The U.S. men’s national team walked into Lumen Field on Monday with momentum and a crowd of more than 60,000 behind them. They walked out on the wrong end of a 4-1 beatdown that had famous fans firing off takes before the final whistle even stopped echoing.
Belgium didn’t just win. They dismantled the USMNT in a Round of 16 matchup that was supposed to be a statement game for the 2026 World Cup hosts. Charles De Ketelaere opened the scoring, and Malik Tillman answered to tie it up. Then the whole thing fell apart. Belgium scored three more times, and the Stars and Stripes looked lost on both ends of the pitch.
The loss stung. But the reaction from prominent voices in sports media made it sting differently.
Famous fans didn’t hold back
Emmanuel Acho, who hosts on Fox Sports 1, didn’t sugarcoat it. He posted on X that the USMNT wouldn’t have beaten anyone with that effort and those mental errors. He called it an abysmal performance. Then he tagged it with “GO USA ALWAYS” like he had to specify he wasn’t giving up on the team, just calling out what everyone saw.
Skip Bayless, formerly of Fox Sports 1, went further. He pointed to Folarin Balogun’s reinstatement after a red card controversy as a factor that motivated Belgium more than it helped the U.S. Bayless said the global outcry about “justice prevailing” would be loud. He wasn’t wrong.
Pat McAfee, the ESPN personality and longtime U.S. soccer fan, took a different route. He just gave Belgium its flowers. He called them monsters and asked if they might be the greatest soccer team of all time. That’s probably hyperbole, but the way they played Monday made the question feel less ridiculous than it sounds.
What went wrong for the USMNT
The energy coming into the match was legitimately high. Balogun got cleared to play after his red card was rescinded, and there was a sense that the team would rally around that. Instead, Belgium seized on every mistake. The U.S. defense looked slow. The midfield couldn’t hold possession. And the offense created maybe two real chances all night.
Balogun himself was quiet. The moment that was supposed to be his redemption arc turned into another round of questions about whether this team can hang with elite competition when it matters.
Belgium made it look easy. They moved the ball quickly, found gaps in the U.S. shape, and finished chances coldly. The home crowd went from loud to stunned to silent by the final whistle.
The USMNT exits the World Cup in the Round of 16. That’s not a disaster on paper. But the performance left a bad taste. The kind that gets celebrities posting their frustrations in real time and fans wondering if this group is really ready for 2026 on home soil.
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