SoccerWise - USMNT v Belgium Postgame Show Presented By Soccer.com

Episode Date: July 7, 2026

The USMNT's 2026 World Cup run has finally ended and in frustrating fashion. David is joined by Matt Doyle & Michele Giannone to break down what happened, what it means, and where we go forward.

This is the live USM&T postgame show on Soccerwise, presented by soccer.com. We do this after every single USM&T game at the 2026 World Cup, which means this is our last one. The U.S. falling to Belgium 4-1 out in Seattle. David Goss, joined by McKellie Gianone and Matt Doyle. This is a game that we have talked about for quite a long time. This was a tournament that we've enjoyed for quite a long time. Cheers to Doyle. McKellie's just got good energy for me next to it.

Cheers. It's been a blast watching this team play. We asked a number of questions and a number of requests. And the big one coming into this game was, go out there, play well, play hard against the best opponent that you will face and at least sort of went over some fans and show a good account for yourself. That was not what we saw for the opening 45 minutes, and the U.S. ends up falling.

they cut it to, I guess they make it 1-1. Then it becomes 2-1, then Matt Freeze with a little bit of a Christmas gift, makes it 3-1, and then the U.S. ends up giving up the late one to Romello Lukaku. We have been lucky enough to be here every single day for soccer.com. If you want the kit, it's hard to get right now. You can go there, but you can get all the other kits for all the other teams, as well as some of the really cool limited edition stuff, some of the full balls that they're using in the tournament as well.

So go to soccer.com. When you get the chance, we are here to live it with you right now. So everyone live, I see the chat already buzzing. I'm going to be cruising through there. If you've got any questions or comments for us, we, of course, will be live tomorrow 9.30m. Eastern Time. Doyle will be back with me as well, Eric Krakauer, as we'll talk about this game again and what everything big picture sort of means.

And we will continue to talk about the rest of this tournament. But let's start with the U.S. men's national team, Doyle. And how do you feel, I know? I feel pretty bummed in, I mean, obviously because of the result, but the way it happened was a gut punch. Because we went into this tournament worried that this team was a little bit entitled. This generation of players was maybe a little bit entitled. And we saw it, I think, in qualifying in 2022, they had to learn to fight. And I think they eventually did.

But they let their energy drop in crucial moments against the Netherlands at this stage in the tournament. And we said, you know what, okay, they were the youngest team at the tournament. They'll get better in the next cycle. They didn't get better. They got worse in 2023 and then 2024. We saw what happened in Copa America. Okay, we'll bring in the mastermind coach. The mastermind coach will fix everything, get them to play at their best level.

And for four games, I believed. Yeah. You know, because they did come out, and they did really fight against Paraguay, and they did really fight against Australia. And even in the loss against Turkey, I liked that performance. There were individual errors, but there wasn't a lack of collective will. There wasn't confusion about how they wanted to defend or where they wanted to defend. And then they went out and they did the job against Bosnia and Herzegovina,

especially with that last 35 minutes playing a man down. And I thought we had moved past the, this team is a little soft. This team is a little entitled. And they came out today and they looked soft and entitled. And I don't know, man, not up for it. Just like, yeah. Scared is the word it felt for me over the first half. It felt like they were scared to make mistakes.

They were scared to lose the game. And that was my fear coming into this World Cup. I'm okay with that on the ball sometimes, right? Because it is a home World Cup, 70,000 people in the stadium. But I thought we had bloom through that through the group stage. It was the defensive posture that really got to me. If you go back and you look at that first goal, how easy is it to hit that big switch for Trussard?

and get him, you know, completely isolated. And then obviously, you know, Alex Freeman heads it, and Sergino Dest is off picking daisies, which he's been doing for his entire professional career and ends up being 1-0. But it's just, they made it easy in a way that suggested that they just weren't that into it. And, God, after seeing how Mexico fought stupidly,

you know, the way Mexico played, the final 40 minutes of that game was stupid soccer, but at least they fought. and the way the Canadians fought to see us go out in such a limp and dispiriting fashion is a gut punch. And I worry that it undoes a lot of the goodwill that this team has built for the program and for soccer in general in America over the past three weeks. Everything you just said, especially in the comps, the Mexico and Canada, that's been the conversation for four years around U.S. soccer circles is why don't we try hard like the Canadians? Why don't we have confidence like Mexico? We're going to be the worst host country.

And then we came out and we were arguably the best. And we were obviously the last one standing in terms of days, not in terms of round. And it felt like the U.S. had the best chance when it ended up out of all of it. And that's not the case. The U.S. loses this game 4-1. They lost 3-0 to the Netherlands. 3-1. 3-1, sorry, to the Netherlands four years ago.

Put in context, as you sit here right now, has there been leaps? Was there something accomplished this summer by this U.S. group? So I'm struggling with this because this morning on our show, I said, I think if we lose tonight, I don't think it's a failure of a tournament. I think it's a failure of meeting the moment. But the way they failed the moment tonight. Makes it feel like a failure of the tournament. Exactly, right.

So I'm struggling to... Hey, great. MT in the chat says, well, we get a quote, we were wrong about this team or just move on from us. So you can go first and then we can all keep talking about what we were wrong about. And again, and going back to this morning, I said, I'm looking forward to see how this team reacts to adversity when you have to deal being down.

Because I had no doubt that Belgium was going to score. They did. And they did again and they did again. But that's fine, that's fine. But the team never reacted. I think the first 22 and a half minutes, 23 minutes before the hydration break was the worst that this team has played. And it's not just about the soccer. It's the attitude.

