Olympic Gold Medalist & FIFA World Cup champion goalkeeper reacts to US Men’s crushing loss
CNN News Central's John Berman discusses the US Men's World Cup loss to Belgium with Briana Scurry, the former US Women's National Team goalkeeper and FIFA World Cup Champion.
Video Transcript
All right.
The US is out of the World Cup, and it was not close.
They were crushed by Belgium.
This all followed the controversy of President Trump's involvement in reversing the suspension of a star US player.
Didn't help.
maybe even helped fuel Belgium some.
After the win, a cheeky Twitter post from the Belgian team.
They wrote, "Overturn this."
Yikes.
With us now, former US women's national team goalkeeper and legend, Briana Scurry.
She's a FIFA World Cup champ, two-time Olympic gold medalist, also the author of the book My Greatest Save.
Don't know how you'd single out your greatest save because you had so many fantastic ones.
Thanks for being with us.
Look, to my untrained eye, last night everything went wrong.
But you probably are watching with a slightly, a slightly different vision.
What was it?
I mean, what was it that made the US play so poorly?
Oh my goodness, great to be with you, John.
It's a few things.
first of all, Belgium was mad.
Okay, let's be clear.
Belgium was mad and they showed it.
They came out from the first minute, the first whistle, and were just getting after us.
And, and we struggled.
We struggled a lot.
And then of course they got the first, the first blow with the first goal.
unfortunately a little bit soft.
We came back and we got a goal, and then it just all, you know, fell apart.
I feel like the, the situation, with the red card, really did fuel them and they felt they had something to prove and the best way to, to make that right for them is to win and they won with great force and ferocity.
And also, I was a little disappointed in our boys.
I mean, they had a fantastic run this World Cup but unfortunately last night's performance in my mind, they just didn't have the fight in them and it was really unfortunate because the opportunity was so big.
The stage is the biggest it's gonna get and all of, this country was behind them and everybody was watching.
And so I was a little disappointed, actually a lot disappointed in, in the performance and way they, the way they went out.
Look, y- you know, i- if the US team that played against Paraguay a month ago was on that field, I think they could've won.
I mean, the, a version of this US team I think maybe has more talent than the Belgian team but it just didn't happen last night and it does sound like you think the whole Balogun red card reversal was a factor.
I definitely do think it's a factor.
I mean, it's one thing to get our player back which I was thrilled about, but it's another thing when something like that unfortunately adds fuel to the fire of the other team and you always take that risk, right?
And so the best way for us to have handled that was to just go out there and, and be happy that we had our top player and our f- our full team and, and go out and fight and battle them for it but it didn't seem like we did that and it's really sad because, you know, a couple games, you know, new it was, England and, and Mexico, that game was very feisty, very fiery.
I mean, England had 10 men.
They were in, into Azteca and they just dominated.
They just fought them and we didn't have that same, viciousness in my opinion and, and that's the thing that you can control.
you may not be able to control the fact that the other team is angry and that they have more talented players, but you can control your own effort and your own way that you decide to go out of a tournament and I just was really disappointed- Give a- in, in, in the performance of today.
Just 20 seconds left.
What happens now for these players?
Well, you know, they can, they can hold their heads up high with, with, the way they went about things up until last night.
they have to regroup.
You know, deal with the consequences and, and obviously go back to their club teams and, and try to be better next time.
The opportunity was huge and, but they can be happy and proud that America did get behind them, that they did, have a great showing up until last night and that this tournament has been an incredible success, for this, for this country, for Mexico and Canada as well.
So it has been a wonderful event, but unfortunately a very unfortunate ending for Team USA.
Indeed.
Although more wins than we've ever had at a World Cup for the men's team, but didn't go out the way we wanted.
Briana Scurry, great to see you.
Thank you for sharing your unique insight into all this.
