U.S. kicked in the teeth (by itself)
Belgian victory more an American loss as home team exits World Cup after 4-1 defeat
If you know only the tiniest bit about soccer, about team dynamics generally and have a modicum of common sense, you also know what happened to the United States in Monday night’s 4-1 World Cup round-of-16 loss to Belgium.
Played in Seattle, the Americans needing a win to reach a quarterfinal round in which they’d meet Spain Friday in Los Angeles, the home team was not ready.
Not for the moment.
Not for prime time.
Not to take the next step.
Not even to go down swinging.
The U.S. had, in fact, reached the quarterfinal round before, way back in 2002 (and, oddly, in 1930).
But this team was not ready.
That or the United States, despite its vastness, from the Pacific to the Atlantic, can neither produce adequate defenders, nor goalkeepers, like it’s something in the water. But back-liners Sergio Dest, Antonee Robinson and Tim Ream, and keeper Matt Freese, can’t be that inept, can they?
No, they cannot.
Leaving the stage, not talent and ability, to be the issue.
Soccer, after all, is a game of levels.
This year it’s the World Cup.
Every two years, the next one coming next year, it’s the CONCACAF Gold Cup, featuring national teams from North, America, Central America and the Caribbean.
In ’28, it’s the Copa America, featuring national teams from South America, and sometimes the U.S., as it’s expected to again. In 2030, the World Cup’s back, hosted by Spain, Portugal and Morocco.
Not till then can the U.S. make up for the unthinkable nature of Monday night’s loss, because the only way to be seen as serious soccer nation is to make real noise in the world’s most important tournament.
And NEVER, EVER look as the U.S. looked against Belgium.
This team, it turns out, was never going to be up to it.
Leave alone the fact that Belgium’s first goal, coming in the ninth minute, could easily have been its third.
Concentrate only on the tally.
An attempted cross from the left side was deflected and then headed away from the American goal; a good thing for the Americans and an especially good thing given the ball was falling to earth at Dest’s feet.
Certainly he’d take the opportunity to clear it.
Nope.
Instead, like an infielder believing the play’s somebody else’s, he let it fall to the ground, made no play at it and watched as Belgium’s Nicolas Raskin swooped in to control it, put it on his left foot to cross it, and find teammate Charles De Ketelaere to bury it in the U.S. net.
Perhaps you’re thinking, hey, any third baseman can think the pop up belongs to the shortstop. Maybe, but this is soccer and the ball has to be cleared and better two teammates take whacks at it than any one let it fall in front of his feet for anybody to take.
Beyond the electric football, everybody-move-in-a-pile concept of the 8-and-under game, it’s bad soccer at every level.
As it happened, the U.S. tied the game when Malik Tillman, with another free kick from beyond the opponent penalty box, this time about 28 yards, received a fortuitous glance of a Belgian noggin to net his second goal of the tourney from advanced range.
No matter, 61 seconds after the ball was kicked off again, it was in the American net again.
You’d think two U.S. defenders marking one Belgian forward, De Ketelaere again, would be enough. But it wasn’t because De Ketelaere made his play for the ball with his head first, so when he pushed off Ream on his way to it, the referee let it go. Meanwhile, Robinson, off De Ketelaere’s right shoulder, was caught flat footed.
But hey, give all the credit to the Belgian. Great sports are about making great plays and De Ketelaere made one and his team led 2-1.
The worst arrived in the 57th minute when De Ketelaere — think this guy can play? — appeared to simply shrug off yet another American defender, Chris Richards, on a chase to a long ball, causing Freese to exit the U.S. penalty box and play it before De Ketelaere could reach it.
Yet, because the ball was bouncing, Freese had to chest it first, and though under pressure, time remained to kick it away with his left foot. Instead, for reasons known only Freese, and perhaps God, he panicked and stopped his lefty swing.
Then, Freese playing the ball with his right foot, De Ketelaere deflected it to Hans Vanaken, who found the open net.
Disastrous, impossible, unbelievable, embarrassing, pathetic.
The Belgians would add another goal in the rush of the final moments, but it was immaterial. None of the Americans’ fall from grace had to do with it ending in a three-goal deficit rather than two. Rather, it was all about the nature in which the they gave it away.
It’s possible the U.S. was never winning the game — Belgium claimed a 15-7 shot advantage and put seven on goal to the Americans’ two — but it was never supposed to look like this.
“We let ourselves down, we let the fans down,” said American midfielder Tyler Adams.
“We didn’t show our real quality as a team,” U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino, an Argentinian, said. “Never were we connected with the run of the game.”
In victories over Paraguay (4-1), Australia (2-0), Turkey (3-2) and Bosnia and Herzegovina (2-0), Pochettino may have gotten the U.S. to play better than any previous U.S. World Cup team.
Now it’s like those games never happened.
Sure, everybody loses.
But not like this.