Belgium trolls USMNT with 'Overturn this' after 4-1 rout
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- Belgium routed the U.S. 4-1 in the 2026 World Cup round of 16 on Monday night, with Charles De Ketelaere scoring twice (9th and 33rd minutes) before Hans Vanaken and Romelu Lukaku added second-half goals
- U.S. midfielder Malik Tillman briefly equalized with a 31st-minute free kick, but De Ketelaere restored Belgium's lead just two minutes later
- American striker Folarin Balogun was available to start after FIFA suspended a red card he received against Bosnia-Herzegovina on Wednesday — a reversal Belgium's federation openly criticized
- Belgium manager Rudi Garcia called the FIFA reversal an "April Fools'" joke, and Belgium posted a Lukaku celebration image captioned "Overturn this" mocking Balogun's eligibility
- Belgium also ribbed the U.S. over calling the sport "soccer," posting the final score with the caption "It's called FOOTBALL" and "soccer" crossed out
- The U.S. has now been eliminated in the round of 16 in four of the past five World Cups (including 2014, also to Belgium); the only exception was 2018, when the team failed to qualify
Why it matters: Belgium's emphatic win and pointed trolling crystallized a painful structural pattern for the U.S. men's program: four round-of-16 exits in five World Cups. The postgame pettiness — aimed squarely at FIFA's last-minute Balogun reversal rather than the U.S. players themselves — escalated the controversy around that decision into the defining storyline of a loss that formally ended the Americans' tournament.
