Ten minutes of soccer at the outset on Monday was all it took for Belgium, a small European country where the sport has loomed over the sports scene for generations, to display its superiority to the United States at the world\u2019s game as played by men.<\/p>\n
From the first whistle, the Americans looked too clumsy, disconnected and immature to compete for the World Cup quarterfinals berth.<\/p>\n
It was disheartening to see several U.S. players muff simple efforts to control the ball. Glaringly, a frequent offender was Christian Pulisic, a bona fide American star who grew up in Pennsylvania and perhaps was hindered by previous calf issues Monday.<\/p>\n
Doing what European teams often do in high-stakes matches against the U.S., Belgium exhibited a casual mastery of both manipulating the ball, coordinating varied attacks and pressing.<\/p>\n
Amid its six-shot flurry in the initial 10 minutes, Belgium created one golden chance that was a near miss. Another was well denied by Major League Soccer goalkeeper Matt Freese. Yet another made it 1-0.<\/p>\n
The Americans, at last coming up for air, had a moment late in the half that buoyed a capacity crowd in Seattle\u2019s NFL stadium and numerous watch parties throughout San Diego County.<\/p>\n
Folarin Balogun, the striker whose 11th-hour reinstatement Sunday by FIFA unleashed an international furor and much anti-Yankee sentiment abroad, created a free kick with a fine hold-up play. Malik Freeman\u2019s blast skimmed off a defender, wrong-footing Belgium\u2019s world-class goalkeeper.<\/p>\n
An infusion of false hope, however, is all the equalizer was.<\/p>\n
Sixty-one seconds later, the ball was inside the U.S. netting, Belgium having punished defenders\u2019 confusion in the penalty area.<\/p>\n
The U.S. arose after intermission. It found some of its sharp form against Paraguay to begin the tournament.<\/p>\n
This was a mirage.<\/p>\n
Belgium turned a cringy error by Freese into a third goal. A fourth came from a subbed-in attacker who showed refinements the Americans lacked.<\/p>\n
The sad but familiar truth:<\/p>\n
The U.S. looked like it didn\u2019t belong near a World Cup\u2019s late stages.<\/p>\n
Local reactions<\/p>\n
\u201cFirst and foremost,\u201d said University of San Diego men\u2019s soccer coach Brian Quinn, \u201cBelgium played their best game and the U.S. played their worst.\u201d<\/p>\n
Quinn wondered about psychological fallout stemming from Balogun\u2019s reinstatement from a round of 32 red card. A chat between FIFA czar Gianni Infantino and United States President Donald J. Trump preceded the reinstatement, which was highly unusual by World Cup norms, even though international football experts agreed the red card was unjust. A U.S. senator from Texas, Ted Cruz, did American soccer no favor by declaring on X that Trump reversed the red card.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt certainly was on many people\u2019s minds \u2014 on the team, in the U.S. and indeed workouts,\u201d Quinn, a former San Diego Sockers midfielder who appeared in 48 matches with the U.S. national team, said of the curious reinstatement.<\/p>\n
Belgium\u2019s players were mindful, for sure, of the perception that Infantino and Trump, who are, in effect, business partners, put two thumbs on the scale. Celebrating the 4-1 win, several players\u00a0mocked Trump by imitating his \u201cYMCA\u201d dance, both on the field and, with more fervor, in the locker room.<\/p>\n
Above all, Quinn saw a lot to like from Belgium\u2019s soccer.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey pressed the U.S. from the start and choked their midfield into lots of turnovers,\u201d\u00a0 the Belfast native said by email. \u201cThere will be lots of discussion about individual performances and who could\u2019ve, should\u2019ve played better, but personally I would leave it all. On the day, the better team won. It\u2019s important to respect Belgium\u2019s squad, as they have a lot of guys playing on high level European teams.\u201d<\/p>\n
Former Sockers star Juli Veee, a North County resident who grew up in Hungary, said the American squad was exposed.<\/p>\n
\u201cUSA and their media-manufactured bravado disappeared,\u201d Veee said by email. \u201cThe \u2018big\u2019 players never showed up. The coach was no help. I wish they fired the coach before the Cup started and filled the position with an American! Back to you.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the bright side, from me:<\/p>\n
The Americans looked no less capable than Brazil, which owns five Cup trophies. A Sele\u00e7\u00e3o appeared disengaged for much of its 2-1 loss against Norway, in the same round.<\/p>\n
Also, the Belgium-Spain quarterfinals match, at noon Friday in the Kroenke Dome, should reward fans of artistic soccer.<\/p>\n
I do have concerns about fallout from the U.S. loss.<\/p>\n
Long ago, a train-riding and hitchhiking tour of several European countries took me to Belgium, where I was graciously taken in by the family of an American friend of mine.<\/p>\n
The father gave me a tour of a Stella Artois brewery where he\u2019d worked for decades. We enjoyed a few six-ounce samples apiece on a summer\u2019s afternoon. Hours later, my new friend and his oldest son, a NATO pilot of American jets, took me to an outdoor cafe where we chatted for hours. Suffice that the Belgian beer tasted very good. I would also develop a taste for Belgian chocolate, a staple at Trader Joe\u2019s stores.<\/p>\n
Now would be a good time to stock up on both the brew and the chocolate. Tariffs will be coming.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ten minutes of soccer at the outset on Monday was all it took for Belgium, a small European…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":390072,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[181,74,76,75,1083,127,47118],"class_list":["post-390071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-latest-headlines","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-soccer","tag-sports","tag-world-cup-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390071\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}