Team USA’s World Cup run ends as Belgium wins Round of 16 matchup to advance
Team USA’s run at the 2026 FIFA World Cup has come to an end.
Belgium, in front of a sold-out, U.S.-heavy crowd in Seattle, defeated the USMNT, 4-1, in a match where they took full advantage of their opponent’s mistakes.
Charles De Ketelaere was the man who not only scored just nine minutes into the match for Belgium, but his goal in the 39th minute made Team USA manager Mauricio Pochettino kick water bottles on the sideline.
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The reason? Malik Tillman, who scored a free kick against Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Round of 32 victory in the Bay Area, took another just in front of Belgium’s box, and it deflected off a Belgian defender and threw off legendary keeper Thibaut Courtois to even the game at one apiece.
The momentum was back for the USMNT in that moment in the 37th minute. But once again, shotty defense for the U.S. resulted in an easy goal for De Ketelaere right in front of Matt Freese’s net.
Freese, though, had a massive error of his own in the second half that crushed the momentum that had conjured up while down one goal.
In the 57th minute, a total game-changer came when Freese decided to leave his net while De Ketelaere was chasing the through ball. Freese was first to get there, but as he was trying to clear the ball, his foot got caught in the turf.
In a desperation attempt, he tried to kick it with his right foot, but De Ketelaere got in the way and Hans Vanaken kicked it past Freese and Ream, who couldn’t turn his body around to save it for one of the worst goals allowed by a team at this World Cup.
Overall, it wasn’t Team USA’s best effort in the moment they needed it most in the Round of 16.
To make matters worse, Pochettino was forced to sub out Christian Pulisic, dubbed "Captain America," after a shot attempt resulted in an injury. Pulisic wound up for a kick on his right foot when a Belgian defender stepped in front of him. Instead of kicking the ball, Pulisic belted the back heel of the Belgium defender, and he went down in clear pain.
Pulisic tried to run it off, but with a clear limp, Pochettino sent in Sebastian Berhalter instead.
As for the biggest story of this match, Folarin Balogun, who became available after FIFA invoked Article 27 of its disciplinary code to suspend his red card, wasn’t much of a factor for the team. Belgium did a good job of buttoning up their defense, and Balogun never got a clean look to find the back of the net as he has in past matches.
The U.S. tried desperately to get back into the match, especially when Berhalter just missed getting a ball past Courtois, but it just went wide left. However, Belgium did their defensive duties and refused to allow what Senegal did to them in the round of 32 – a second-half miraculous comeback.
Instead, Romelu Lukaku, Belgium's superstar striker, put a cherry on top of their victory with a stoppage time goal past Freese in the second half. It was quite the statement on a game they dominated throughout.
As you'd expect, it was a sad group for the U.S. following the loss, while Belgium celebrated their spot in the quarterfinals where they will take on Spain later this week.
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