‘It sucks’: Sold-out (again) Seattle sees U.S. World Cup end 4-1 loss to Belgium
It was all there for United States soccer.
Seattle absolutely enraptured by the world’s biggest sporting event. So thrilling over six matches/civic matches that international soccer experts have been saying the World Cup final should be in Seattle, not the New Jersey swamps west of New York City.
A nation so captivated by the U.S. squad’s World Cup run, the White House was involved in making sure the Americans’ star player would play Monday night in the round-of-16 match at Lumen Field.
Super Bowl-champion Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald, general manager John Schneider and star players Leonard Williams, AJ Barner, Brady Russell and others were pitch-side for it Monday night.
Heck, rocker Eddie Vedder of Seattle Pearl Jam fame was in a suite looking down on the field and chugging a beer. That was to celebrate this team. And this World Cup in the Pacific Northwest.
“I mean, the support was unbelievable,” U.S. midfielder Tyler Adams said Monday night.
But here’s — that’s — where all ended. Like World Cups do for the United States.
“I mean, the support was unbelievable,” U.S. midfielder Tyler Adams said.
“The initial reaction is that, in this moment we let them down.”
With a thud. Make that, a dud.
Belgium, the world’s eighth-ranked team in the latest FIFA rankings, looked nothing like they did barely escaping Senegal in the round of 32 on this same pitch last week. The Belgians looked like top-ranked monsters Monday night.
The Americans made them appear that way. The U.S. looked like they still have far to go to compete on the elite level of international soccer.
Yes, despite all they accomplished in getting here.
“We never connected with the game. We were not on our level. We did not perform the way we are supposed to perform,” U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino said.
“It’s true today we were not the same team as during the tournament showing the quality.
“In the World Cup, when that happens, you do not have another chance. In the knockout stage, you’re out. You need to go home. You need to sit out.”
All that red-card matter over star Folarin Balogun playing for the U.S. ultimately didn’t matter.
Belgium 4, United States 1.
The Americans still have advanced past the round of 16 in the World Cup only once in modern history. The only time was 24 years ago.
“I don’t have a lot of answers,” U.S. captain and central defenseman Tim Ream said.
Belgium was so dominant, Balogun, the Americans’ most dynamic player, was as much a non-factor as his suspended red-card suspension that included U.S. presidential asking and allowed him to play Monday ended up being.
Balogun said he had no idea what was behind him being allowed to play versus Belgium.
“For me, personally, I accepted the decision,” Balogun said in the mixed-interview zone after he and his Americans were eliminated. “When you’re given a red card, usually the protocol is not playing the following game. And then when that’s decision’s overturned, of course it’s going to be controversial.”
Of the match, and yet another roaring, partying, sell-out World Cup crowd jammed into Lumen Field, Balogun correctly said: “We didn’t give the crowd a lot to cheer for.”
When asked about Balogun not having an impact on the match after all, Adams challenged reporters to name any American who had an impact against Belgium.
“We have quality,” Belgian attacker Dodi Lukebakio said, flatly.
Was the moment, a chance to advance to the World Cup quarterfinals against mighty Spain Friday, too much for the Americans?
“No pressure. No moment. Didn’t feel any different. Didn’t feel any extra weight, or any of that,” Ream said.
“It’s just one of those that probably won’t be able to think about, personally, for a few days.”
When he does, Ream will have visions of Belgium’s Charles De Ketelaere jumping over and past him to score.
Belgium dominates right away
Belgium nearly scored twice in the match’s first 2 minutes. Goalkeeper Matt Freese had to leap and dive high and far to his right to deny an early Belgian shot.
The early Belgian onslaught paid off with the lead in the ninth minute. American defender Chris Richards allowed a free cross through to the center of the penalty area in front of goal. Ream, Antonee Robinson and the rest of the U.S. defense allowed De Ketelaere to out-jump them to the ball. De Ketelaere’s header easily zipped past Freese into the net to Belgium’s deserved, 1-0 lead.
After his team let the cross go unchallenged for the unmarked goal, Pochettino slapped the roof of the U.S. bench covering. He then sat with disgust along the Americans’ touchline.
Belgium continued to dominate, particularly in the midfield. Pochettino and the fifth sellout crowd in six Seattle World Cup matches (the other, Belgium-Egypt in the first one June 16 in the opening games) simmered for the next half hour.
In the 31st minute, Malik Tillman did it again — to get the U.S. level again.
The hero of the Americans’ round-of-32 win over Bosnia and Herzegovina last week with the clinching free-kick goal lined up for another in the first half Monday. This free kick into Belgium’s wall glanced off a leaping defender’s head. The ball changed direction opposite where goalkeeper Thibault Courtois was moving and rolled into the back of the net.