They came out so flat. And this is something that we've praised from this team, the whole tournament. against Paraguay hair on fire we're not going to let you get comfortable against Australia hair on fire against Turkey with the sobs

they took it to Turkey they lost it doesn't matter they took it to Turkey against Bosnia hair on fire today was just and I don't again

I'm trying to find the words because I want to stay positive I want to stay positive but the way that this game folded today and the way they lost, it's putting doubts in my mind. Because you're mentioning that the way they lost against the Netherlands in 2022, we put it into context. All the discourse in 2022 was, like you said,

okay, we made it to the round of 16. We lost to a team that we should have lost, right? But this score, Christian Pulisic, Weston McKenney, Tyler Adams, etc., etc. They're just kids, 21, 22. This is a stepping stone for 2026. We go to 2026. We build the momentum. And what you hear

from the critics is that, well, you haven't faced anyone yet. Yeah. And we try to fight that narrative against, hey, Paraguay is not that bad. We made the group bad. Australia, the same thing. Hey, we took it to Turkey with the sobs. Hey, Bosnia, eliminated Italy.

they're not as bad as the USM&T made them look and then you face a Belgium with the Broinie on the bench Lukaku on the bench, freaking Docu on the bench and you don't take advantage of that and I'm not saying just take advantage in the sense of getting a result or winning the first half set the tone

set the tone I'm just shocked I'm floor and I'm and I think I have the benefit of being obviously less emotionally attached to the team as you guys because I'm not American, but I root for them. And I'm just bummed. I was very positive this morning that no matter what, tonight wasn't going to undone this tournament.

So let me just say this. This went as poorly as it could have gone. We said in the preview show, come out, fight hard, whatever happens, happens. I am sitting here, and I don't believe that it undoes what they accomplished. And the one thing I was hoping they would unshackle us from was we didn't have to find the silver. linings and the little hairs here and there to be like, no, no, no, it was better, right? We played better soccer.

So even though we went the same distance, we won a knockout game, and we played better quality. But they did. There's no world in which the largest record crowds watched these games and didn't enjoy watching this team play over the last four games. There's no world in which it wasn't a step forward for the U.S. to score the most goals that they'd ever scored at a World Cup in the games that they played in for guys to set records for the U.S.

So I'm as disappointed as you guys are I'm especially disappointed with the effort and the belief in the energy that they played with I cannot say that nothing was accomplished over the course of the month What do you think was accomplished? I think they brought fans in I think people watched this team play and enjoyed it

The US kit is sold out They set records for viewership and you tuned into those games and you enjoyed watching them play and that's why people came back for the next game and more people came back for the games after that So I think there are more USM&T fans than there were three weeks ago. And I think there are more soccer fans than there were three weeks ago.

And the U.S. is not the only reason for that. The World Cup is here. But the U.S. is a part of that. And I don't think you can say that that didn't happen. Did they take advantage of the experience? You're at a home world cup. You're playing a not great Belgium team. We'll see in the next game.

But I'd be shocked. This was a Belgian team that took a result from Spain. And you had a chance to go to a quarterfinals again. No. They didn't. But I don't think we can sit here and say that nothing was accomplished. No, I was asking genuinely. No, no, no, that's what I'm saying.

That's my response. My point is, again, covering this team through the whole cycle in qualifiers of 2022, when they had to go to El Salvador to play qualifiers on the road in Concca Caff, that is very hard. And when you have the opportunity to be there as a spectator, you understand even on the stands how hard it is, even the traveling is brutal. I see this as again, from 2022, the narrative was everything is building up to 2026.

So 2026 came. Yes, you showed good soccer. And you won the group. Yes. You were second at the last one. And I'm sure, like I said, you gained thousands. It's not millions of fans. And hopefully they're going to stay attached.

And now they're going to, I've seen tweets of people, hey, now that the World Cup is over, who can I root for? And then you see, like, even the MLS team is jumping on, hey, hey, why don't you root for us, etc. But, but this was the moment for this team. So. Yeah, it's not going to be this team in four years. Exactly. And ending up at the same place.

And again, you can lose tonight. That's fine. It's just the way they lost for me that I was extremely positive this morning. just took bear out of me completely. Let's start with the way they lost. What do we think happened? The lights were too bright. I mean, it's like the Jared Allen meme

where he just wasn't ready for the playoffs. And it felt like that because they came out so passive and that was something that they had not done in any of the first four games. They had come out and they had set the tone or at least matched it physically. Whereas within, I think, 40 seconds, Tyler Adams had gotten completely blown by and dusted

and Christian Polisic was not tracking back and they're like, uh-oh, you know, like already they're on the back foot and then they never got back to it and to bring it back to what I was saying about that first goal, watch how narrow and passive the U.S. are just sitting in a 4-4-2 and how easy it is for Belgium to pick their head up on one side of the field and hit the diagonal to the other side. And that drives me nuts.

because that's how they killed us in March, hitting long diagonals to get Doku and Trussard in isolation. And our guys, you know, our fullbacks can defend well in isolation. They didn't tonight. But it's either way, it's not a good idea to let them do that. So I don't understand how we weren't ready emotionally for this moment, this opportunity, and I don't understand how they weren't ready tactically. They looked lost tactically, which is shocking.

They played this team three months ago, and they got their asses handed to them, and they learned what not to do, and they went out there and did it all over again. I wanted to know if the way they played against Paraguay and Bosnia, if that could scale against a better team. And we never found out because they did not play that way. They played the other way.

They sucked shit. and it was terrible to watch and they did themselves a disservice. I don't think it undoes everything that happened over the past three weeks, but you're crazy if you don't think that people are leaving this World Cup now. Potential United States national team fans

are leaving this World Cup now with a bad taste in their mouth because you can be a novice. My mom was texting me about how lazy they looked out there. And that was not the team that we saw through four games. My dad texted me at half time the analysis, which was they need to be.

to play better. It was amazing to watch a half and watch all 11 players play poorly. Every single one. Often we do that and then it's like, oh, Weston McKinney was good in this spot. And I thought Weston McKinney was the best player on the field in the first half, which is a low bar. Oh, so-and-so, actually, I liked this run. Oh, this was positional. It was 11 players who were slow to understand the moment. They lost every 50-50. It wasn't a 50-50 in the first half. Within the first like 10 minutes, I was looking at on footy, and the duels were, I think, 13 to 4, Belgium. And duels are, if you're not a stats person, duels are exactly what it sounds like. Two players come together trying to win the ball.

One comes away with it. It was better than three to one in favor of Belgium in the first 15 minutes of this game. And I think the U.S. was so slow to recognize the game that there were probably duels that didn't occur in that moment because they were so late to get to the ball that they didn't even get to. tackles in. And Tyler Adams was a huge part of that. Sergenio Dest ball watching on that play where Freeman somehow survives on the end line one-on-one against Trossard. All he can do is headed up. Now he heads it back towards the middle. And Dest watches it fly over his head trying to locate the ball as if the most important thing is not to get the first touch on the ball in your own defensive box.

