Sadness. The USMNT bowed out of the 2026 World Cup in humbling fashion, falling to Belgium 4-1. It was a comprehensively underwhelming performance as the likely Achilles heel of the team, identified before the tournament, reared it’s ugly head with the defense putting in a easily the worst performance of the campaign. The offense wasn’t much better as they struggled to string together passes and made fundamental mistakes.
The team started on rocky footing, looking quite unsettled and giving up a goal
in the ninth minute after a poor Alex Freeman header landed in the eighteen yard box, surrounded by three US players who failed to put a foot to the ball. The lack of action allowed the Belgians to jump on the ball and Charles De Ketelaere tapped home an easy goal.
Things did not calm down quickly for the US, they looked shaky and unable to complete simple actions. However, they would keep from giving up another goal early and instead responded themselves after Folarin Balogun drew a foul at the top of the box and Malik Tillman once again sent home a beautiful free kick, aided by a deflection of the Belgian wall, to make it’s way past Courtois to level the score.
However, the US had barely finished celebrating the goal when Belgium once again found of the back of the net to regain the lead as Trossard sent a cross in to the box that Tim Ream looked positioned to deal with but was out worked and out jumped as De Ketelaere notched his second of the match.
The US seemed to settle down some as the half wound on and into the second half but were unable to find any real danger. At the half Gio Reyna became the first sub of the match, coming on for Sergino Dest as Pochettino looked to make a change.
Ten minutes into the second half the Belgians would score their third of the night as a long ball had De Ketelaere looking like he may be in on goal. Matt Freese came out and easily beat Ketelaere to the ball but inexplicably failed to clear, lost the ball and Hans Vanaken had only a retreating Tim Ream to beat.
Christian Pulisic was subbed off minutes later as he was unable to recover from an injury picked up just before trying to shoot several minutes before the Belgian goal. It was a rough end to a pretty quite match for Pulisic.
The Belgians picked up their fourth and final goal of the night after yet another defensive turnover would lead to an opportunity that Romelu Lukaku was unlikely to miss.
This will be one to forget though that won’t happen anytime soon given the painful way the team crashed out and the time it will take to get back to competitive action. However, we’re here for ratings and high or low we’re asking for them now. Hit the survey (and comments) below and let us know what you thought of the US performance tonight.
