Three hosts reached the round of 16, none made it out alive. After the eliminations of Canada and Mexico, the United States, which had been performing well, lost to Belgium 4-1 in a match marked by the dominance of their opponent and the completely amateur mistakes in defense, thus leaving the 2026 World Cup without any of its hosts in the quarter-finals.
The European team would start the match on fire, and within seconds they would threaten with a shot from outside the area by Timothy Castragne that Matt Freese would narrowly clear to the corner.
After this wake-up call, the Belgians would take advantage of the calm with which the locals started and would continue to stalk their rival, quickly gaining the lead on the scoreboard. In one of their incursions forward, at 8, Nicolas Raskin would receive the ball after a clearance from Alex Freeman and would infiltrate the area, from where he would cross for Charles De Ketelaere who only had to push it in to make it 1-0.
Although they would only recover a bit after the first cooling break, given how the game was developing, no one expected the North Americans to equalize, but that’s exactly what they would do. At 30, after a foul by Brandon Mechele on Folarin Balogun, Malik Tillman would convert the resulting free kick into a goal to level the match.
However, the joy of Mauricio Pochettino's team would be short-lived, as just two minutes later "Les Diables Rouges" would take the lead again: Leandro Trossard would reach the end of the field and assist De Ketelaere, who with a header would score his personal double and the 2-1 lead.
In the second half, the team of stars and stripes would begin to manage possession, but without any risk. In this context, despite not being the protagonist for quite some time, Belgium would score the 3-1 from a truly unusual play. At 56, Freese would anticipate De Ketelaere in the midfield to neutralize the danger, however, the number 17 would surprise the goalkeeper from behind and would poke the ball for the substitute Hans Vanaken to extend the lead from afar.
Although the hosts would gather several promising chances, such as a long-range shot by Sebastian Berharter that would kiss the left post or a one-on-one by Balogun saved by Thibaut Courtois, they would not only fail to score, but to make matters worse, they would concede a fourth.
Again due to a gross error in defense, at 93, Vanaken and substitute Romelu Lukaku would pressure Chris Richards on the exit, creating a rebound that the Belgian No. 9 would capitalize on to make it 4-1 final.
With this victory, Belgium advanced to the quarter-finals, where they will face Spain next Friday, July 10 at 16:00 (Argentina time) at the SoFi Stadium in Dallas City.
