USMNT Reverts to Everything It Hasn’t Been This Summer in Dismal World Cup Exit

Mauricio Pochettino watched a team start fast, press high and work in harmony—unfortunately, it was playing against the U.S.

Tim Ream (left) embodied a disastrous evening in Seattle on Monday. | Kohjiro Kinno/Sports Illustrated

SEATTLE — The loudest roar Lumen Field’s famed Seattle crowd could muster in the second half of the U.S.’s dismal World Cup exit came during the hydration break.

Trailing 3–1 to Belgium, out of ideas, energy and enthusiasm, the stadium’s big screen director sought to lighten the mood with that favorite pastime of this World Cup: celebrity hunting. In a fitting parallel to the lack of star power on the pitch, the camera landed on Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder, who realized what the moment called for.

The 61-year-old former rocker stood to attention and drained the can of beer in his hand, foam streaming out either corner of his mouth before he placed the empty container on his baseball cap. This act of showmanship woke the crowd from its slumber, but it was a fleeting victory. By the time Romelu Lukaku added Belgium’s fourth goal in stoppage time, it had been long forgotten.

After a summer of such promise, a tournament in which the U.S. spent the first four games playing like a team molded in Mauricio Pochettino’s image, the reams of positive principles the manager had painstakingly instilled were soaked in gasoline and lit on fire during 90 chastening minutes.

“We were not the same team,” Pochettino would sigh.

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Sloppy Start

Charles De Ketelaere scored twice against the U.S. for Belgium. | Kohjiro Kinno/Sports Illustrated

One of the defining features of the U.S. group stage had been fast starts. The co-host scored inside the opening 11 minutes against Paraguay, Australia and Türkiye, rapidly setting the tone and the game state, giving it license to pick the moments when to press and spring forward in transition as an early advantage had already been established.

Outside noise could scarcely be blamed for Monday’s slow start. Despite the prolific media coverage of Folarin Balogun’s suspended suspension, any sense of presidential injustice had not seeped into the streets of Seattle.

This has been a great World Cup city. There’s pedestrian access to the sweeping arches of Lumen Field, with a giant screen seemingly erected at every other avenue leading towards the stadium. The only interruption to a pleasant trot through downtown on a gorgeous summer’s day was the collective groans and gasps climbing above and around the roofs. To the uninitiated, it sounded like some sort of tragic event. In fact, Spain was simply playing Portugal.

The waves of red and white washing through the streets ahead of kickoff were either indifferent to the fuss caused by Balogun’s inclusion, or reveling in it. “We’re hosting the d--- thing, it should be rigged,” one fan, Brett, bellowed, the vein in his temple pressing against the stars and stripes bandana wrapped around his bald head. “I’m surprised we’re not already one goal up.”

In every other game, the U.S. had gone 1–0 up. On Monday, the co-host had conceded twice before taking a single shot.

“We never were with the flow of the game,” Pochettino lamented, insisting that the Balogun debacle had nothing to do with the performance: “We were not good enough today. We don’t need to find another excuse.”

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No Intensity

Amadou Onana (left) won the midfield battle—or rather, Weston McKennie lost it. | Kohjiro Kinno/Sports Illustrated

Pochettino must have had the sensation of looking in the mirror on Monday. There was one team charging around the final third, pouncing early and stamping their collective foot on the throat of the opposition with a lineup enlivened by a raft of youthful selections. Unfortunately for Pochettino, it was the USMNT’s opponent.

“They wanted to have high pressing, but that is what we did, not them,” Belgium boss Rudi Garcia pointed out with great satisfaction.

Three of Belgium’s four goals came from winning the ball back against a sleepy set of hosts. Three U.S. players were clustered around a dropping ball inside their own penalty area, all waiting for each other to clear the danger. Nicolas Raskin stormed into the uncertainty and squared for Charles De Ketelaere to tap Belgium into a ninth-minute lead.

The horrendous calamity co-authored by Tim Ream and Matt Freese came from a flicker of pressure, while both Alex Freeman and Chris Richards tried to compete with each other to see who could give away a cheaper turnover for Lukaku in the dying embers of a World Cup death sentence.

All the urgency which had defined this side this summer evaporated into the powder blue Seattle sky. Even the energy in the stands had emphatically fizzled out. The crackle in the crowd ahead of kickoff, with spontaneous bursts of “Country Road” breaking out in the concourses, was replaced with an ominous hush by the evening.

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Weaknesses Exposed

Romelu Lukaku (right) rubbed salt in the wounds with a late goal. | Kohjiro Kinno/Sports Illustrated

This performance came as an almighty surprise, chiefly because Pochettino hadn’t tried to do anything different. This was the exact same XI which stomped Paraguay on opening night and battled to victory against Bosnia and Herzegovina in the previous round. The message was the same, the atmosphere even better and motivation that much greater.

However, in these finely-tuned tactical systems, it only takes a few tweaked details to dramatically offset the entire setup.

Ream has not suddenly turned into a 38-year-old with a man bun. Freese didn’t become a goalkeeper without any experience outside of MLS overnight. The beauty of Pochettino’s system this summer has been the ability to not only show off the roster’s strengths, but hide its weaknesses. Without a functioning high press or any cohesion of movement, the fault lines which have always been there got ruthlessly exposed.

Once Freese and Ream conspired to gift Hans Vanaken Belgium’s third goal of the game, puncturing any faint hope of a U.S. fightback, Balogun dropped to the turf and rolled on his back, looking up at the sky in despair. Try as he might, even Pearl Jam’s lead singer couldn’t lift his mood.

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