USMNT player ratings: Awful performances from Puli...
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- USMNT fell 4-1 to Belgium at Lumen Field in Seattle on Monday, marking their fourth round-of-16 exit in the last five World Cups
- Charles De Ketelaere scored twice — once in the 9th minute and again as a header in the 33rd — and was also the inadvertent architect of Belgium's third goal when Matt Freese's attempted clearance deflected off him to Hans Vanaken
- Malik Tillman's free kick in the 31st minute briefly tied the match at 1-1, but Belgium restored the lead two minutes later through De Ketelaere's header
- Matt Freese and Christian Pulisic each drew a 2/10 player rating — Freese for misreading the sequence on De Ketelaere's opener and his second-half blunder, Pulisic for losing 11 possessions, the most of any player on the pitch
- Mauricio Pochettino received a 5/10 manager rating after his halftime introduction of Gio Reyna failed to spark a comeback; Belgium had opened with six shots in the first 11 minutes
- Sebastian Berhalter's 79th-minute long-range effort, pushed away by Thibaut Courtois, was cited as arguably the most dangerous chance the U.S. mustered after the break
Why it matters: The USMNT entered the match 0-0-7 in World Cup knockout games when conceding the first goal, and Belgium's 9th-minute opener once again proved insurmountable — a pattern now reaffirmed across four of the last five tournaments, leaving Pochettino's project to deliver a deeper World Cup run unfulfilled for another cycle.
