This is a why question that interests me, but I think we’ll have to wait for an answer. Belgium gave 110% effort, something we failed to match. Presumably AI can regurgitate what 110% means, but I doubt AI can understand it. They were extra motivated, and we all know why. On the US side, the players must have been conflicted. They have family and friends, and we know many have an active social media presence. They must have been aware of the controversy, the swirl of opinions, the animosity. We saw all of that on this board. A strong consensus that Balogun should not have received a red card, but then what? Without a formal appeals process, what was the best path forward? What actually happened left a bad taste in the mouths of many. It’s the sort of thing that might divide a team. Several days of practice took place under a cloud of uncertainty. Still unexplained (if true) is why the team arrived at the stadium so late, much later than usual. But the big question is why the entire team came out so flat and continued to play without emotion. This is separate from being out-coached and out-played, the defensive lapses, the gaffes. Anyway, if Poch leaves, perhaps he’ll give us an insider’s view of those last few days. Of the players, only Ream - on his way out the door - might provide insight. Otherwise, I think we’re in for quite a wait.
Do you really think that they deliberately try to lose? To justify that our intervention of overturned red card is morally bad and they don’t deserve to win. And they’d rather lose. It’s not normal that the whole team suddenly collapsed collectively. Something’s going on in the locker room before the team got on the bus to the stadium late.
This is why it feels like such a missed opportunity. The country was paying attention and we fell flat on our face. Against a Belgium team I maintain isn’t very good. Final combined viewing on FOX + Telemundo:USA-BEL - 50.1 million viewersMEX-ENG - 46.7 millionThe most-watched non-NFL sports events in the U.S. since the 1994 Winter Olympics.— Michael Mulvihill (@mulvihill79) July 10, 2026 I could only imagine the numbers a quarterfinal against Spain would have done. I maintain if we somehow had made the final it would have approached Super Bowl like numbers.
I think the point is that if there was conflict and confusion and concern and even some disagreement about everything from the original red to the appeal discussion and phone calls it may have caused concern among the players and even a few % drop in focus due to the mind not being totally focused on victory could impact the squad - at this supreme test. Not saying that is the proximal cause … but it did not help the team and the fact Balogun went to Garcia after the match tells you it was on the mind of at least one starting player. they still should have played better but for so many to not play well ought to make you wonder. no doubt Belgium took us apart.
I would say our skill development is sufficient. Sufficient not to lose at homenby three goals to the same team. The idea that we're going to redesign our youth development system and majemassive gains is fanciful. Lack of Pro/Rel isnt the problem. Most of the players on the field play in Europe with pro/rel.
One thing I will say. We had three clean victories over teams we should beat, who didn’t want the ball. When have we done that before in a win? Not Iran, Ghana or Algeria. We drew Wales four years ago. The famous Dos a Cero against Mexico we didn’t have a whole lot of the play and John O’Brien should have been called for a penalty when it was 1-0. We didn’t dominate that match in the way dominated these. Anyway, that’s the last time we had a win close to as convincing as these 3. We beat each team in our 3 wins by multiple goals. We played freely and bravely. We played with skill and personality. We played with style and swagger. We scored memorable goals. We still played with grit. And then we crapped the bed in the decisive game. The meaningful game. That’s a long shadow that we have to deal with. But from the 2006 World Cup what I remember now is Italy in Kaiserslautern. I remember how we played to get that result and the heart we showed. We remember Landon’s goal in Pretoria more than we remember Ghana scoring on us in extra time. I think as time starts to form my memories of this World Cup, I’ll remember a lot more of the wins and the goals, and a little less of the final tragedy.
After much thought it ight be fair to state that the issue the USMNT has is that they do not have nor have t hey ever had a top 20 or top 10 striker in the World. So until they can find one of those much of this may be just howling at the moon. Conversely, having one will make the whole system look like it is working beautifully. Norway was a non soccer power until Haaland magically showed up. And his development plan was non existent. Now to say that maybe the great striker we need is playing in the NBA or NFL. That is fair. But IMO the USA is at 350M and is getting beat by countries of 6-20M. So I am not sure I feel the idea that all the great athletes are sucked up by other sports in the USA rings true.
