HEAD TO HEAD: Belgium Wins 4 USA Wins 1 Draws 0 Referee: () These teams have only met in a World Cup once before. This was the inaugural tournament of 1930 where Bert Patenaude (scorer of the very first hat trick in World Cups) the prolific striker of the then dominant Fall River Marksmen , disposed of Belgium 3-0. A repeat of this scoreline seems unlikely but the USA are very well organized, disciplined and show no little lack of creativity backed by vociferous support and it would not be a surprise to see them upset Belgium who have been less than impressive in their group matches despite a perfect record. Herr Diver is likely to still stick with a solitary forward given Altidore is unlikely to feature with supplemental support from Jones and from the flying fullbacks in particular Fabian Johnson who has caught the eye. He can certainly get past Alderweireld if given the chance. There are no real weaknesses in the team. The midfield has been combative at times perhaps too much so and the defence quite comfortable in anticipating attacks and clearing danger although they looked shaky against the power and pace of Ghana at times Belgium are unlikely to offer such a threat being far more methodical in their approacj. Belgium for their part have shone for small patches before settling back into hum drum football. Nonetheless the defence has been solid although van Buyten has yet to come up against someone with express pace and midfield while solid rather lacking creativity unsurprising with two destroyers favoured while Januzaj has been given a bit part role to date. de Bruyne offers a directness which someone like Beckermann should relish along with Jones but as yet not much subtlety. Whoever comes out top in the physical battle here will win. Russia for much of their game managed to bypass Fellaini and Witsel by pushing in their fullbacks in a more advanced role and isolating Lukaku and dominating midfield and but for some profligacy should have won the game. Hazard remains the creative outlet and should the Americans stifle him Belgium will struggle. Lukaku has also looked disinterested given his isolation, so will Wilmots go with Origi and his pace and movement from the start or use him as he has done with great results from the bench ? Belgium seem quite content to wear the opposition down so far but I have always felt the hype around the dark horses to be that as they lack experience and are rather disjointed as a team. A close game with America coming out on top would not be a surprise.
I was just about to post the same thing! Looks a very good prospect indeed at 20. Someone should have a word with Gino.
Watching this World Cup, it is amazing to see how many teams are better than England. The USA are playing so much as a team, I am willing them to get a draw. I fancy the winners of this games to beat the Argentinians.
Both teams tonight (and others) have shown up how unfit the England team look. All these other sides keep going right till the end whereas we looked dead on our feet by 70 minutes.
Not disputing your general point but the MLS season is just 3 months in and with much of USA's team playing in the MLS you would expect them to look a lot fitter than at least the European teams.
Not at all, it had everything you want from a game. Plenty of attacking from both teams, solid defensive work from both teams. A great atmosphere, with great sportsmanship (not a single dive the whole match, rarely any rolling on the floor for injuries). Pure end to end stuff where it felt as if either team could score at any time. Was brilliant.
I'm not so sure. Most of the games have been exciting and could have gone either way with tiny margins between a win and a loss. I think it demonstrates that there is not that much difference between the teams that we may have thought were first tier, such as Germany, Spain & Brazil, and most of other teams in the WC and I include England, as I don't think we are as bad as some think. We just didn't get our act together.
I felt it was a missed opportunity, with Belgium not living up to their expectations up to today, and the US generally playing well. Bradley needed to be in top form, but instead was average. That put a tremendous amount of pressure on the defense with Howard making more saves than he should have been called on to do. Yedlin has been very promising so I'm glad he got a chance to show it and really didn't disappoint. There is another young American named Luis Gil who will be in Bradley's place in 2018 if all goes as planned. Anyway, I was really down on the performance today, so it's genuinely consoling to see neutrals commenting positively about it. On a real plus side, USA truly has soccer fever, or at least World Cup fever. I hope to see it sustained even more than when it caught on in 2010. Cautiously optimistic...
Your boys done good Fitz, and could have won it had that guy not ballooned the ball over the bar during time added on to the normal 90 minutes, because although he was flagged offside, he most definitely was not!!!
Correct me if wrong but isn't this the first time that every group winner has progressed to the quarters?
Was thinking the same myself - Round of 16 was (effectively) useless! Though there were some cracking games.
