USMNT crashes out of World Cup just as they got your hopes up

Another FIFA World Cup has come and gone for the U.S. men’s national team, and with it another Round of 16 exit.

The USMNT has been eliminated at this stage of the competition in four of the last five World Cups, going out to a Belgium team that was unquestionably better on the night. It was always going to be a tall task to advance once the bracket was decided, but it’s the USMNT’s performance that stains the entire tournament run.

Having watched every match of Mauricio Pochettino’s tenure, the result comes as no shock. The performance really shouldn’t either. I’ve seen Türkiye, Switzerland, South Korea and our neighbors to the north and south take us to the cleaners. A stoppable force, beatable on our day.

Yet, there was real belief coming into the game this tournament would be different. A perfect (imperfect?) storm of topping the group, a clean sheet against Bosnia and Herzegovina, Folarin Balogun getting his red card suspension delayed, the perceived cauldron of Lumen Field, the magic the Seattle Seahawks’ 12th man can create and an aging Belgium side that’s nearly been eliminated twice already this tournament in the other corner.

Well, the hype lasted less than 10 minutes as Charles De Ketelaere opened the scoring. Malik Tillman’s moment of magic bringing the U.S. back level couldn’t even get the team to halftime. Belgium retook the lead two minutes later and never looked back. Vin Diesel’s quote from The Fast and the Furious echoes loudly: “You almost had me? You never had me, you never had your car!” Err… chance. The U.S. never had a chance.

The USMNT was outclassed in every phase of play, even with Rudi Garcia benching Jérémy Doku and Kevin De Bruyne. There wasn’t a sense of cockiness or overexcitement either. Naïvety is a more accurate description. Lackadaisical in possession, weak defensively, Matt Freese’s absolute howler, taking the wrong risks in the final third—everything contributes to a disappointing and underwhelming performance.

Fans rightfully got their hopes up for a World Cup on home soil. It was then up to those players to go down swinging. And that’s what’s most frustrating, they beat themselves in more ways than one. Pochettino described it as a lack of quality. Belief and effort, though, can make up for deficiencies, yet both were absent in Seattle which compounds a frustrating end to the tournament.

This is a talented, yet flawed USMNT that was supposed to take the next step and didn’t at the 2024 Copa America, one that looked like it was going to this summer but once again stumbled. Both underachievements coming on home soil make it sting that much more and cloud where the team goes from here.

Part of that is Monday morning quarterbacking, part of that is the understanding this squad was perceived to be in their prime. Another aspect is whether or not Pochettino sticks around and what players are coming through the ranks. The Argentine refused to comment on his future.

The long and winding road for U.S. Soccer to 2030 starts now…