Even with Folarin Balogun back up front, the United States men’s national team crashed out of the World Cup in the round of 16 again.
It was a meek ending to a monthlong surge for the U.S., as Belgium dominated the Americans — and silenced a once-raucous crowd at Lumen Field — in Monday’s 4-1 defeat.
Charles De Ketelaere scored twice for the Belgians, and Hans Vanaken took advantage of an ugly mistake by goalkeeper Matt Freese to finish off the U.S. Romelu Lukaku‘s blasted shot from close range off another giveaway in stoppage time was vicious but academic.
It was the fourth time in the past five World Cups that the Americans exited at this stage; the only exception was in 2018, when they did not qualify.
Belgium also sent the U.S. home from the 2014 World Cup, but that contest, which went to extra time, felt much closer than this one.
“We were not the same team that during the tournament showed the quality,” U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino told reporters. “Very bad day. Wasn’t our day in a collective and individual way. And we need to accept that sometimes this type of thing happens.
“But in a tournament like the World Cup, when that happens, you don’t have another chance.”
The U.S. was dazzling in the group stage and grinded out an impressive victory over Bosnia-Herzegovina in the round of 32, playing with 10 men for more than half an hour after the Americans’ top scorer, Balogun, was sent off. So, the U.S. players and their fans had high hopes of reaching just the second quarterfinal in program history.
Instead, the Americans unraveled Monday. Christian Pulisic was wholly ineffective, as he turned the ball over 11 times in the first half, more than anyone on the field. Sergiño Dest was such a liability on the right that Pochettino pulled him at halftime. Balogun, who scored three goals and forced a fourth via an own goal in the first four U.S. games, ran aimlessly for most of the match, never threatening in a meaningful way.
“Tonight was not a good performance probably overall,” midfielder Tyler Adams said. “It’s not what we look to achieve. There was a lot of things that we could have done better. I think when you concede goals that easily against the team of that quality and that caliber, it’s going to be difficult.
“We gave them good chances or even half chances and they finished them. It was just a little bit too easy today. So again, this was a moment to have the opportunity to advance and really try and do something special, but we fell short.”
Yet for the first time in five matches, the Americans started slowly. Belgium dictated from the kickoff, and it fizzed its first dangerous cross almost immediately. Timothy Castagne forced Freese to full stretch with a blistering shot from distance inside a minute. The U.S. midfield looked stuck.
Belgium kept coming. Attacking from the left about nine minutes in, Leandro Trossard cut through to start a move, and the ball popped up in the air near the top of the area. Nicolas Raskin reacted quickest, jumping in front of Dest, and turned it perfectly back across goal for De Ketelaere, who stepped right between Tim Ream and Antonee Robinson to poke the pass home.
The stadium, so loud moments earlier, went silent, save for the sliver of Belgium fans. The U.S. had conceded the opening goal for the first time this tournament.
There also wasn’t much of an immediate response.
But after the hydration break, the U.S. put together a slight surge and was rewarded when Malik Tillman‘s free kick from the top of the area took a wicked deflection off the Belgian wall. Tillman celebrated as only the second player in the past 60 years to score two free-kick goals in a World Cup. And however unlikely, the U.S. was level.
It didn’t last. Like, not even a minute. Just 52 seconds after the score was knotted, Belgium came forward again. The script was familiar:
Trossard broke down the left. Dest was stranded. The cross was perfect. And Ketelaere slipped in front of Robinson and over Ream to head it home as the U.S. was deflated again.
The second half did not offer much more. Gio Reyna came on for Dest, but there was little breakthrough. Any momentum the U.S. might have gathered was blunted by Freese’s woeful miscue.
After coming out of his area to trap a pass over the top, Freese hesitated in kicking it forward before his attempted pass deflected straight to Vanaken. The Belgian midfielder cooly shot it back toward goal from about 30 yards out, and Ream — despite trying desperately to bail out his goalkeeper — got his legs twisted up as the ball sailed past him.
Ream bent at the waist. Freese put his hands to his head. The Belgians celebrated as the crowd groaned. The U.S. — at its familiar exit — was on its way out again.