The U.S. tied the match at 1. The place was roaring again. “USA!” chants trumpeted the match being tied.
They lasted 90 seconds.
That’s when Belgium’s De Ketelaere struck again. Like a basketball rebounder, he easily bodied and out-leaped the 38-year-old Ream for another free cross into the middle of the Americans’ back line and smashed another header in. Belgium led again, 2-1, on De Ketelaere’s second unmarked goal of the first half.
De Ketelaere had been subbed off at halftime of Belgium’s previous match, the comeback late from down 0-2 to beat Senegal in the round of 32 in Seattle.
Pochettino and the Americans needed De Ketelaere to never see the field Monday.
“Even when we scored...even in the next action, we concede a goal,” Pochettino said, ruefully. “A goal that I think, normally, you cannot concede.”
The Belgians nearly made it 3-1 in the 43rd minute — on another defensive mistake by the U.S. On a free kick from about 30 yards out, the Americans left Belgium’s Dodi Lukebakio unmarked running toward the front post. Lukebakio directed his running header just wide of the goal’s left post.
How dominant were the Belgians in the opening half? Their 11 shots in the first 45 minutes were more than the total combined shots the U.S. had allowed in their first four matches of this World Cup combined.
Those were the Americans’ wins over Paraguay then Australia in Seattle, a mean-nothing loss to Turkiye and the round-of-32 win over Bosnia-Herzegovina last week.
Coach Rudi Garcia didn’t start Belgian legends Kevin De Bruyne, whom he’d benched in the 59th minute last week before his team’s round-of-32 comeback win, and Romelu Lukaku plus younger star Jeremy Doku on Monday.
Lukaku came on in the 67th minute against the U.S. — in an opposite role this time. By the time he and Doku entered Monday, Belgium led instead of trailed by two.
That’s because in the 57th minute, Freese ventured 20-plus yards out of his U.S. net well beyond the top of the penalty area to reach a long ball out of the Belgian end. What should have been a harmless clear into the midfield became an American disaster: Freese got his cleat stuck in Lumen’s months-old, temporary real-grass pitch as his cocked his right leg back to kick the ball.
That allowed Belgium’s Hans Vanaken to steal the unexpectedly loose ball and send it into the open net from about 25 yards out, past Ream flailing in vain trying to stop it.
Freese looked back at the ball in the net in grimaced.
Then star Christian Pulisic, who lost possession 11 times in the first half alone, limped off the field injured in the wake of the Belgium’s surprise goal celebration.
All American hope seemed lost.
It was.
Substitute Sebastian Berhalter gave the Americans a flicker of some in the 79th minute. He deftly touched a ball from right foot to left then rifled a shot from the top of the penalty area. It zoomed just wide of goal. The U.S. stayed down 3-1.
Then Lukaku made it 4-1 into second-half stoppage time.
When it ended, on the same pitch the Americans had joyously formed a human circle and sang John Denver’s “Country Roads” with sold-out Lumen Field singing along following the group-stage win over Australia June 19, Freese walked around aimlessly. Midfielder Weston McKinnie sat on the U.S. bench with his navy-blue game jersey pulled over his mouth.
As joyously as it had gone for a month, as rollicking as it began Monday at match time, it was over.
Pochettino said after the elimination now was not the time to talk about whether he will remain the U.S. coach for the next World Cup cycle, to qualify for the 2030 World Cup in Morocco. U.S. Soccer reportedly has an offer waiting for native Argentinian of world club coaching acclaim to return.
“The next few weeks, I’m sure will be time to talk about that,” Pochettino said, “if the federation wants to talk about that.”
Pochettino talked about how much progress the U.S. national program and side have made since the beginning of the CONCACAF Gold Cup competition last summer. Mexico beat the U.S. in the final of that tournament.
“Before the start of the World Cup, one year ago, no one would have believed we were playing today against Belgium, one of the contenders to win the World Cup,” Pochettino said.
“One year ago we were in a mess.”
Yet where are they now?
The co-hosts Mexico, Canada and the United States have gone out of the World Cup in the last three days.
It’s sobering, Pochettino saying how much the Americans have improved.
Sobering, considering how the U.S. has won only one of its last 15 matches against European teams. They’ve only won two of their last 23 matches in the World Cup against European sides: last week over Bosnia and Herzegovina and 3-2 over Portugal on a Portugese own goal in 2002.
Sobering, considering the Belgians just showed the world’s 16th-ranked side how far it is from being among the world’s elite soccer programs.
“Yes,” Adams said.
“It sucks.”
This story was originally published July 6, 2026 at 10:09 PM with the headline "‘It sucks’: Sold-out (again) Seattle sees U.S. World Cup end 4-1 loss to Belgium."