Chris Richards was hesitant. I mean, he didn't know if Freeze was coming out or not. He didn't know if he wanted to pass back or not. He has been the most consistent player on this team. Tyler struggles as well. Pulisic just wasn't in the game. And then we get into a little bit, oh, we'll push Jedi higher so that I can go hero mode, I can pick it up deep,

and I could drive forward. Malik Tillman wasn't in the game at all. Well, and that, I blame Pachitino for that at least a little bit because once it was clear that Belgium was going to press us a little bit more than I think we expected, you have to drop Tillman into it too.

Tyler Adams is really good as a single pivot defensively. In terms of buildout, he's so poor on the half turn that if you don't give him help while you're being pressed, you are just going to turn the ball over. You're never going to get into any flow. And the U.S. never dropped into a two. Like that has to be part of the pregame plan where it's like you shouldn't need to wait until the hydration break. to make like your guys should be drilled to recognize hey they're pressing us with a four that means someone sitting on Tyler he can't turn out of that drop deep make it a three two four one so that you have more outlets we never did that that's on the coaching stuff it's also on Malik tilman who's a champions league player he should have the recognition to say like oh my job is actually to progress the ball I should get into a spot where I can receive it first and then progress it And he never did that.

And through all of that, the miracle was that they were in the game. And that's almost even more disappointing, which was it was 1-0, then it was 1-1. Big 5 minutes, opening 5 minutes, last 5 minutes of a half, 5 minutes after a goal, just don't give up chances there. They concede within 61 seconds of scoring. Then they come out of halftime with a little bit more energy, and then Matt Freeze makes one of the worst mistakes in U.S. men's national team, history.

And that is something that these players are now going to have to live with as well, is they started poorly, they didn't show up, they had a hydration break in a halftime to reset themselves, basically restart the game. They were still in it, and they don't end up finding a way back into it. And it really didn't fall on anyone's shoulders to, like, create and drive the game. Tillman got a little better, Weston got better, Raina comes off the bench, but it didn't feel like, to Doyle's point about Tillman's recognition, it didn't. didn't feel like there were problem solvers in this group.

Yeah. And we're going back to the weight of expectations, right? And how are you going to react when you are facing those issues on the field? Who's going to step up and fix the problems? Because you can put it on Pocetino all you want. But at the end, also the players are the ones on the field. And I agree with you with everything that you said. But we go back to how this team got eliminated in Cop America, 2024, because it's basically the same group with.

some additions like Freeman, like we can put their Tillman, et cetera. But the core, and I go back to the same names of all, Ballo was present already. It's a team that when the expectations have hit their highest points, they've disappointed. They've been disappointed. And again, you can lose the game. You can lose the game.

and talking with people that are new to soccer and are discovering this team now, like we're talking millions of people. I get the same text as you guys. It's like people that don't know the difference between who is Balogon and who is Polisic and who is Giorrein, etc. And it's, they ask me, it's like, hey, so what's the ceiling here? What's the goal?

what's the result that you will be okay when everything is all set and done? And I think the answer, I don't know how you feel, guys about this, the answer it came to, you can lose to Belgium, but it depends how you lose, right? And I go back to this feeling that I'm feeling right now, that the way you lost tonight is unacceptable, and it's on the players. And I think there's zero, two zero times zero chance. the Pochettino is going to continue. Oh my God, yeah.

So there's going to be another reset. Yeah. There's going to be another coach with another philosophy with mostly the core of this team, but hopefully bringing the new generation. But it's going to be a next restart, restart because everything was building to this, this moment with this group of players at their peaks at home and just the way you lose. My fear is this. Because you've been in this fight longer than me, obviously.

your fight against the people that hate soccer on the want to jump in the soccer Bangor in this country, right? And minimize everything that the USMNT does or the US soccer do as a federation or players, etc. But my theory is that, like you said, all those people that were so excited on this buildup

and the gut punch was so hard tonight that they're just going to, poof, be gone as fast as they can. And part of what brings Americans into international sports that are not the sports that are expertise, and the Olympics is always the example, is people like winners. It's fun. It's fun to root for someone that wins. But it's also fun to root for someone who shows up.

It's fun to know that when I turn on the TV, Michael Phelps is going to be within a touch of winning. So I'm going to tune in every time because I know what I'm going to get. And that's sort of the like transactional experience of I will give you my heart and my fandom and my time. And what you give me back is some guarantee that I'm going to get the adrenaline. and rush and the excitement and sort of that weird reward we all get you're holding for me yeah because that's exactly what you were mentioning about the fight that canada show that mexican show we know that the mexican fans are so harsh to the national team and their players last night everyone was praising that team and everyone was praising those players the way they lost i don't think anyone

is going to the defense of this group right now. And that's scary because there's nothing to defend tonight. Yeah. And that's pretty hard. And that's become the MO for this generation, for these guys who were supposed to be a generation. Between Copa America, between what we saw in Nations League and now between this. You know, they have not raised the bar.

It felt like for four games that they were raising. the bar and that they were going to challenge what we saw in 2002. And not only did they fall short of that, they really did undo some. And I don't care about the fans who hate soccer. I care about me.