A few additional thoughts: 1. Pro/rel is not the problem or the solution - the best players we have - also play at better clubs - where the pressure is on (whether pro/rel or not) daily and ergo they are competing with their clubs day to day (will be interesting to see how Haji and Coventry do this next EPL season). 2. Pay to play is not a core problem nor is it a solution - I think the essence of the point is - in other countries - the academies and age 13 - 16 higher level clubs do get compensated at some level for talent that goes on to the pros - and there have been legal challenges in the US (with MLS and USSF getting involved) that are hindering it here ... pay to play in many countries (England, Germany, and even Norward) from age 7 - 13 is a whole lot LESS expensive ($250-500/year as opposed to $2500-5000/year) than ours (we have a type A culture where we push our kids - and it is not necessarily for the better - Patton - "America loves winners and hates losers!") - as the P2P costs goes up the parents become more important and its all whacked up and out of balance - I have been involved helping to run rec and travel clubs and I have been involved with the budgets - it is a zero sum game and it does cost money and anything before age 12 or 13 is just crazy - interesting story about Norway that is out witg kids playing multiple sports (Haaland was a great team handball performer and that has helped his jumping skills) .... anyways we have the kids and need to control these costs below a certain age to keep the pool wide and deep and let kids have fun and develop basic skills till they decide how serious they want to be - then the pro clubs and dev programs can help get involved and ramp it up and compensate the clubs to help the financing. At a young age focusing on the skills and the fun should not cost thousands of dollars per kid. It is just nuts .... And you should not mainline a kid in any sport till they are 13 or older .... I think Pulisic is frankly an anomaly and not a template for any young player today - very few families can do what Mark Pulisic did with his son. It was fine for them - but not a template for broad application. 3. counter pressing ala Poch/Bielsa is great and helps generate goals that create enthusiasm and fan excitement and player excitement - but when your back line and goal keepers are not great - you are in trouble against top teams (Belgium and Garcia took us to the cleaners). Defenders have to be trained and nurtured ... Perhaps against Belgium we should have sat back and played low block and had 3 def mids and 4 on the back line and just wanted for the 5 chances or so over 90 minutes to counter attack with 3 players (Balogun, Pulisic, and McKennie/Weah/Dest/Wright) ... everyone else just stay home. I don't know how you counter press against any quality opponent when your backline is centered by Ream/Richards and not Upmecano/Saliba or Romero/Martinez or Van Dijk/Ake .... our wins were great - but our loss just brought right back to surface our core present weakness. If you don't learn from your mistakes you are doomed to repeat them. Now you can say - we will never have a Virgil Van Dijk ... true enough - but what is our plan to get better than the back 4 or back 3 or back 2 that we have today? 4. Goalkeepers - this is something the USSF needs to address and now - we have tons of multi sport athletes and ought to be world class in this ... except for the foot skills ... but the fact we had Friedel, Howard, Keller, and even Guzan in the past and now we don't - is a first order problem. They need to fix this now. Or at least say what the heck the plan is. Harvard is great for Matt Freese - but Freese froze and that is not good enough at the big dance. Big players rise to the occasion - Kasey Keller absolutely stoned Brazil when the team needed him to. 5. I still think the Balogun red played a wild card of an effect on the men. POTUS getting involved was a GIANT mistake. Talk about a massive unforced error.
We need to combine the individual skill we have now with the heart and grit we were famous for from the 90s through 2015ish. And in the first 2 games I thought we'd finally done it.
Well.........................we have grown a lot in terms of the skill of our players. But we're still not at the level of the top 10 teams in the World. As this event has shown us, that's the case with a lot of the upwardly mobile second-tier. When push comes to shove, every Asian, African, and CONCACAF team on Planet Earth doesn't have the talent of those elite European teams. Everyone is trying. Mexico and Japan and Senegal are trying. Even Morocco was made to look extraordinarily pedestrian yesterday. Who did Morocco beat outright at this event? Haiti, Scotland, and Canada. Gee Whiz. You know? Folks can write endless post-mortem's about our team and what our soccer infrastructure needs to do to improve. What ultimately do we need to do!? Develop better players!!! I looked up yesterday what the annual operating budget of La Masia is in Spain. Its estimated to be 50 million. Just Barcelona invests 50 million in their academy, and that doesn't include the costs of running their reserve team. How much does FC Dallas, one of our better academies spend on THEIR academy. They had four alumni on our WC roster (McKennie, Richards, Pepi, Zendejas). We don't know. However I saw in one article that indicated MLS clubs spend between 3 and 6 million on their academies annually. There's just money on a different level being spent on it in Western Europe. That has do to with the amount of money COMING INTO THOSE CLUBS. Barcelona and Bayern Munich and Arsenal and Inter Milan can spend more money on player development because the MONEY IS THERE to spend.
