive games. The Club World Cup last summer kept multiple key regulars busy during the CONCACAF Gold Cup, which prevented Pochettino from using that tournament as a dress rehearsal for this one.
MORE:Disaster for USMNT keeper Matt Freese in loss to Belgium
Pochettino deferred comment on whether he wishes to do this another four years or return to the club game that consumed most of his coaching career. His answers made it sound as though it first is up to U.S. Soccer whether they want him back.
“The improvement, or to grow, is not like you are in a rocket and you improve and you grow like this,” Pochettino said, gesturing toward the ceiling. “One year ago, before we started the Gold Cup, no one believed that we are going arrive today and we are playing Belgium, one of the contenders to win the World Cup.
“In one year, we were in a mess, and the way we performed in the World Cup, we improved a lot. You improve, sometimes, you go little by little. It’s not linear that you’re going to grow so quick.
“This team showed that we can play football, we can play soccer, we can compete, that we need to keep improving … And it’s about to keep believing in that process.”
That is a challenge, though, after nights like this. The World Cup was going to end at some point, but the USMNT had convinced its followers to believe, until they couldn’t believe what they were watching.