I want to have fun watching this team play. And for 360 minutes, I had so much fun. What's odd was it became their program coming out of COVID and they won two Nations League in a gold cup in dramatic fashion over Mexico. So it did feel like they

understood and it felt like they had brought back what landon and clint and eddie pope and gooch's group had of like especially against mexico it was like it doesn't really matter we're going to find one more percent than you and the more you care the harder you try it almost makes it harder for you because we're going to play in this even level and then coming out of the 2022 world cup it all started to crater and that's where the conversations came do they care how you know invested they are they now it felt clear that coming out of too long with Greg Burhalter and the chaos that was out of 2022, one of the issues was everyone felt like they had a guaranteed spot in the team. And so there

wasn't an extra bit of desire and Pocitino had reset some of that. And I guess with this performance today, it's not any of that, right? It's not Pulisic being comfortable in his roster spot that makes him play poorly today. It's not Weston McKinney being comfortable. It is back to the lack of understanding of the moment and how to deal with it. it and how to deal with it as a group, which is really, really frustrating because it's like seven years. I mean, all of them have known each other since they were children, but it's like seven years at the pro ranks to be together to build to this moment and to be, to your point about the

response, to be that disconnected and to be that alone out there and not be like, oh, yeah, these guys are fighting against it. I mean, look at England at the Azteca last night. Just battling. Down a man. Cross is coming in. Proper football. Proper footy made.

of a footy mate and just battling through it and that's what's not there now we're not going to do this now we are going to do a special on what comes next you mentioned peaks you could go through this list of players and you could explain on the one side so gino desks right now 25 so it would be 29 at the next world cup richards will be 30 Jedi would be 32 uh obviously Alex freeman will be 25 Tyler Adams will be 31, Gioraynor will be 27. So we could do that convo, and we will. These guys, they are not done. That's how young they were in 2022.

I think the combo we're going to have, and we're going to do this as a separate episode because I don't want to spend too much time on it, is going to be, it will be a success if, like Morocco, it is 70% new roster at the next World Cup. These guys shouldn't have these spots anymore. I've said it over and over again. It's not a golden generation.

It's a pipeline. Now it's time to push. now it's time for the next group of players to push these guys out if they're not good enough and if they are able to fight for their spots back then that's great that would be a golden future that would be the ideal scenario for the U.S.

and that's what's happened for Morocco they made it to a World Cup semi-final at the last World Cup you look at this group it's like seven new starters and all of them are young and ready to push the next generation or be pushed from the people behind them that's what's going to be necessary

for the U.S. going forward but for this tournament this was their chance. As you said, for this group, this was their opportunity, and they're going to like stew over this one. Let's just do Matt Freeze for a minute. It was a fight to get the spot. A lot of it was to Matt Turner and his timing

and the move to Arsenal and the failure of it. Some of it was the Gaga-Slonina and his timing and the move to Chelsea and the failure of it. And I think to an extent to Matt Freez credit that he took the job and held it for a fairly long time. He never lost it. And he made his best save of the tournament

within two minutes. And he made a second big save at the near post on show. He turned around and you started talking smack to me about my opinion that Matt Turner should have been the starting goalkeeper. Irrespective of the fact that Matt Freeze had not made any calamitous errors, I felt that Matt Turner was a better goalkeeper. And unfortunately, Matt Freeze ended up proving me correct tonight because it's not just the disaster that was the third goal.

Second goal, he probably could have come off his line. Absolutely. And claim that cross. And that's the knock on him, is that he does not command his box as well as he should. And that ended up leaving Tim Ream alone at the back post on a guy who's six inches taller than him. And that's 2-1. And that's really, really tough. And this is not a team that's good enough to afford any of those mistakes.

At 3-1, they probably huff and puffed the rest of the game, and there's a chance in there or not. three one killed things yeah that was the end of the game and i and i think and we'll see what matt free says i think he's trying to connect the pass i think he comes off his line finally yeah and takes the ball off which is going to be a breakway if he doesn't come off his line great you solved this problem congratulations matt freeze here was the quiz and you passed it and then he turned around and threw up on his quiz sheet before he hands it in this is a weebism right now it is um it's like he goes to clear it, he realizes he has an extra second, and he's like, oh, I should connect a pass.

He's short-sick with it for a second. But you don't have to do that. And it was these moments throughout the game for all these guys where it was slow when it should have been quick. And it was quick when it should have been slow. I mean, multiple U.S. players collided with each other in this game. Like, how off-center can you possibly be? They lost those duels, too.

Yeah. Their own duels. Ooh. Can I ask you a question? Yeah. You were going through the list with the ages, and obviously their players are going to move on from this roster, like Team Rim, the captain. I don't expect Team Rim to be back with the national team. Probably Matt Turner, maybe.

So now the Pooleysk, the McKenys, the Tyler Adams, they're going to be the ones becoming the team Rims, the Matt Turner, the ones obligated to be the leaders. I don't think there's a leader on that list. I mean, we're going to find out, right? We will, you know, spinning ahead from this, we will figure out who the actual leaders are. The proof is in the pudding. Yeah. They've shown Carter, Cop America.

And tonight, that it's, when it's, in Spanish, when the potatoes are burning, they always get burned. Yeah, it will be interesting to see which of the group becomes that person or if any of them are capable of doing it. You have Tyler. That's a given. Is it, though? He was terrible. He was terrible against the Netherlands four years ago, too.

He's a good captain, and he's a good leader in the locker room as far as I know. But I don't know how when you're the people around you, which are supposed to be on the field, the leaders on the field, to generate and create chances and score goals, which are Pulisic McKenny, et cetera. And I know for a fact that Tyler is very different that those guys, and they don't necessarily has always gotten along in the locker room and off the field. So I'm very interesting to see who is going to be the one that takes this group because still you have a lot of players that are going to be very young and still in their prime, quote, unquote,

in the prime in four years. because you have a lot of quality coming in, right? Yeah. If you expect with maybe Chris Beretti becoming the goalkeeper or, I don't know. The, what's Diego Cochin? I don't know. Is he ever going to play outside of Barcelona, maybe hopefully? Gozo, Julian Hall, Mehmeti, hopefully.

And you need leaders to embrace those kids. And I'm struggling to find who are there going to be from that group. that is going to keep going on this national team. I know it's pretty bleak. No, no, no. The thing is it shouldn't... It's just that tonight, I mean, this is what it... This is the way that... Listen.

It's the only way that ruined everything. Over the last 14 years, we've done this four times now, right? This is the second least bleak one. I think 2014 and 2018 were worse. I mean, 2018 was the worst. I think 2014 was worse. It was an age teams. It was a team that didn't have guys you could list and say, next World Cup.

It was Julian Green. That was the future. And they got completely outplayed and had no business being in the game. And Tim Howard steps up. 2010, they should have taken advantage of that. They should have gone through. In 2022, there was positivity going forward. So I would say this isn't the bleakest it's been.

and I don't think it should feel that way because there is a lot to build on that has been built over the last eight years. Am I crazy for saying this? You guys are looking at me like I'm crazy. I think that can be true, but also this is the bleakest it's been in the immediate aftermath of elimination.

