'Massive disappointment': Breaking down USA's shocking loss to Belgium
USA TODAY Sports' Seth Vertelney breaks down the USMNT's stunning World Cup exit, what went wrong against Belgium and why the loss is such a disappointment.
Video Transcript
Belgium four, US one.
The US's World Cup once again ends in the round of 16.
Not much to say other than just a massive disappointment.
you know, it's not just that the US lost this game, it's how they lost.
From the first five minutes of this game, you could tell that something was wrong.
They were second to every 50/50.
They didn't have the aggression, they didn't have the intensity.
They allowed Belgium to take the game to them, and part of that is due to Belgium being a better team than others that they faced at this World Cup.
But it can't all be because of that.
this Belgium team was pretty average for a lot of this tournament, and the way that the US just didn't show up tonight is, is gonna really sting for a long time.
You know, some of the things that we feared throughout this tournament finally came to pass.
The back line got exposed.
Matt Freese got exposed on the third goal.
It was just a, a calamitous way for the US to end this, end this tournament.
The last 36 hours were calamitous.
I, I mean, going back to Bolligan's suspension being overturned, which seemed like a good moment, but, the, the juju, I think, was off from that point.
I, I, I mean, the President of the United States is getting involved.
There's all this controversy around the team, around whether Bolligan should've been allowed to play, and it seemed like that kinda weighed on the team.
Of course, they were asked about it after the game, and they would never admit that something like that affected them.
But i- it's hard to escape the conclusion that maybe it did affect them, because it was by far their worst performance of this World Cup.
And we'll have to look forward and see what happens.
Mauricio Pochettino's out of contract.
he indicated tonight that he was open again to staying.
That's kind of been his line for the last couple months.
And so now they, they have several months to rest and recover and think about what happened and then try to come up with some positives from this tournament, 'cause there were some.
But the way that it ended was hugely disappointing here.