Here is my take.... In looking at the way the USMNT lost 4-1 to Belgium, in my opinion, the sport of soccer in the US is bulletproof, but the USMNT is broken. We have an explosive growth of the game vs, the complete stagnation of the national team and it doesn’t look like much will change in the next decade. I don't think the game will suffer, and stadium crowds across MLS or USL will continue to break records and thrive but I think the USMNT is trapped in mediocrity. Honestly, I don't think the USSF is doing anything to help the sport grow. We have youth soccer which is a huge money maker for most academies and but it is a pay to play entity. Some academies are costing $3k & $4k just to play. Zlatan Ibrahimović, when he was in LA stated he had to pay $3,500 per kid just to have them play in the academy. He said he had money to afford it but what about everyone else? If a parent has 2-3 kids, that could be quite a lot of money in the end. The watch parties and packed NFL stadiums for international matches prove that American soccer fans are passionate but they are highly educated consumers. The reality is, if the USMNT continues to stall or keeps getting blown out in a Round of 16 match, I don't think fans will stop watching soccer but they are going to stick to caring about their EPL, UEFA Champions League, Mexican Liga MX games and in my case the Serie A. MLS fans will also watch their clubs but maybe on a lesser level or scale. This brings us right back to the end result which is since 1994, the USMNT has not improved. In 1994, without a domestic league and a roster of largely unemployed players training on a beach, the U.S. only lost 1-0 to Brazil in the Round of 16 at Stanford. After 32 years, we now have a 30-team MLS league and fully a funded academy network later, the U.S. still only exists in the Round of 16, getting thoroughly dismantled and humiliated 4-1 by Belgium. I honestly see no improvement within the national team program. The infrastructure of the sport has completely transformed, but the actual level of the national team has remained dormant. I read now that the USSF's net worth after this 2026 World Cup will only be around $559 million. The federation actually want to remain in this IRS tax loophole shell so they won't lose their nonprofit status. In my opinion, the sport of soccer in America will continue to boom, stadiums will remain packed, money and sponsors will keep pouring in but there is something still fundamentally wrong. The game is too big to suffer now but until the USSF uses its legal monopoly to completely blow up the "pay-to-play" youth model and builds a national culture, the USMNT will continue to be a second-rate national team which is stuck watching the true global elites win trophies.
You have to keep in mind other countries are improving as well. And plenty of fans worldwide wouldn’t mind their team being a round of 16 regular.