Because in 2014, I can at least look and say, oh, at least we'll be done with Juergen. Of course, we weren't. and then we saw how that went. You know, 2010, we fought. We were missing two of our best players to injury, but hey, the future is still bright. 2022, we were just talking about it.

Like, this is a young group. Can't wait to see how good they are in 2026. And they were excellent in 2026 up until they played the worst game we've played at a World Cup since 5'1 to Czechoslovakia in a country that no longer exists, 35 years ago. 3-0, Czech Republic to open 06. I thought this was worse.

Yeah. The same first half, the checks were just more efficient. I think this is worse, in my opinion, because there's the first time that the U.S. M&T came to a game against a rival like Belgium being the favorite. Yeah. Or with the expectations that... Which is partially being at home, but also because of the way the two teams had played. Exactly. And we spoke about that on this morning's show that not just on the odds, the betting odds, the USA was favorite.

But they've shown better soccer and a better level than Belgium in the tournament so far. Yeah. Right. So when you mix everything together with this group reaching their peak at home, with all the momentum building, right? Yeah. And having the opportunity, because we go back to the same discourse

that I've mentioned a lot of time, in March, getting to this game as a favorite was something like, unimaginable, right? So that in three, four months, everything changed this way to your favorite. And again, you could have lost showing fight

you could have lost showing a better disposition. But this might be one of putting everything into account, right? Managing expectations, trying to deliver what we're expecting from this group. It's just unexcusable. Like the first half, and the worst thing is that, like you said, it's a miracle that game was 2-1. Yeah. But I'm just going to take the first 23 minutes before the hydration break. it's the worst that I've seen a USMNT

played and come out out of the gates that I can remember let me we have this I mean this has been joked about commented about a million times so how much do we think it's the fact that Bolligan was out and then back in how much of it do we think is the fact that they've had to talk about an international political potential crisis for the last 24 hours I think it was less about that for the U.S. than it was for Belmont

Belgium has been bad. Belgium tweeted out from their official account overturned this after the game. Good for them. They've been bad this tournament relative to their talent level and disconnected relative to their talent level. And they needed something to rally around. And they got something to rally around. And they very clearly used it. And they came out with their hair on fire.

And they set the tone. And good for them. You know, a good manager and a squad with heart understands, you use whatever you can to fuel that fire. And that's what they did. Their press, it wasn't exactly suffocating, but it was good and it was smart. They did a good job of funneling to Tyler in a situation

where he had to make difficult, reads, difficult, and he's not going to do that. So that was one. And then on the other side, like, okay, you're going to give us the switch. We're going to take the switch every single time. Our best players are our wide attackers. We're going to take the switch every single time and try to annihilate you with it.

And they did. It was just well done across the board and they were all bought in on the same page in a way that we hadn't seen other than kitchen sink time against Senegal. And I am certain that it was, screw these guys, they got to cheat to even be in this.

game with us. Let's show them how much it doesn't even matter. You as a master taxician in this table, I have a question for you. The way I saw it, am I wrong in thinking that I don't think Belgium did anything extraordinary. They were just organized. They were occupying spaces. They just block every passing lane. They suffocated Tyler. But it wasn't extraordinary. So that's how bad the USMNT came out. Can I romance sense? No, no. It was the U.S. being passive in every sense of the word.

Passive in their shape. Passive in their line of confrontation. Passive about getting pressure to the ball to prevent switches. And then passive in the duels. If you're winning the physical battle, it doesn't matter what your tactics are at that point. You're just kicking the other team's ass. And that was the story of the first 23 minutes.

And then it was the story of the rest of the game after that. Yeah. If you walk, if you're walking all the time, It doesn't really matter where you're walking to. You were screaming five minutes into the game about Tillman and Pulisic just walking back into their shape and not doing anything after that. And where does the switch come from? Yeah. And it's whose job is it?

And by the way, that is exactly how it happened in March. Pulisic walking, not closing down the fullback, allowing him to hit a huge right to left switch. That time it was to Dooku, which is even more lethal than Trosar. Yeah. And it was in both sides of the ball. It was slow decision-making. I don't think anyone played the obvious next pass without hesitating a beat the entire first half, where it's like, let's get the tempo moving. I trust that my teammates there.

Let's go. And then part of that is speed of play. And we mentioned this with the Mexico game this morning. What happened to Gilberto Moore and the turnover for the second goal was something happening at a speed of play that's never happened to him before against quality of play. players he's never experienced before because he's 17 years old. A $120 million central midfielder read the play. And oh, by the way, he's a freaking sprinter as well. So, yeah, that happened really, really quick.

But that was Netherlands four years ago for the U.S. It wasn't supposed to be now. It was supposed to be you are all Champions League players. You are all high-level players. You're all from these experiences. You've been here at a World Cup before. And again, I go back to, I thought this is what we'd see versus Paraguay. I thought it would be the pressure of the eight years or the six years or the four years,

or the two years or the six months, whatever it was, the pressure, that's where it would build up. So for them to come out and play through that already and then revert back into it today is really, really tough. And that doesn't include the fact that there might be that gap of quality with Belgium. And to your point is, we don't know because we can't fall back to that and say, oh, well, when the two teams went toe to toe, American players struggle to turn out of pressure. American players struggle to read this scenario. American players struggle to reset their style

if the other team breaks it down or whatever. Because they just rolled over and showed their bellies. Yeah. So maybe the thing we learned was American players are soft. Yeah. And that's all we learned. I mean, I'm looking at the chat and every second comment is about how soft politic is.

And at this point, you can't defend them. You can't argue with them. that. He's supposed to be the, he's right in the 10. He's supposed to be the leader of this group. There was not a single moment in this game where he looked like he wanted any part of it. He didn't have a shot on goal the whole tournament. Now part of that was injury, which is unfortunate. And this is where we talk about timing with this. I talked about it with Canada. Sometimes the timing's wrong. Yeah. For the U.S., it was somewhere in between. No, the timing was really good. Yeah. Like everybody, pretty much.

