Team USA outclassed in 4-1 World Cup loss to Belgium
And just as they were in 2014 when Belgium beat the United States, 2-1, in extra time in the round of 16, the Red Devils’ 11 were demonstrably better. Balogun, who spent most of the evening on his own, couldn’t beat them by himself.
For all of the why-not-us? bullishness of the tournament’s first fortnight the Americans hadn’t met an opponent among the global top 20. Except for the irrelevant group finale against Turkey, when nine reserves started, they’d never been behind.
Their only experience being under assault was when they played shorthanded against the Bosnians, who are not skilled attackers.
The Belgians, a legitimate top-10 team, definitely were. From the first minute they had the Yanks pedaling in reverse. Just nine minutes in Nicholas Raskin centered to Charles De Ketelaere, who split Tim Ream and Antonee Robinson and easily tapped the ball in.
After Malik Tillman equalized with a rocket free kick in the 31st minute it took the Red Devils barely a minute to regain the lead. This time Leandro Trossard beat Sergino Dest and De Ketelaere outjumped Ream for a header.
“Everybody saw from the beginning we didn’t connect with the game, we were never in the game,” said US coach Mauricio Pochettino, who kicked over the water bucket in disgust. “Even when we scored the goal, 1-1, we conceded the next action. It was really tough from the beginning.”
As it always has been with the Americans, falling behind was fatal. They’ve never won a Cup match when their opponent scored first. When they met in 2014 the Belgians scored the first two in extra time and the US squad never could draw level.
Belgium, which meets Spain in Friday’s quarterfinals, may not be at Europe’s top level alongside the Spaniards, French, and English. But the Red Devils are an experienced and savvy bunch who know how to punish rivals who give them an opening.
They were all but dead in their round-of-32 encounter with Senegal, down by two goals with four minutes left in regulation. They won, 3-2, in the final seconds before the match went to a shootout. The Americans have never had to do that.
Belgium, which hammered the Americans, 5-2, in a March tuneup in Atlanta, knew exactly how to expose and exploit them.
They knew how to get them scrambling in transition, how to dispossess them deftly, how to win one-on-one battles in the final third, how to turn their defenders around, how to pounce on a bouncing ball.
The killer this time was the third goal in the 57th minute. It came off a long ball from Brandon Mechele that keeper Matt Freese chested on the hop and ended up kicking off De Ketelaere. Hans Vanaken gathered it and drilled a 35-yarder that deflected off Ream and in with Freese well off his line.
The Belgians had the Yanks tripping over themselves all night. Christian Pulisic, their mainspring who came off just before the hour after injuring his foot, wasn’t a factor, turning the ball over nearly a dozen times in the first half.
Balogun was dangerous but he was a man alone. Had Courtois not blocked his blast in the 82nd, the US team might have been able to make a desperate surge in the final 10 minutes.
But when Romelu Lukaku, Belgium’s elder statesman turned super sub, knocked in the fourth after three minutes of stoppage time this American Dream was abruptly over. It simply ran into reality.
Getting to the quarterfinals for the first time since 2002 seemed possible, especially before packed houses on the West Coast. The co-hosts were younger, faster, and more physical than the Belgians. What they weren’t were more seasoned, more poised, more ruthless.
Their European rivals always are, which is why they routinely boot the United States out of the tournament once the alternative is extinction. The Americans went out the way they always go out — because they weren’t good enough to go on. No presidential phone call ever was going to change that.
John Powers can be reached at john.powers@globe.com.