I see this from quite a few people but it doesn't line up with what actually occurred or what a counterpress does. The commentary seems to be a knee jerk reaction to the idea that a low block with few players going forward is defensive and that a counterpress is risky. Goal 1 comes with while in our 442 in what is a fairly low block. We are not pressing. When Freeman headers the ball up into the air, there are 8 outfield players in the box and the other two are nearby. The failure is a failure to clear the ball and then attack a loose ball in the box. This would occur much, much more in a game if we sat back and gave up the ball. Goal 2 is also not a counterattacking goal. When the cross goes up, there are also, again, 8 outfield defenders in the box. We're somewhat disorganized, for sure, but the failure here is again one of aggression. Not only does Ream not effectively attack the ball, but the cross should have been blocked and Jedi should have helped Ream attack the ball. Goal 3 is the only goal in which the defense was extended in any way. This doesn't occur, for sure, if we are in a permanent low block. It also doesn't occur if Richards runs -- seriously, watch him, he gives up -- or if Freese isn't a complete moron. It's also a pretty un-energetic press. Goal 4 is also not a counterattack goal. We're not as bad as we should, down 3-1 and the game basically over. We get the ball, then Richards turns it over deep in our own area. It really has nothing to do with a low block -- and even a low block team wouldn't be in one down 3-1 with a minute left. So, in short: We wouldn't have scored 11 goals in 5 games just sending a few people up on counterattacks. We wouldn't have scored ANY against Belgium sending a few people up on counterattacks. Many of our best chances -- including Balogun's chance in the 82nd he needs to bury, came off the press and turnovers. Opposing counterattacks were handled extremely well by the US all tournament, including the Belgium game. People freak out about them, but counterpressing -- which immediately presses to avoid allowing effective counter passing -- helped reduced the opposition issues. Now, persistent high pressing might be difficult to do all game, but that's not the same thing. Only one goal against Belgium was anywhere due to us pressing, counterpressing or being aggressive offensively in any way, and the #1 cause of that goal was one of the most idiotic plays in World Cup history. Most of the goals we gave up all tournament were because of mistakes or a lack of discipline in our low block, passive defense, keeping in line with our issues coming into the tournament. Why would we sacrifice all the offense we generate and chance to score to play in a defense we are not very good at? There's no reason to suddenly played scared in a low block and abandon any real offense just because we lost. Pretty much every team that did that in the Round of 16 also lost. Not every team that pressed -- look at Canada -- got beat up. We got beat up because we played like crap.
Not so sure. It seems to me the same countries are always in the Round of 8. Thinking back, Belgium got a silver medal in the 1980 Euro , 4th place in 1986 and third place in 2018 WC. Morocco, Switzerland and Norway have improved but the powers that be, France, Spain, England and Argentina are still there. I wouldn't mind seeing Norway winning it all.
We do need to get a better goalkeeper and defense when we are in a lower block and playing passively. The situation will occur, and we need to be better at it. Good, low block defenses are as much about cohesion and coordination as talent. What is the plan for it? Well, USSF can't do too much about talent in the short term anyway, aside from recruitment. So my plan is for our our players to actually play more together and practice more together in order to be able to have more than one coordinated gameplan. That requires people not skipping Gold Cups or Copa Americas. It also probably requires some level of consistency in calls at some point. That's not to say you can't add a player here or there, but the constant mass turnover is not helping the team establish the type of coordination that a good low block defense requires.
I don't think you are really looking, then. In the 90s, we went to 3 World Cups. In those, we advanced out of a third place spot once due to an own goal and were the worst team at the tournament twice. What? Net worth is asset value, to begin with. USSF doesn't have a high asset value because a) they are a soccer federation and b) the money they bring goes to run the National Teams, administer coaching, etc. You can argue that USSF is not effective in its spend, but to increase it's asset value ... it would need to not spend. Which would be counter to its entire mission. USSF has no legal monopoly. USSF has a FIFA-dictated set of rights and some lightly given government rights, but if USSF were to try to enforce anything against the laws of the USA, they'd be smacked to hell. They are a trade association, not part of the government. How would they blow up pay to play? They don't have a right to tell people that they can't charge people for a club team. That's beyond a loser case in court. How would they "build a national culture?" They are just a small group of people with a budget of like $.67 per person in the US a year -- and most of that goes to the National Team -- and there's 340 million people in this country. We need to be realistic about what USSF can actually effect.
Thinking about it some more, I think it's not about pressing vs. not pressing, but more the mindset. It felt like the players were expecting the game to go like the previous ones where we came out on the front foot and were taking it to them. But when Belgium actually came out on the front foot, our guys were like, "Wait what? I wasn't expecting to defend crosses in our own box this early." Against England in 2022, we were still pretty aggressive in pressing them higher up the field, but it seemed like the mindset was, "First and foremost, we're not letting them score, and if we have our chances, we'll go for it." I think that mindset would have been helpful against Belgium, or any top-10ish team. Be aggressive, press them higher, but at least initially, expect them to come at us hard and commit to getting through the first quarter (or whatever) without conceding and then adjust from there. I feel like it's still too presumptuous to say, "We'll just go out and play our normal game against a top-10 team and take it to them right from the opening whistle."
