‘It feels exactly the same’: New USMNT hit similar World Cup hurdles in loss

Seattle – “It’s exactly the same,” Tyler Adams said.

The round of 16 build for the US men’s national team was definitely different this time around. Between playing on home soil in front of electric, sold-out crowds and an entertaining winning streak behind them, the head coach. Mauricio PochettinoThe team looked in prime position to reach their first quarter-final in 24 years when they met In Belgium at Lumen Field on Monday.

However, in an instant it was over – for Belgium Charles De Ketelaere scored nine minutes, the leading player using a team that did not score and never scored. The 4-1 defeat was a good result for a team that did not reach the final, until they had a chance to enter the game and eliminated the fourth consecutive round of 16 in the World Cup.

“Belgium, they had a good game plan and they were playing balls behind us when we pressed and it caused a lot of problems, they won a lot of second balls and they were good in the boxes,” said Christian Pulisic. “That’s where the game came down and they were clinical and it wasn’t enough for us.”

Pulisic, who came off in the 59th minute after touching an ankle and knee in the same game, gave a natural pride that Belgium was better, both on paper and on the day. It was always meant to be at some point during this World Cup, no matter how ambitious or hopeful people were for this version of the USMNT. He’s not wrong that small things are against them, the team always tries to punch above its weight.

The times that actually left them, it was a step below the level expected of them. Hans VanakenBelgium’s goal to put Belgium up 3-1 in the 57th minute was i for example when it all fell apart, Matt Freese made a mistake of great proportions to seal the deal.

“I’m disappointed with my involvement and the mistake in judging the third goal,” said Freese, who went from a zero cap at the beginning of June 2025 to Monday’s game that could mean his international career will be defined by that big mistake, said. “It’s part of the position. I know the guys in front of me did everything they could today to get the win and I’m proud of them and I wish that moment was different and I wish the result was different … I felt him very close, I thought he was going to kick my leg so I tried to get out of it.”

Freese is one of several players whose opportunities come and go, as does the team. Pulisic is perhaps the most injured – injury kept him out of the second half of their victory Paraguayall their victories Australia and their many losses in Turkey in the collections section. One said that he came out early in Monday’s game, even though they were against Belgium, he was not visible on the field until he went down in pain in the first minutes of the second half. The frustration was palpable as he made his post-match rounds – a decade after becoming the face of his generation at the World Cup on home soil, he couldn’t register all that.

“I felt really happy this summer playing with the boys and I thought my level was high,” he reflected. “It’s disappointing. I didn’t really have the moments I was expecting and I tried to help us really push and go to the next step to beat a really good team so I’m disappointed in myself, of course, but I’ll try to stay positive. I did a lot of good things and the team did as well.”

The player whose name recognition grew the most was Folarin Balogun, who was caught in the middle of a suspension that he accepted with grace and then was withdrawn in very controversial ways. His place on the list was not surprising if it was an unwanted sign of organizational dysfunction but he, too, was not working on Monday.

“If you know that you have been given a red card and usually the law says that you don’t play the next game and then when that decision is overturned, of course it will be controversial for me, it is something that did not surprise me but as a player, my job is to go out and focus on my work,” he said.

The party dismissed the idea that Balogun’s case is a distraction or that the time is too big, even if it seems that the lights are on too bright. They didn’t have an answer for Belgium but it wasn’t just a matter of tactics – their World Cup trading habits were off and it’s hard to know why.

“It’s hard to say but I can only tell the truth,” said Balogun. “I don’t think we had a good game today, together. We played well in other games. We were very intense, we were able to generate momentum with the crowd and today we didn’t give the crowd much to be happy about. That’s the most disappointing and the part that hurts the most for me personally. We have to wait another four years to be in this position, which is also painful.”

Even loyal team players like Adams had no answers, spewing their rhetoric about the way high-level sports work rather than knowing what to say as a great opportunity to make history and grab the nation’s attention is often blocked and dismissed.

“That’s a good question,” Adams said. “I wish I had an answer right now. I don’t know. I don’t know. I think it’s just all, it was the little things. The second ball doesn’t fall to you if you feel like before, it was in the right place and it won them. Just little gaps that were being exploited. A little connection in the game where in other games it just felt like everything was a little cool, the enemy was very sharp, I thought the speed … that he will be defeated.

The golden age of the USMNT’s golden generation – or at least until another golden generation emerges – was gone from them, though it wasn’t all that surprising. Belgium’s loss, big as it is, is not a problem in itself but the way it has done it should weigh heavily on those tasked with making sure the system moves forward. Unsurprisingly, Freese is not on the same level as Belgium’s UEFA Champions League goalscorer, Thibaut Courtois.

There’s no shocking amount Belgium can boast of off the bench for Jeremy Doku when the USMNT’s best option is the rusty Gio Reyna, who, at 23 years old, still has no consistent track record of living up to his potential. What is surprising is that after many weeks of being one of the teams to watch in the World Cup, they left just before.

“That didn’t feel like it was us today,” linebacker Antonee Robinson said. “We didn’t win individual championships. We looked like we didn’t have the energy. We looked like we weren’t as hydrated as we were.”

Questions about the team’s mental toughness will abound as the long road to the 2030 World Cup officially begins, as will questions about talent potential. Some will welcome the fact that they won their first play-off game in 24 years with a win over Bosnia and Herzegovina but the extended format is responsible for that more than anything else, with the round of 32 feeling like a catch-up before the tournaments begin depending on the draw. How exactly they got themselves out of the multi-generational hole, remains the biggest question facing the group.

“We won the game against Bosnia,” said Pulisic. “We can definitely be proud of it [that] but I think we want to have high hopes for that. We want to be able to compete against some of the best in the world and still have that next step up. “