FIFA World Cup 2026 Results & Discussion Thread [R]

This US team was never beating Belgium. It was a pipe dream pumped up by beating some poor teams in the group stage and a woeful Bosnia.

If you watched this team in the lead up to the cup this is exactly who they are.

 

I actually predicted a bad WC Finals for them. They exceed expectation.

 

Ref trying to help out the hosts as much as possible. That was a clear corner.

 

I’ve never bought into the Cristian Pulisic and Weston Mckennie hype. Both are very average players who look good against weak opponents but are fully caught out when having to go against decent opponents.

I’m glad Poch got paid his big bags money and fleeced the US federation.

 

usa is so bad their making Belgium look good. the same belgium that nearly got knocked out by Senegal and barely made it of their group


they didnt even start with their best players

 

This is why I asked how would we rank Pulisic, Donovan and Dempsey.

Pulisic is pretty average for me.

 

The US playing better.

 

Doku tossing Tillman like a ragdoll.

 

The irony is he has more natural talent then those other guys but he has the heart of a chicken. Due to his talent he can be useful on teams but he can't be your lynch pin or someone you rely on.

 

Donovan's GOAT. But his problem is not playing in Europe. He did not wait his chance with Leverkusen. They were one of the best teams at that time. But he did very well in the 2002 WC Finals. He scored that epic goal against Algeria in 2010. Dempsey is simply underrated.

Pulisic got to play for the bigger European clubs. But I do think Dempsey, Reyna, etc paved the way for him.

Claudio Reyna should add to the conversation. He did well in Bundesliga, Scotland and England. He had a wonderful WC Finals in 2002.

 

Brilliant!

Easily done; Belgium were on cruise control.

 

lol. Just so funny.

 

Belgium isn’t even good lol.

 

Big Lu scores 1-4..super finish

I wonder if the orange idiot calls Infantino to "review" the score.

 

Or he will simply sanction Belgium.

 

You never know; they might call airstrikes on either Belgium or their NT training camp.

 

At this point I wouldn't even be surprised if he launches a military operation against them and calls it "self defense" .

An unhinged, lawless megalomaniac.

 

Donovan was soft as shit. Again a player who did well against weaker opponents but couldn’t hang with the big boys. He really benefited from Dempsey, who IMO is the greatest USMNT player of all time. Duece had a chip on his shoulder and wanted to play against the best and had heart and fight.

The main issue with the US team is just not having development at a young age that builds skills. If you know anything about club soccer and the academy system here it’s certainly not to develop players.

 

Everything that orange piece of shit touches turns to
Shit

feel bad for the team, but they were not ready for this kind of attention and pressure

 

The BBC headline just comes out. Trump's name is it.

 

On the contrary, I think they were riding high on a wave of confidence. There was no pressure and the attention was positive.


But they went from the perky underdog overachievers to the spoiled rich kid cheaters who needed a helping hand from daddy.


That might work for the Trump family and friends but it’s not the mentality of professional athletes who make lots of sacrifices to get where they are and I think they didn’t even want to win because no matter how good they played the world would say it was rigged while Trump would take any and all credit from within the country.

 

🚨🗣️ Casemiro in tears: "We will always be remembered as the Brazilian generation that didn’t win the World Cup." pic.twitter.com/2S9iYjPTAn

— The Touchline | 𝐓 (@TouchlineX) July 6, 2026

 

I thought he called up Neymar as more of a mascot due to media pressure. But giving him minutes in a knockout game was weird.

Joao Pedro could have helped the team. He scored 15 goals in PL while Neymar was struggling with fitness issues in Brazilian league.

📲 Carlo Ancelotti on IG: “The pain is deep today, but the confidence in what we're building doesn't change.

Let's keep working for our national team.

Always together. Always Brazil!” 🇧🇷 pic.twitter.com/Pni10mT3wU

— Madrid Zone (@theMadridZone) July 7, 2026

 

Pulisic is almost the exact same player as Donovan. Along with Dempsey I would say they’re all about the same level.


Difference for me is Donovan was a twenty year old breakout World Cup star and then did it as the teams veteran leader (and has the most career goals and assist for US despite getting retired early by a bitter Klinsmann). Pulisic and the US missed out on 2018 World Cup and 2022 was a wash so his international career is nowhere close.

 

Even that was a deflection OG