The Folarin Balogun saga had the USMNT camp buzzing all week. Appeals, red cards, debates over intent. But three minutes into the Round of 16, Belgium’s Charles De Ketelaere silenced all of it with one clean finish.
JJ Watt saw it coming.
Before kickoff, the NFL legend turned Burnley minority owner posted a simple prediction. He was happy Balogun’s suspension got overturned, sure. But Watt also wrote this: “Ball don’t lie.”
He was right.
Belgium’s 4-1 win at Seattle Stadium wasn’t just a loss. It was a dismantling from start to finish. De Ketelaere scored twice — once in the 9th minute off a messy defensive breakdown, then again in the 33rd with a header that made the USMNT backline look like they were moving in slow motion. Hans Vanaken added a third after a goalie mistake Matt Turner will want to forget. Then Romelu Lukaku, off the bench, buried a stoppage-time dagger just to make sure nobody felt good about anything.
Malik Tillman gave them hope. Briefly.
There was a moment. Around the half-hour mark, Malik Tillman dropped a free kick that bent through traffic and caught Belgium’s keeper off guard. 1-1. Seattle Stadium woke up. The crowd got loud. For maybe two minutes, it felt like the kind of night this team needed.
Then De Ketelaere scored again before the celebration even cooled off.
That’s the thing about this USMNT squad. They can hang with anyone for stretches. They can create chances. But they can’t lock a game down for 90 straight minutes. Belgium didn’t need to be perfect. They just needed to wait for the mistakes to come. And they did.
Balogun played. It didn’t matter.
Everyone spent the week arguing about whether Balogun’s red card in the group stage should stand. FIFA’s appeals panel said no. He suited up. He started. He had a few touches, a half-chance in the second half that got swallowed by Belgium’s center backs. But by then the game was already slipping away.
Watt summed it up after the final whistle with four words: “Ball did not lie.”
Brutal. Accurate. That’s the kind of thing that sticks in a fanbase’s head for years.
The USMNT’s home World Cup run is over. They came in as co-hosts with real expectations and a group that had been building for this cycle since 2022. They leave after getting outclassed by a Belgian team that is good but not great — a team that made them look slow, reactive, and a step behind in every phase of the game.
No more appeals. No more what-ifs. The pitch already decided.
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