Well, no one was playing well with their club team coming into this. It's true, but like everybody was healthy. Yeah. You know. And Alex Freeman's the best player on the team. That's the one thing that we've learned. There's a lot of jokes in the chat about the Super Bowl and how we can go back to being world champions at sports where we're the only ones.

Yeah, we're getting overrun with Belgians in the chat. Yeah. Shout out to the Belgians then. Congratulations. Is no allies on the chat? Yeah. Is no allies on the chat? No.

I don't think so. Because he's the one that started that. Yes. Why are you world champions of the world champions? And then Noel Liles had to get taken off in a wheelchair after winning the, or losing the second race that he ran at that Olympics. So maybe it was a little bit tough. So do you think that's fixable? The like grit and desire thing?

Yeah. It's interesting in a week where Philip Lom says the same thing about Germany. And it's, it's bizarre because if you don't have great desire, you don't get past Paraguay in Australia or Bosnia and Herzegovina. Also, we saw them have it. Also, you don't get to Milan. Or Juventus. I mean, there is a complaint, and I think it's a fair complaint, about how cohesive youth development is now.

And so if you are, Alex Freeman, for example, it's laid out for you. You mean how cookie cutter it is? Yeah. And they move you along the route from professional academy, up into professional second team, up into professional team, and then sold. And there's a difference there with, We sat with one of our coworkers who went and played in the second division in Norway. What was the name of the team?

And I went to find his career. And we could list the million. I mean, Jay de Merritt's the obvious cliche story, but we could list a million other American players, Canadian players, who went and found their careers on their own. And I've said this many times. There seems to be a level of ownership of. of players' careers when that's how they built them.

I think Tim Ream probably goes into that list of players, came out of college soccer, a little bit unknown, built himself up, goes to Europe, not unknown because he gets sold, but battles his way through becomes a club legend. And there are other guys who have done that. That's not really the experience for a lot of players now, right? Weston McKinney is sold as a youth player.

Chris Richards comes into a pro academy, and then he goes to a bigger pro academy and then it's all built through. But that doesn't mean there aren't bumps along the way. The assumption is you won't make it. If you are in Byron's academy, the assumption is you will not make it to the first team and you will never play first division soccer.

Like that's the numbers game. So I find it hard to believe that that is the total problem there that these guys don't have that. One thing I think I'm hopeful of is if there's a bigger player pool to choose from, the guys who are able to kick it in are the ones who get the spots. And maybe there is still a situation

where not only do you have to call the 26th, Potch played 14 guys in legitimate minutes this World Cup. Yeah. He trusted 14 players to be a part of this group, which means that's how thin he thinks the U.S. group is that can affect the game at this level right now. No one's got anything for me.

No, no, I completely agree. But, and that's why I think a lot of people struggle from the get-go with these players being called the golden generation, right, without proving anything. Yeah. And that's why the older guard since 2019, 2020, when this label came out, they said, whoa, whoa, relax, take a break. They have to show something, right?

And so far they haven't. I think that they were. way that is fixed, it's somehow some way, and I'm leaning to that, what you're mentioning, of, I don't know, oh, Tyler, you're not good enough? Well, there's a kid named Adri Mechmetti coming in, so you better step up, right? Push the competition. I think that's the way you fix it. What I'm worried now is the next step that U.S. soccer is going to make, because again, if I have to bet. I'm not a betting man, but if I have to, I will bet that Pocchitino is not coming back. I... But maybe he does. I don't know. Maybe the money's

too good. I have no idea. But, and I'm saying something very obvious, the next hire is going to be so important, right? Because one of the things that Pocetino did well was that to his credit and to the player's credit, they were was a growth in the mentality because the players were too comfortable with the last coach and the last cycle. And there was a growth in that. So that momentum needs to keep going. So the next coach not only has to work the younger generation in, but he has to make this group better on the field, off the field, and keep working on that mentality that,

they've shown that they clearly lack in moments like this. And I've said this many times. The waste of Copa America, I think you see the effect of that today, partially. The fact that they rehired Greg after a year of interviewing Greg, when they shouldn't have rehired Greg in the first place because they never plan to not rehire Greg. And it wastes 2024, and Tim Wea punches a guy in the face,

and that really was 2024. But clearly there was something wrong in the team, because Greg got fired two days later. And with no qualifying, the only way to prepare for days like this was to have done it in 2024. And Canada got that opportunity. And I think you saw it against South Africa. And I think even in the loss, you saw it against Morocco.

And the U.S. wasted that entire. It was the only competitive games that stretched this group that they were going to have for four years. And they wasted that opportunity. Now this cycle, they'll have qualifying. we don't know what 48 or 64 or 91 or 98 or 342 team qualifying looks like so we don't know how competitive it will be and how important games down in El Salvador actually will be

hopefully a lot so we can come back yeah 100% but that will push this group in a different way and I do think that was one of the hard things over the last two years was for all of like what you could build up a Portugal friendly or a Belgium friendly into it's a friendly what did Greg come back Why? Yeah. Because this is a program that has no ideas and no vision. No, you know the answer.

Because the players wanted him? Exactly. That's on the program. That is on the Federation for listening to a 24-year-old player. That's embarrassing. But that's- You have a job. I'm sorry, if I'm a parent and I listen to my kids, it's not their fault.

That's my point. You're making my point. Oh, thank you. I thought I made it really eloquently, too. We are agreeing. Yeah. The next hire, it needs to be. to work that that never happens again.

And it had to have started four months ago. Yeah. That's the part that drives me insane when you read the information about Ernie Stewart and what they were doing coming out of 2022, that it went really well and they liked it, as if there was no plan going into it. Marisa Pochicino is not coming back.

And if he is, then those negotiations sort of already started. Colo Ancelotti got a contract. Jesse Marce got a contract. You're legally allowed to sign contracts before they finished playing all the games at a World Cup. Julian Nagelsman has been fired. Other people have been fired.

Bessasarra has already signed with Chile. Like, things happen, and it feels like the history of the U.S. Soccer Federation is to drag your feet and try and, like, muddle your way through it, very similar to how Ricardo Pepe played throughout most of this game. That was disappointing. Pepe was out to see in the time he was in there. Giorina looked okay. He did for 15 minutes.