Possibly. I think the team looked nervy more than anything. But from our outside perspective, trying to establish why they made dumb mistakes is hard to do. So your guess is as good as mine. I'm not saying it wasn't hard to press Belgium; it was and it was less effective. But we didn't get ripped apart there. We lost because we mishit about 15 clearances, we didn't attack the ball in the box, our keeper made an incredibly dumb play, etc. We need to get better at defense and having a better low block is part of that. But there's no reason to suddenly abandon any offensive play or any aggressive play against a team like Belgium. We just need to not be scared of them and if anything, keep our aggression.
Indeed. We are closer to that top band of elite nations than 190 other countries. Why did we play so badly against Belgium? I don't know. None of what I've seen written on this thread explains it. We're better than that. There are some issues within our pool that we knew about (GK, CB, etc.). ................but I can't tell you why McKennie, Adams, and Tillman lost the midfield battle so comprehensively. I can't tell you why our wingers Pulisic and Dest were so ineffective. These guys all play at big European clubs and have played games under immense pressure before. Folks can debate around in circles. To some degree it was just a really bad day at the office. Some days the best team in baseball loses 13-0. It happens. This is sports. Sports teams lose games. And sometimes they lose them in inexplicably disastrous fashion. You pick your head up and move on to the next battle.
Well in 1994, the USSF was directly in charge of putting forth a pro league. That was why they were awarded the World Cup and why they ended up with what was at time , a surplus of $51 million dollars. They then in turn loaned the money out to MLS to get the league started. If anything, the only reason the USSF exists or existed was/is because they needed a to get a pro league in place.
Dest needs to test himself in a top 5 league. As long as he’s in the Netherlands, he’ll be playing mostly inferior competition.
Improving is about both raising the floor by growing the overall talent pool, and raising the ceiling by producing stars. The former can be done systemically, the latter has a major element of luck. Take Norway as an example--they've made a concerted effort over the past decade or 2 to grow the game domestically and raise their overall depth of talent. They did that systemically. They also developed Haaland and Odegaard, which you can't force. Haaland and Odegaard give them the firepower to win WC knockout games against top 10 teams, the other 9 guys are solid professionals who keep them from losing a bunch of 4-3 games. With respect to developing true elite stars, the US has both advantages--we're a huge, megarich country--and disadvantages--if Haaland was American he'd be an NFL TE or an NBA small forward. We don't have a Haaland obviously but our 3rd through 26th best players are comparable to Norway's if not a hair better. And while we don't have an Odegaard either, we're not too far off--Pulisic when he's at his best is close, Reyna had potential to be an Odegaard level player if he hadn't been derailed by injuries (and of course Reyna, like Haaland, was born in England while his father was playing in the EPL and also has a former pro athlete for a mother). A lot of rambling and I don't know what the answer is other than you have to just keep growing the talent pool.
The mission of USSF is to promote the game of Soccer in the United States at all levels. Helping establish professional leagues does that. Running national teams does that. Working with youth leagues and amateur leagues does that. I'm not entirely sure what your point is here. Soccer has grown substantially in the US in the past 30 years, which is the goal. USSF has done a ton -- helped start MLS and women's leagues. Gotten several World Cups. The Women have won 4 World Cups and 5 Olympics. They've also been helped by shit they don't do -- the internet and streaming and FIFA the video game and Title IX and so on. They can do a lot better, but their their purview is much more than the Men's National Team. You saying soccer has exploded in this country actually means they succeeded. Yeah, I'd like the men's national team to be better. But it's not easy. We got further than Germany, Italy and the Netherlands this World Cup. Not great, but not quite as bad as people are making out.
In my opinion, the USSF should be in charge of the national teams progress but the results in 32 years,other than 2002 , have not really improved at the World Cup level. It should be their main goal. In the last 7 out of 8 World Cup torunaments, I don't see much improvement. In 1998 they came in 32nd in 2006 25th in 2018 they did not qualify 2010, 2014 , 2022 and 2026 they made the Round of 16 As for Italy, and as Italian -American who lived and worked in Italy for an imporant club, I can assure you, their FIGC (federation) has become a complete joke and are directly at fault for what the national team has become.