Бельгийн шигшээ багт 4:1-ээр хожигдсон АНУ-ын шигшээ баг талбайдаа зохион байгуулагдаж буй Дэлхийн аваргын шөвгийн 16-гийн шатнаас гэнэтийн байдлаар мултарлаа.
Сиэтл хотын “Люмен Филд” цэнгэлдэхэд болсон энэхүү тоглолтын дараа АНУ-ын тоглогчид гүн цочролд орсон байдалтай байв. Даваа гарагт болсон тоглолтын үеэр талбайн эзэд тоглолтын хэмнэлээ алдаж, өрсөлдөгчөөсөө дутуу тоглосон нь тэднийг ийнхүү тэмцээнээс эрт өндөрлөхөд хүргэлээ. Кристиан Пулишич, Жованни Рейна, Тайлер Адамс зэрэг гол тоглогчид нь энэ ялагдлыг тайлбарлахад хүндрэлтэй байгаагаа илэрхийлж, багийн эрч хүч сул байсныг хүлээн зөвшөөрөв.
Дасгалжуулагч Маурисио Почеттиногийн удирдлага дор “Дэлхийн аварга болох” зорилготой байсан АНУ-ын шигшээ баг өнгөрсөн сарын бэлтгэлийн эхнээс л өөртөө итгэлтэй байсан юм. Гэвч шөвгийн 16-гийн тоглолтод тэдний тоглолт огт өрнөлтэй байсангүй, ялангуяа хамгаалалтын шугам болон хувийн дуэль дээр илт сул байсан нь хожигдлын гол шалтгаан болжээ. Сержиньо Дест тоглолтын явцад дарамтад орж, хоёрдугаар үед сэлгээгээр суусан нь багийн тактикийн хувьд хүндрэлтэй байсныг харууллаа.
Тоглолтын дараа Антони Робинсон болон Крис Ричардс нар хөгжөөн дэмжигчдийнхээ итгэлийг алдсандаа харамсаж буйгаа илэрхийлсэн бол багийн ахмад тоглогч Тим Рим карьерынхаа чухал мөчүүдийн нэг ийнхүү өндөрлөж байгаад сэтгэл дундуур байгаагаа нуусангүй. Ийнхүү тэмцээнийг өндөр амбицтай эхлүүлсэн АНУ-ын шигшээ баг орон нутгийн 66 мянган үзэгчийнхээ өмнө хүндхэн ялагдал хүлээж, гэртээ харихаар боллоо.
Дэлгэрэнгүй эх сурвалжийг харах
Эх сурвалжийг нээх ↓
SEATTLE — Chris Richards keeled over, and Tyler Adams sobbed. Weston McKennie slumped in a chair, mind spinning, stare blank, while Matt Freese wandered and Tim Ream pondered the end. They, the U.S. men’s national soccer team, had just been banished from their home World Cup, beaten down by Belgium; and in the misty aftermath, players seemed and sounded shellshocked.
They were shocked by their inexplicable sloppiness, by a flop that not a single one of them could answer for.
But they were also shocked by the abruptness of their exit, by the sudden end of a charmed run that they genuinely felt would take them to places the USMNT had never been before.
“We’ve had so much faith and belief in each other, and felt a nation coming together and getting that belief too,” fullback Antonee Robinson said after the 4-1 loss. “And, you know, it feels like we let ourselves down, let them down. It’s beyond disappointing.”
Any World Cup exit is, of course, but this one felt especially crushing because the descent was so rapid.
USA’s dreams come to an end in the round of 16
Tom Bogert and Lia Griffin
On the first day of the first week of World Cup camp last month, head coach Mauricio Pochettino gathered his players on a sun-splashed training field in Irvine, Calif., and fantasized about “touching the moon.” And for a few magicals weeks, players dreamed they could.
They believed they could win the World Cup. At the very least, they were confident they’d reach a quarterfinal. “We all had in our minds that we were definitely gonna be heading back to LA tomorrow,” midfielder Gio Reyna said, referencing a trip back down the west coast for Friday’s would-be quarterfinal against Spain.
Instead, they crashed from outer space down to earth.
“And most of us,” Reyna said, “are just heading home now for vacation.”
“It’s really difficult,” winger Christian Pulisic said. “We were really positive coming into (Monday’s game).”
Christian Pulisic’s World Cup campaign was ultimately one of frustration (Maja Hitij/FIFA via Getty Images)
“This hurts,” Freese said. “This moment hurts. This moment stings more than probably any other moment in my life.”
None of them could fully process it at Lumen Field, and especially not on the pitch they thought they’d own. Folarin Balogun pulled his jersey up over his nose. Malik Tillman sat and searched for answers. Adams’ shoulders lurched on the bench, while Richards fell to his knees, dug his afro into the grass, and closed his eyes in pain.
“You play for your club, you’re representing a million people at most; when you’re representing your country, it’s 300, 400 million people,” Richards said. “So, just very disappointed with how today went. … It hurts.”
But why?
Why did this high-flying team lose all its fuel?
“It’s a great question,” Adams said. “I wish I had the answer right now. Um, I don’t know. I don’t know.”
Speaking around an hour after the final whistle, he and several teammates were dumbfounded.
“I really can’t say,” Balogun said. “To not have the energy in a round-of-16 World Cup game, it’s difficult to… it’s difficult to explain.”
Robinson was similarly bereft. “It’s hard to say where it went wrong,” he said. “We didn’t win any individual duels, really. We looked like we lacked energy, looked like we weren’t as fluid as we have been.”
Several players insisted that the controversy swirling around Balogun didn’t impact them and wasn’t to blame, but they couldn’t pinpoint what was.
“Sometimes,” wingback Sergiño Dest told The Athletic, “you just have these days where everything goes wrong.”
And that day arrived when players least expected it.
They expected to win, and win, and win, and maybe there was just a bit too much blind faith.
“None of us expected to be out at this stage,” Reyna said. But they seemingly always are, and in retrospect, it feels foolish that so many people believed that 2026 would be different.
But then again, it felt different. “I felt like the whole country was behind us,” Dest said. “We had more belief than we did in Qatar (at the 2022 World Cup), more experience.” He added that, entering Monday, they “had so much confidence.”
“So,” Dest continued, “it just felt like we could’ve achieved something bigger than we did.”
It was perhaps the biggest letdown in program history, precisely because the preceding month had been so special. Because that performance against Paraguay on opening night had been so dominant, so inspiring, so unprecedented. Because tens of millions of Americans got behind the team, and because everything seemed to be falling into place at a perfect time, and because the golden generation finally was shimmering.
Sergiño Dest (right) found himself under constant pressure and was replaced at halftime (Carl Recine/Getty Images)
Players felt all of that just like the public did.
“It felt incredible,” Pulisic said.
And then, suddenly, around two hours after another rousing national anthem, in front of 66,000 fans standing and rooting from the bottom of their hearts and lungs, it felt the opposite.
Ream, as he tried to process what were likely his final World Cup moments, stood still for a while with his hands in his hands, staring into the crowd. Emotion flushed his face.
He spoke, an hour later, about “how incredible this journey has been with this group,” and most or all of the group, eventually, will recall fond memories.
But in that moment, the sun setting on Seattle, with seagulls circling overhead, with fans trudging home, it was over.