Fair point - also they have had a few games at night and the one against Germany was in pouring rain which maybe helped. I am surprised there hasn't been the usual call for a winter break in this country which always seems to happen.
There is no doubt given time the US will become a real power in the mens game as it is in the womens.
It's something I actually wonder if they'll become global juggernauts, above all. As said before, when they start to take an interest they'll have development centers created right, left and center, and with a population that size, they'll probably just have a long conveyor belt of talent.
When you look at someone like Demerit he had no real route into professional football in the US so he came over here but his athletic abilities and willingness to learn got him quickly noticed. Now you have a defined route for aspiring footballers there to become professionals. Some of the best youngsters like Julian Green will still end up at the elite European academies but the vast remainder that stay in the US will no doubt benefit as the USSF continues to bring in expertise from abroad at all levels. The MLS will grow and there will be more franchises in the near future and it's not going to be anything like the short lived attempts to land in a professional league without any grass roots development in the seventies.
Well said, Smudger. This World Cup is the first one where some of the American players have never known a world without MLS. In the next World Cup, virtually ALL American players will have grown up with MLS as a reference point. That means the kids will have seen the sport as a potential profession, not just something to keep occupied with (as it was when I was coming up). Also, when I was a kid, all the team coaches were well meaning dads who grew up playing baseball or football and had no expertise in the beautiful game. Now, most of my friends who have kids coach their kid's teams, and most are very tactically knowledgable, at least more than any generation before.
And the USA will win the World Cup before England manage it again. We're disappearing in to a black hole from which we might never return from.
There are pluses and minuses with this years performance. Mind the rhetoric here... The US escaped the group of death with our dignity intact. The US beat our nemesis Ghana, at last. And this is no lousy backwater squad, they are for real. The US contained one of the most celebrated players of the day in Portugal's Crissy Ronaldo. The US nearly beat Portugal. The US narrowly lost to Germany, held them to a single goal, and almost left with a point. The US almost got a 90' win against an amazingly talented Belgium, and took them to extra time, and chiseled out a come back down a goal. The US didn't come to the table with a simple game plan, bunker and counter, as was done in most years past. There was more sophistication to the organization than ever before. The US brought players capable of carrying out that sophisticated set up. Goalkeeper Tim Howard was truly amazing. On the other hand... The US narrowly beat Ghana, ceding possession for nearly 85', then relying on the good old USA spirit, down but not out, last minute thriller to make a win stick. The US failed to defeat a frankly lackluster undermanned Portugal, featuring an out of sorts Ronaldo, even letting them back in at the death with a Keystone Cop-esque 'comedy of errors' show. The US had no way through Germany, and were never a threat on the day. Belgium offered a myriad of ways through them, and the US couldn't seem to do anything to capitalize on any during regular time. Without Tim Howard standing on his head, we would have had a nightmare. Ultimately, the US finished in more or less the same place they did in 2010, when it was all heart and spirit and no fancy Klinsmann tactics, nor any German-American imports. In fact, 2010 coach Bob Bradley was blind to the impressive shortcomings of a number of his players (e.g. the inexplicable Jonathan Bornstein, worst USA starter of all time; the speedy but useless Robbie Findlay; the human red card Ricardo Clark), yet still the 2010 team is looked down at for not beating Ghana. Is it better to have lost to Belgium? Where would this team have finished with German-American kids Brooks, Green, Jones and Johnson? 3 of the 5 goals came from those kids. We left this 2014 World Cup with the identical number of wins losses and draws on the same number of games played. Look, there is a lot of potential in US Soccer, but...there always is. Is anything really different? Are American players better today than 2010? Or even 2002 when the US knocked out Mexico, went to the Quarterfinals and lost to Germany suffering a non-call handball in the box? It's still hard for me to measure the success, or lack thereof, for this team. It's too recent...
Would still sooner be a USA fan than an England fan. Even standing still is going forward compared to England.
This year's team was significantly better than 2010s. It's going to take time but there is a marked improvement in the US squad versus prior years. I think it will continue to trend that way. There is no shame in losing to Germany/Belgium - they are both far better sides on paper, if you look at their squads.
