There was something noticeably and disconcertingly different about the U.S. team that showed up — or didn’t show up, you might say — at Seattle’s Lumen Field on Monday night for its round of 16 match against Belgium. This version had little of the dynamism, intensity and confidence the Americans had shown over the previous three weeks, when they won three times and recalibrated expectations for what was possible for their nascent program.
There were any number of reasons why such a thing might have been so. A decidedly superior opponent — as the Belgians surely were in their thorough, surgical 4-1 takedown of the U.S. — has a way of making you look tentative and out of sorts. It might have been nothing more than that. Belgium pounded the U.S. early and pounded them late, the better team in every phase of the game.
As a result, the Red Devils move on to face Spain in Friday’s quarterfinals in Los Angeles, while the Americans, for all the promise and progress they showed across their first four matches, bow out in the same round they did in 2010, 2014 and 2022.
“We need to assess that game and see why we didn’t approach that game the same way as the rest of the World Cup,” coach Mauricio Pochettino said on Fox’s postgame telecast. “Maybe the explanation is easy: It wasn’t our day … It wasn’t the performance or the way we normally play.”
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But the shame of it all is that we will never know for sure whether there was something bigger at play, something working against the Americans in what was indisputably the biggest game in the history of the men’s national team. We will never know what could have been. Because despite the rules and procedures and protocols that FIFA seems to pull out of thin air whenever it is convenient, there remains no mechanism for time travel, or for replaying a game in a parallel universe.
And because of that, we will never know the outcome of the “what if?” scenario: What if the rampant officiating shenanigans and political intrigue of the past week, which altered the vibes around the U.S. team, if not the entire tournament, had never happened?
What if U.S. striker Folarin Balogun, the team’s most productive player in this tournament, had never received that questionable red card in the round of 32 victory over Bosnia and Herzegovina, costing him the final 36 minutes of that game and — by rule — the entirety of Monday night’s game as well?
What if FIFA, the sport’s global governing body, hadn’t suddenly reversed course on Sunday, rescinding Balogun’s suspension and making him eligible to play Monday night, under some obscure and byzantine process that no one knew existed? What if it hadn’t later been revealed that President Donald J. Trump had applied pressure to FIFA’s leadership to reinstate Balogun — which only served to ratchet up the international furor surrounding the questionable decision?
What if all the political intrigue hadn’t carried straight through Monday afternoon, with the Belgian federation challenging (unsuccessfully) Balogun’s reinstatement, and with FIFA president Gianni Infantino, in a statement, denying Trump’s phone call swayed the organization’s decision?
Maybe nothing would have been different. Or maybe everything would have.
Better vibes probably wouldn’t have prevented, for example, the excruciating mistake of overaggression made by goalkeeper Matt Freese that gifted the Belgians their third goal of the night and essentially sealed the Americans’ fate. Nor is it likely that better vibes would have resulted in a better game for U.S. star Christian Pulisic, who was mostly a nonfactor before leaving with an injury in the 59th minute, thus ending his tournament with no goals and just four shots in the entire tournament.
The play of the U.S. team across the first three weeks of the World Cup — when it won three of its first four games, sometimes in overpowering fashion — had raised hopes for a long, sustained run deep into a tournament where it served as one of three host countries. A roster full of likable characters and stylish athletes had galvanized the nation’s soccer community — and judging from the television ratings, many millions of casual watchers, as well — at a time when the sport has never been more popular on these shores.
But those hopes ran head-on into Belgium’s sturdy juggernaut Monday night. The Red Devils haven’t lost a game in over a year, having previously victimized the U.S., 5-2, during a friendly in Atlanta in March. For all the progress the USMNT has made, it still hasn’t shown it can take down one of Europe’s elite sides.
Perhaps in a parallel universe — one where Balogun never gets the red card that set off all of the subsequent shenanigans — things could have been different. But it still would have been Belgium on the other side of the pitch, and as fun as it might be to play “what if,” it’s hard to envision any scenario Monday night where the Americans prevail and keep their summer alive.
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