USMNT blown out of World Cup with a 4-1 loss to Belgium in the round of 16

SEATTLE — The game the U.S. men’s soccer team dreamed of for so many years proved to be a nightmare.

Belgium blew the Americans off the field, 4-1, in the round of 16, as Charles de Ketelaere scored two goals and created the third. Malik Tillman scored the Americans’ game-tying goal in the first half, but it was all they could muster in a game in which they were outshot, 15-7, including 7-2 on target.

Perhaps it wasn’t surprising that the Red Devils were up for the contest, motivated by a perception that FIFA and President Donald Trump had tilted the scales against them. Nor was it surprising that Folarin Balogun started for the U.S. after FIFA dismissed Belgium’s last shot at an appeal.

The Red Devils were on the front foot right away, with Timothy Castagne forcing Matt Freese into his biggest save of the tournament after just 45 seconds. At the other end, Belgium goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois repeatedly slowed play down when the ball came to him, drawing boos from the packed crowd in Seattle but otherwise quieting the venue.

The game plan paid off in the ninth minute. After a long passing sequence that pulled the U.S. defense apart, Alex Freeman was short with an attempted headed clearance, Weston McKennie failed to get the loose ball, and Nicolas Raskin slipped a short pass for an unmarked De Ketelare to tap in from close range.

When the midhalf hydration break arrived, Belgium had a 7-0 advantage in shots. But soon after play resumed, the Americans’ first attempt of the game went in the net in remarkable fashion.

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Brandon Mechele pushed over Balogun about 22 yards from goal, Tillman stepped up for the free kick, and his shot at goal deflected off the head of a leaping Hans Vanaken. The crowd of 66,925 erupted with so much joy that the stadium stands shook.

Belgium, however, was unmoved. Not even two minutes passed before De Ketelaere put the Red Devils back in front. Leandro Trossard beat Sergiño Dest off the dribble, sent in a cross, and De Ketelaere jumped between Antonee Robinson and Tim Ream — flat-out overpowering the latter — to head the ball in.

At halftime, it was 2-1, and the shots were 11-3. Pochettino made his first substitution at halftime, pulling Dest and sending in Gio Reyna. It made the U.S. more lively, but it did nothing to stop Belgium from scoring a catastrophic third goal.

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Mechele hit a simple long ball out of the back, and Freese gambled by coming far off his line to try to play it. But he failed to, De Ketelaere picked his pocket from behind, and the ball rolled to Vanaken. All he had to do was put a shot on frame, and, though Ream tried to backtrack, he couldn’t block the ball.

After that, Pochettino withdrew Christian Pulisic, who had been clattered in a challenge that went uncalled a few minutes earlier, and sent in Sebastian Berhalter.

When the Hershey native sat down on the bench, he put his head in his jersey, disconsolate. But he hadn’t been that effective when on the field.

Pochettino sent Ricardo Pepi in for Tyler Adams in the 72nd, but the move didn’t produce many chances. The Americans only mustered three more shots the rest of the way.

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Romelu Lukaku finished the job in second-half stoppage time, taking the ball off Chris Richards and firing past Freese to the far post.

It was significant that the U.S. men won a World Cup knockout game for the first time in 24 years. But this team, with players hyped as a golden generation of talent, had aimed higher — and so had Pochettino, paid $6 million per year by U.S. Soccer’s big donors from the private equity world.

In the end, what they produced wasn’t any better than their predecessors: a round of 16 loss to a familiar foe and an exit with a whimper instead of a bang.