![\"Spain](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/LDN-L-WC-SPN-BEL-0710-KB45.jpg\")
Spain midfielder Mikel Merino (6) scores past Belgium goalkeeper Senne Lammens (12) late in the second half of their World Cup quarterfinal on Friday. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Pasadena Star-News\/ SCNG)<\/p>\nINGLEWOOD \u2014 Spain\u2019s 2-1 victory against Belgium in the World Cup quarterfinals played in $5.5 billion stadium in Southern California might have been decided by research a few months earlier inside a closed-circuit, low-speed, low-turbulence wind tunnel at the University of Tsukuba in the Ibaraki prefecture of central Japan.<\/p>\n
Physicists put Trionda, the four-panel Adidas ball created for this World Cup, through a series of tests and determined that it was impacted by something called drag crisis. When struck from certain spots at certain speeds, the ball could actually accelerate in flight and arrive at the goalkeeper faster than he initially calculated.<\/p>\n
They performed tests at various elevations and found the phenomenon was most pronounced at sea level.<\/p>\n
Some World Cup goalkeepers have said they\u2019ve noticed the unanticipated acceleration, requiring an adjustment period to the differences from the balls they use in their professional leagues.<\/p>\n
Except Senne Lammens, Belgium\u2019s 24-year-old backup keeper from the tiny town of Zottegem in East Flanders, didn\u2019t have that luxury Friday afternoon. He\u2019s spent this World Cup on the bench, watching legendary Thibault Courtois thwart one shot after another as the Red Devils survived a shaky group stage, dramatically came back from 2-0 down against Senegal, and then thumped the United States before 69,000 screaming fans in Seattle earlier this week.<\/p>\n
Cameras caught Lammens on the bench during one match casually eating an apple.<\/p>\n
Life comes at you fast, though \u2014 sometimes faster than you anticipated.<\/p>\n
It did Friday afternoon for Lammens, when Courtois injured his right quadriceps midway through the second half. He initially lay on the field, got treatment and stayed in, noting that it only affected his ability to play long balls \u2014 a key part of Belgium\u2019s tactical approach against the Spanish press \u2014 and didn\u2019t stop him from making stops.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt OK and I thought, \u2018OK, I\u2019ll continue,\u2019\u201d Courtois said. \u201cThen I kicked again long and I felt a bit more. Then it\u2019s something muscular, and you need to be careful. \u2026 I wanted to play maybe five, 10 more minutes to see, because in goal I was feeling good, I was making saves and I was not disturbed to make those saves.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coach Rudi Garcia saw Courtois wince again and turned to his assistants. Make the sub.<\/p>\n
So in the 71st minute of a World Cup quarterfinal level at 1-1, Lammens trotted onto the field. Courtois, in tears, hobbled off.<\/p>\n
It was Lammens\u2019 third appearance with Belgium\u2019s senior team and first since a 5-2 win against the United States in a March friendly in Atlanta.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to be there for my team today,\u201d Lammens said that night, \u201cand maybe in the future, when I\u2019m needed, I showed today that you can count on me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then in the 88th minute, with the stalemate seemingly headed to extra time and possibly a penalty shootout, Spanish central defender Pau Cubarsi attempted a speculative shot from outside the penalty area. Lammens dove to his right for what should have been a relatively routine save, at least for a goalkeeper who was named the Premier League\u2019s Transfer of the Season after moving to English giant Manchester United last September for the relative bargain of $24 million.<\/p>\n
He had eight clean sheets in 32 appearances. His analytics ranked favorably among the league\u2019s top goalkeepers. He was particularly adept at holding onto the ball in traffic and stopping long-range shots. And he didn\u2019t seem bothered by the sudden spike in fame, going from 10,000 Instagram followers to 1.2 million practically overnight.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s worn the heavy shirt of Man United with incredible lightness,\u201d Garcia remarked recently.<\/p>\n
Now he was diving to his right and suddenly what looked like a shot of average speed was accelerating and arriving sooner than he expected. It skipped, went through his hands, ricocheted off his chest and spilled into the goal mouth \u2026<\/p>\n
Spain\u2019s Mikel Merino, who had subbed in 90 seconds earlier and scored the winner against Portugal in the round of 16 with similar last-minute heroics, was waiting to pounce.<\/p>\n
La Roja 2, Red Devils 1.<\/p>\n
Spain midfielder Mikel Merino (6) scores past Belgium goalkeeper Senne Lammens (12) late in the second half of their World Cup quarterfinal on Friday. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Pasadena Star-News\/ SCNG)<\/p>\n
Lammens sat there for a moment, stunned, staring at the black and orange gloves that had betrayed him, then covered his face with them.<\/p>\n
The final whistle sounded a few minutes later. Courtois limped from the bench, across the field and found Lammens, who, still dazed 90 minutes later, blew through the post-match interview area without answering questions.<\/p>\n
\u201cSenne, I gave him a big hug,\u201d Courtois said. \u201cThere\u2019s not much more I can do at the moment. For goalkeepers, it\u2019s a (crap) feeling. He\u2019s a great goalkeeper. He will only get stronger from this. It\u2019s not a problem.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou cannot say much more to him or give him much more advice. He\u2019s a strong guy, a strong personality. I\u2019m sure he will be fine. He will have some holidays, he will regroup in Manchester and he will have a great season, I have no doubt about this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Four days earlier, every move Garcia made \u2014 not starting the team\u2019s three biggest stars, tweaking their formation and tactics \u2014 worked magically.<\/p>\n
This one went horribly wrong.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe stars weren\u2019t aligned for us,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cThat\u2019s part and parcel of high-level sport. From the beginning of the World Cup, I didn\u2019t want to have players on the pitch who weren\u2019t at 100%, and for Thibault that was the case. We didn\u2019t want Thibault\u2019s injury to get worse, either, and that\u2019s why I decided to sub him off.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can\u2019t rewrite history.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Belgium](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/SUT-L-zeigler-0711-01.jpg\")
Belgium goalkeeper Senne Lammens reacts after Spain\u2019s Mikel Merino scored a late goal for a 2-1 win in their World Cup quarterfinal in Inglewood. (AP Photo\/ Jae C. Hong)<\/p>\n
Sometimes the biggest matches are decided by moments of sheer magnificence. Sometimes the backup \u2018keeper fumbles a routine shot in the 88th minute of a World Cup quarterfinal.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s what makes the sport so unpredictable, so compelling, so engrossing.<\/p>\n
So cruel.<\/p>\n
So confounding.<\/p>\n
Spain is headed to the semifinals against France on Tuesday in Dallas. Belgium is headed home.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe started a little bit slow, not that good, then we grew during the tournament,\u201d veteran defender Brandon Mechele said softly. \u201cThe first games were not top, but we succeeded; we grew. Especially (in) the last games, we played very well. We played our own style, also today against a very good opponent. We knew how we could hurt them. Yeah, I think we did this today.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a pity that it ended like this.\u201d<\/p>\n
A drag, you might say.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"INGLEWOOD \u2014 Spain\u2019s 2-1 victory against Belgium in the World Cup quarterfinals played in $5.5 billion stadium in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":394277,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[181,74,76,75,1083,127,1696,47118],"class_list":["post-394276","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-top-stories-sdut","tag-world-cup-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394276","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=394276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394276\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/394277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}