Different year, same result. The United States are out of the World Cup in the round of 16 after the lights were too bright against Belgium, and their World Cup journey is over in a disappointing 4-1 loss in Seattle. But it's not about the loss here; it's about how it happened and how flat the team looked after going down only nine minutes into the game and never truly rebounding from a quality of play standpoint.
It was a World Cup where it seemed like the team grew together and were gelling under the leadership of Mauricio Pochettino, and on paper, even their 24-year drought of failing to secure a knockout win came to an end. So this World Cup has to be a success, right? Well, that's where things get tricky. Facing Bosnia and Herzegovina in the round of 32, while the USMNT showed resiliency after going down to 10 men, the difference in how they started the game against Belgium compared to that round of 32 fixture shows just how much different the real knockout stage is compared to one that has been created out of thin air for this tournament.
USMNT Player Ratings: Everybody struggles as World Cup dream ends with nightmare display vs. Belgium Roger Gonzalez
The round of 32 was essentially the group stage plus extra steps, but the round of 16 is where World Cup heroes are made for the United States. This isn't a plucky underdog who is happy to be there, it's a World Cup host nation expected to make noise and one who are ranked 17th in the world. And they never looked like it on Monday.
CBS Sports Even worse is that, due to the situation of how Folarin Balogun's red card was overturned with the influence of U.S. president Donald Trump, the USMNT were backed into a lose-lose situation. Win the game, and there would be questions about its legitimacy; lose, and a World Cup that seemed as if they were meeting expectations would it became an abject failure. Unfortunately, we're looking at the latter route. Belgium did gain motivation from the red card, and Romelu Lukaku's celebration was to make sure that salt was rubbed in the wound.
Overturn this. 🧏♂️ #USABEL pic.twitter.com/KcBAJp3Z7d
— Belgian Red Devils (@BelRedDevils) July 7, 2026
It was fully deserved for the Red Devils, but it also makes this loss feel even worse than crashing out in the round of 16 in 2022 to the Netherlands in Qatar. In that match, the USMNT gave everything they had in the group stage and then ran out of steam versus a very good team, but where they've had rest, their best players available, they were still unable to defeat a top European side. Pochettino instilled good things during his first foray as an international manager, but even there, it's unknown who will be coaching this team the next time that the World Cup rolls around in 2030.
The USMNT end the World Cup in almost the same place as they started it, with questions about what is needed to reach the next level in the global game. Given players like Cavan Sullivan, Julian Hall, Zavier Gozo, and Adri Mehmeti, the future of the national team looks bright, but the members of this team were talented kids in 2022 as well, and despite them playing at higher levels of the game than ever before, they still didn't get the job done.
Christian Pulisic has won a Champions League final, but struggled in this match, eventually leaving with an injury. The USMNT had one of the best draws in the knockouts to get to the round of 16, as every team they faced in the group stage had a higher FIFA ranking than Bosnia and Herzegovina's 64th-place ranking.
The USMNT did make it to this point, and that can't be taken away from them, but as a host nation, expectations were higher. There are other ways that the tournament can be a success, depending on how the run ends up impacting interest in youth soccer and how the game is shaped in America, but on the pitch, it feels like a missed opportunity. This is a talented team, and they had serious expectations, but they deserved to have those expectations placed upon them.
But when the lights turned on, the front-foot soccer that got them here faded; they were unable to make the lasting mark that other USMNT World Cup teams have made. Even in 2002, the year of "Dos a Cero" over Mexico, that is something that will forever be in USMNT lore. Maybe the Malik Tillman bloody sock game will stand the test of time, but likely not, because it came when they were favorites. They failed to upset the apple cart and show the progress that American soccer has made over the last four years, and for that, it's hard to call their performance in this tournament a success.
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