So, I mean, the only promising part of the game was the start of the second half before the freeze disaster. And in part, it was because Raina was being really smart in the positions he was taking up so that the U.S. was able to play third long passes to his feet in the pockets. And he's one of the guys we have who can receive the ball in the pockets with his back to goal. checks his shoulder and is able to at least progress the ball into decent places. I was actually enjoying that a little bit and then obviously everything turned to shit. I can't even go through the three goals and decide which one, I guess four in the end. I don't know more, but. It was the third one.

The third one. The second one to come 60 seconds later and again be savable by freeze. And I had already yelled at you because there was a chance earlier of, 50-50 at midfield where Tim Ream gets out jumped and then on the second one just doesn't get off the ground and it was like he was at a different speed than was it to Kettlier on that one too? And then on the goal he jumps over at Tim Ream

who is stationary on the ground at the same time Matt Frie shouldn't have gone there. That's why you cannot allow that switch. You know as soon as that switch is hit then the next ball is going to be across to the back post where de Ketterlaire is going to be isolated on a centerback who was six inches shorter than him. It was like none of this was in any of the prep or any of the film work they did over the past four days. And I cannot, for the life of me, understand how.

I cannot. Like the freeze goal was the worst one because it's just such a disaster and it took any error out of the game. But at least that was just an individual error. The fourth one is just Chris Richards screwing around. Individual error. The game is done. The game was done anyway.

Yeah. But the second one, the way, the first one too, like the way the U.S. just allowed the easy play time and again, like the game hadn't even started. We were cooked. We were cooked from the moment

the whistle blew. And that is just a terrible feeling. Yeah. The way Pochettino was reacting on the bench to the goals, gives me a sense that there was a plan and just the players didn't execute. Can I give you the quote? Pochitino, quote, today we didn't share our real quality as a team. I think we were never were with the flow of the game.

Very bad day. I mean, there's only so much you can do if everyone shows up and plays like crap. And I think to your point, whatever game plan he had. Yeah. And I think there's a, not I think, there is a level of responsibility on his. shoulders that his team was unprepared to play. Yep. And someone paid a lot of money for them to be better than they were four years ago.

And they were the same now. They were worse. If you're looking at giving out money, our name is soccer wise. We're hanging around. If you're ever looking to hand out money, change the game, whatever it is. But just kidding. Soccer.com is the only thing we care about. You should go to soccer.com to buy all your gear and hang out there.

But a lot of responsibility will be on the shoulders as it should be because he was hired for this. Yeah. He failed. Yes. I think it's a failure because like you said, this is worse than 2022. Yeah. But without a question. Without a question. And you add the buildup and the momentum that this team built to this moment during the last three weeks is just, it's a gut in the punch in the gun.

Yeah. It's a gut in the punch. It really is. Yeah. That's why I feel so, so bad because. Again, I was there in Qatar in person. And at the end of the game, it was like, okay, this is what we're supposed to be. Right.

2026, that's the goal. That's where we're going to make semifinals. That's where, hey, why not? Why not us? Yeah. Why not winning the World Cup at home with this group of players at peak? With one of the most expensive coaches on the planet. And then you lay this egg to.

tonight is just, it's a hard pill to swallow in my opinion. And again, I'm not as emotionally attached to this team and I'm just crushed. I'm crushed. Was it wrong to hire so Pachino? Can we say that right now? No. It was it was the right idea. He was the right coach in a lot of ways. He was the wrong coach tonight. He'd be the wrong coach going forward. One of the things that we have to learn as a federation is to stop doing the two cycle thing. We tried it. We tried it with Borah Militinovich, 1998 cycle. He lasted a year. It was the worst year for the national team.

I can remember. He was gone. Steve Samson failed in 98, so we got rid of him. We brought in Bruce Arena for the 2002 cycle. Brand new coach from the start of the cycle, we had our best cycle as a program. Held on to Bruce Arena for the 2006 cycle. We failed at the World Cup.

Got rid of Bruce, replaced him with Bob, didn't intend to. Bob was the interim. if you remember for like two years. He did so well that... We chased Eugen. Chase Yergan. Did so well throughout that cycle and in the 2010 World Cup. We kept Bob.

He got a year. Lost in the Gold Cup. Bob was out. Finally got Yergan. Yergan, I thought, was a monorail salesman from the start. Did well enough at the world or leading up to the World Cup that he got the second contract before we even got to the World Cup, kept him on last. two years, had some famous first time ever losses. First loss to Guatemala in 40 years.

First loss to Jamaica ever. First loss to Jamaica at home ever. His second cycle was a failure. We failed to qualify 2018. Brock Reagan. Greg did a great job in that first cycle. Rebuilt the program. And you saw what happened in the start of this cycle. The second cycle was a failure. again. Well, not under the step coach. Yeah, not under the step coach. The coach he stepped up. So we have failed time and time again to learn from the past. And I am just begging USS to learn from the past. Move on from Maricio Pachitino. Get in a new coach and a new voice for the entirety of this cycle. Let someone else build the culture or rebuild the culture, depending on how big a disaster

and how far reaching tonight was. And hopefully we can recapture. what we had in 2002. You guys know all of the names or characters that I'm going to say. Is there an American coach or an American base coach that you want to be the first option on the list? Or is it a global search and then

you're okay to find and learn whatever names are in there? I have a name. And I think it should be 1A, 1B, 1C, 1D. Don't even look for it. I have two guesses. Oh, it wasn't going to be one of them. You think BJ

Callahan should be the coach of the U.S. Men's Asselty. This group has never looked better than when BJ coached them and what I've done with Nashville has been enough for me to say give him a full cycle. He should be on the short list, but it should be a big search. You have to make sure just because BJ had a good eight months a couple years ago, maybe, and he has been really good with Nashville. I don't want to just see him Handed the job because he's next in line

Call up everybody who has even the faintest amount of interest And a good CV The chat is saying why not call the greatest American coach Of all time Brian Schmetser Do you care that if he's American or not? I don't yeah I don't do you care if they have an understanding In any background of the American system The American player or any of that?

