The United States Men’s National Team fell 4-1 to Belgium in its Round of 16 knockout match at the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
The result advances Belgium to the World Cup quarterfinals and eliminates the USMNT from the competition.
It’s a sad end for the USMNT, who rode a wave of impressive results and good feeling to its first World Cup knockout-round win since 2002.
But it’s a self-affirming result for Belgium, who felt incredibly hard done by after FIFA intervened to reverse USMNT striker Folarin Balogun’s expected red card suspension and allow him to play in the fixture.
Here are the key takeaways from a World Cup match rife with strife:
The USMNT still hasn’t found the next Tim Howard
The USMNT crashed out to Belgium once before: twelve years ago, at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, it fell 2-1 to the Red Devils in extra time after an astonishing 90 minutes from goalkeeper Tim Howard kept the match level and scoreless. Howard’s record-breaking 16 saves in that match weren’t enough to get his team over the line, but they were enough to keep his team competitive.
The USMNT of today needed a little bit of that Howard energy to protect itself from Belgium’s tournament-leading shot volume, but unfortunately, it didn’t get it. Starting goalkeeper Matt Freese struggled to impose himself on the game and wound up being directly responsible for one of Belgium’s four goals. It was a bad day at the office for Freese—he’s not usually quite that messy—but his performance highlighted just how little progress the USMNT has made in finding Howard’s true generational successor.