\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t The United States\u2019 men\u2019s national team crashed out of the World Cup on Monday with a 4-1 defeat to Belgium in the round of 16, capping a day overshadowed by controversy over the decision to overturn striker Folarin Balogun\u2019s red card suspension.<\/p>\n
Argentine coach Mauricio Pochettino, who has been in charge of the team since 2024, took responsibility for the defeat.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t play well. We were never in the game. Not even when we equalized,\u201d he said after the match.<\/p>\n
Belgium took the lead after just nine minutes. The U.S. equalized in the 31st minute, but Belgium restored its advantage two minutes later before adding further goals in the 57th minute and stoppage time.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom the start, we couldn\u2019t get into the game at all. Belgium was better than us, and we congratulate them. They deserved it,\u201d Pochettino said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m responsible for this poor performance.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Argentine described the defeat as part of a \u201clearning process,\u201d saying his side failed to maintain the level it had shown earlier in the tournament.<\/p>\n
The U.S. opened its campaign with a 4-1 win over Paraguay in the group stage before beating Australia 2-0 and Bosnia 2-0 in the round of 32. Its only previous defeat came in a 3-2 loss to Turkey.<\/p>\n
Pochettino is one of six Argentine coaches who started the tournament in charge of national teams. Following the U.S. elimination, only two remain: N\u00e9stor Lorenzo with Colombia and Lionel Scaloni with Argentina.<\/p>\n
Both sides will be in action on Tuesday, with Argentina facing Egypt and Colombia taking on Switzerland.<\/p>\n
The Balogun controversy Balogun, the U.S.\u2019s top scorer, was cleared to face Belgium after FIFA overturned the automatic one-match suspension he received following his red card in the United States\u2019 2-0 victory over Bosnia.<\/p>\n
The governing body announced on Sunday that the suspension had been rescinded and replaced with a one-year probationary period, making the striker eligible for the round-of-16 clash.<\/p>\n
The decision drew further attention after U.S. President Donald Trump said he had called FIFA president Gianni Infantino to ask for the case to be reviewed.<\/p>\n
European football governing body UEFA later said the decision to lift the ban had \u201ccrossed a red line.\u201d<\/p>\n
Balogun started against Belgium and played a role in the United States\u2019 only goal. Contact with Belgium defender Brandon Mechele resulted in a free kick, from which Malik Tillman scored.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat happened off the field wasn\u2019t something that affected us as a group,\u201d Pochettino said, referring to the ban scandal.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMy role was to coach the team, and if Balogun is available because he\u2019s been cleared to play, that\u2019s not a problem,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Cover photo: U.S. Soccer Men\u2019s National Team on X<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The United States\u2019 men\u2019s national team crashed out of the World Cup on Monday with a 4-1 defeat to Belgium in the round of 16, capping a day overshadowed by controversy over the decision to overturn striker Folarin Balogun\u2019s red card suspension. Argentine coach Mauricio Pochettino, who has been in charge of the team since […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":87006,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5063,22410,67,256,339],"tags":[5307,22409,1369,902,3576],"class_list":["post-87005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-2026-world-cup","category-belgium","category-sports","category-united-states","category-world-cup-2026","tag-2026-world-cup","tag-belgium","tag-sports","tag-united-states","tag-world-cup-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87005\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}