I don't think so not at this point I I I I I just It's just win, baby. Like, it really is. Pick the best players. The head coach is not the GM of the program. The head coach is the head coach of the U.S. men's national team.

And the job is to make the best team out of that. The rest of the stuff, that's on somebody else's plate. Yeah. What are your names? Ludicris Breed says they should hire Brucei, R. Nia. Ari Nio. What are the names? I thought you were going to say,

I thought there was a chance. Thomas Christensen was going to come up. And I thought a chance Wilfred Nonse was going to come up. Those are two. Patrick Vieira. Yeah. Boy, there's not, not Roberto Martinez. Jim Curtin just got a job. Yeah, just got hired.

There's a generation of coaches, I think, that we had talked about four years ago who have all fallen off and probably are not still like high-level options for this. I think Pat Noonan has lost some shine. So that would have been one that we would have made. mentioned B.J. Callahan is taking that over. I do wonder if there's, if B.J. Callahan's too connected in the whole, like, these players like Greg, who they brought back Greg and it failed. Well, they're like BJ. And BJ has a background. And one of Pocitino's issues, we know, was he doesn't really want to tell people no. And it was okay because it was short term and short-sighted, right?

He sent the email because he didn't want to upset people, but that upsets people. Diego Luna is not happy with Maricio Pochitino. right now, but that didn't matter to him. For the next four years, that's going to have to, there's going to have to be a coach who's willing to have hard just conversations. And I don't know that BJ Callahan's that guy. I'm not saying he's not, but I think that's questionable. We did have a question here.

Pellegrino Monorato comes up in the chat. Mitrovich, I don't, would you leave? No, La Raelle for? No. No. And it sounds like he is very, excited about building his career and what he does. Yeah.

He is not a Jesse Marsh who's growing the American game and the American perception, which is totally fine. But that doesn't seem like a flag he's carrying. So he doesn't seem like the type of guy who's been waiting to get called back for this. He's off doing his own thing and he happens to be an American and he gets connected because of that. And it doesn't seem like there's a ton of interest. Jasper Sorensen got thrown in here. out honestly. Will Fernandez is a great shout. Yeah, he's never coached national team, and what he does

is very intricate, and we don't know that it works with the national team, and the U.S. is going to have to qualify for some things going forward. We had a question in here about who do we think will be a part of 2030 from the group. I named some of the ages of some of the players. I mean, I think the biggest winner of the World Cup was Alex Freeman, right? For the U.S. Yeah. 21 years old, Tillman, emerged as, and Tillman. But Alex Freeman,

it feels like emerged as not only a staple but a fan favorite and for good reason, I thought even in the struggles today, he was still one of the better players. Like he scraps,

he does, you don't come away from this game feeling like Alex Freeman was too scared of the moment or that he didn't care, right? All the things you talked about culturally does not feel like they connect to him. I agree with that.

But it's cold comfort at this point. Spassian Burhalter pumped the crowd up after his volley. You know what? He played with heart. He was one of the few who did not look scared of the moment. He actually played pretty well, though, you know, too little, too late. Balovan? I was still fairly young.

Yeah. Yeah. A lot of these guys are very young and could still be a part of this group. We're going to talk, as I said, we're going to do a big picture episode where we talk about the future of the program. what should come, what has to come, the necessities for the U.S. going forward. We will also talk about some of these pieces we think will be a part of the future. We all are lucky enough to cover all the way down through the youth ranks at some of the best young players.

And listen, one of the things I've said over and over and over again is the wider you make the pool, the chance to cast the net on guys you don't expect. Tim Ream shouldn't have made it to this level. Miles Robinson maybe wasn't expected to be a national team player. That's going to be the case for the U.S. forever because of the nature of the way it's built. You have to have enough opportunities for guys to still find their spot and find their connection. Max Arvston being a World Cup fullback was not on anyone's bingo card when he was playing Reserve League as a center forward for the San Jose earthquakes coming out of college. So that's always going to be a part of the story for the U.S.

and I think that's fine, because there will be an extent of, can a Matt Turner emerge and can they build it themselves? And I think you need those characters. The question is, can you build a robust enough system so that those players all get enough spots to get the opportunities, as well as then the support around them so that there is a full roster that's capable of competing at a high level, which is not really what we end up seeing at this World Cup.

As I've said over and over again, for all the success they had against Turkey, that they fully rotated the team and still only lost three, two, to a really good team. Bacetino did not trust a large amount of this group coming out of this World Cup. Huge thank you to everyone in the chat. Big thank you to both of you for being here late night with me.

Shout out to Anders for coming and watching with us. Huge shout out to Jordan for being the number one soccer fan and being here and bringing us a soccer beer. So shout out to that as well. And the biggest shout out to soccer.com for helping support our coverage here. But it's not over, even though we don't have any more previews to come.

As I said, we will do our USM&T specials. But we also will be live every single day, 9.30 a.m. Eastern Time, coming the World Cup. McKellie, Eric will be back with us, Doyle, Susanna, and many others. I believe that we have the best World Cup coverage out there. We love the sport. We love the game on the field and off the fields. And I think we talk about all the big stories around all the national teams and everything going on at the World Cup as well, if not better than anyone.

So if you are new here, welcome. If you are sad, we're with you. Welcome. If you want a reason to be happy, we can try and find them for you as well. And I think we will tomorrow, as it's a big congratulations to Belgium, as well as Spain, for their ability to advance here today. So if you are new here, please share the show. Share it with people who are just getting into soccer, people who want to learn about the World Cup, people who might become U.S. fans or have become U.S. fans.

If you are not new here, you should also do all the things I just said. And you should go and rate and review us because it's how people come and find us. So please go anywhere you get your podcast or on YouTube, subscribe to us and then rate us. And then please give us a nice review. And then people can find us going forward. But big shouts to you guys. We'll go get some sleep. We'll be back early tomorrow to break all of this down from a bigger tournament perspective.

What does it mean to see Spain and Belgium in a quarter final? what do we expect to see tomorrow in the big games? Can Colombia, who we all landed so heavily on on this show, continue to progress the way they have so far? And will it be Mohamed Sala in a quarterfinald, or would it be Lionel Messi in a quarterfinald? Thank you to all of you for listening, and we'll talk to you all again very, very soon.