Sports

USA Belgium Postmortem

2026-07-08 Football Soccer USMNT

There has been much ink spilled over the USA Belgium World Cup match on Monday night:

Regarding the above, being the best athlete is not a requirement to be a world class soccer player. Nobody looks at prime Messi and drools over the possibility of him playing basketball or American football. Endurance, speed, skill with feet, and vision are the most important attributes of any soccer player. The key problem: in the USA, all sports are played with hands and not feet. For soccer, it's critical to learn foot skills at a young age in informal settings, which is much less common in the USA.

What hasn't been discussed post match? An actual assessment of the match itself. Certainly there has been talk of the mentality (it was severely lacking) and the errors (they were of the clown car variety), but I have yet to see anyone address the core tactical issues that contributed to the mental frailty and errors.

England vs Mexico 2026-07-05

It's helpful to contrast the approach of England in their match against Mexico to the approach of the USA against Belgium. England are one of the most talented sides in the world. There is not a single USA player who would make the England squad. In fact, England is so talented that players not selected to their 26 player squad would be guaranteed starters for the USA (Cole Palmer, Morgan Gibbs-White, Phil Foden, Trent Alexander-Arnold, etc.). Mexico, on the other hand, is not as talented as the USA. TL;DR - the talent gap between England and Mexico is significantly wider than the gap between Belgium and the USA.

And yet, Mexico had real advantages in this match: the home fans, the home stadium (Azteca is one of the true iconic stadiums of soccer, like Wembley in England), the altitude, the weather / humidity. Thomas Tuchel, England's manager who's top quality, realized he could not rely solely on his talent advantage. He set up England in a 4-4-2 out of possession, starting his 2 best defensive wingers Anthony Gordon and Bukayo Saka. He ensured Declan Rice formed a double pivot with Elliot Anderson and did not venture too far forward. He played 3 center backs as part of his back 4 to ensure a 3-2-5 formation in possession. This more cautious strategy paid off when England jumped to a 2-0 lead behind the great work of Jude Bellingham and Harry Kane (the 2 forward players). The only blemish was a goal scored by Mexico on a set piece in a dangerous area; the foul was a minor one by Saka.

England were cruising in the second half when Jarell Quansah (a center back) was sent off with a red card foul awarded by VAR. Tuchel made a quick adjustment to bolster the back line, sacrificing Saka (who has been nursing an injury) for another center back. Once Kane made it 3-1, Tuchel played for the result by bringing on more defenders. The most notable being the 6ft 7in Dan Burn, whose inclusion in the squad was questioned by some. Burn was an absolute beast clearing the numerous crosses with stunning headers.

In summary, Tuchel approached this match pragmatically by strategically setting up his squad to match the conditions and the opponent.

The Tim Ream Conundrum

In the Spring of 2022 before that World Cup, I noted in comments sections on other sites that Tim Ream would be making the World Cup roster and starting at left center back. I got nothing but push back from folks arguing that Ream was too slow, too old, not good enough, etc. At the time, Ream (who's left footed) was:

  1. the captain and starting left center back for Fulham (a mid table premier league club)
  2. playing alongside his USA teammate Antonee Robinson

What happened? As predicted, Ream started and played reasonably well in that World Cup. Post World Cup in 2022, Pep Guardiola told Tim Ream "If you were 24 (years old) instead of 34, you'd be playing for me."

My point being - I really like Tim Ream. But his circumstances are very different in 2026. He's 38 (almost 39) years old and playing in MLS. He still has experience and skills, but physically he is no longer able to play at the highest levels. Mauricio Pochettino (Poch) likes Ream for good reasons and made him the captain. Because of Ream's physical limitations, however, he can only play in a back 3 against good competition. Physically, he needs 2 other center backs playing with him to be effective.

Side story: Leeds United, who were promoted to the Premier League in 2025-26 were struggling to get results. Daniel Farke's job was in jeopardy. At halftime of a November 2025 match against Manchester City, he switched from his preferred 4-3-3 formation to a back three. Leeds went on to have a strong second half in that match. Farke continued with the new formation, which catapulted their season and kept them comfortably in the Premier League. Leeds had a similar left center back in Pascal Struijk (albeit still physically suited for Premier League play); the formation change unlocked him in the same way Poch's shift helped Ream.

Like Farke, Poch's preferred formation is not 3 at the back, and to be fair it is not a popular formation. Playing a back 3 is contrary to Poch's core principles and preferred base shape of a 4-2-3-1 (the modern formation most teams play).

USA matches prior to Belgium

During the 2026 World Cup, the USA played most of their matches against teams who wanted to defend and counter rather than possess the ball and attack. Against these opponents, it's important to set up the squad so they can break down the opponent's low block. Poch did this wonderfully, altering the shape and playing style as he went, which allowed the USA to comfortably win 3 out of 4 matches. The 4th match could have been won if necessary.

All 4 of these teams, however, ranked below the USA in the FIFA world rankings. Based on his post Belgium match remarks, I suspect these results gave Poch a false confidence that the USA players were better than they actually are.

USA vs Belgium

What Happened

Belgium, while not the class they were 12 years ago (the last time these 2 teams met in the round of 16), are still a top 10 country and ranked above the USA. Rather than be pragmatic, like Tuchel, Poch continued to expand the proactive play and structure he ultimately wants. Which was a disaster and incredibly naive:

For the first goal, Dest was tentative and did not attack a bouncing ball in the box. The other players stood around trying to decide where they were supposed to be. And a Belgium player picked up the loose ball and fired it to his striker for a 1-0 start.

The Press and Pundits should be highly critical of Poch's selections, substitutions, and general setup for this match. Poch has done a great job getting the USA to play modern football, but he is unwilling to shift tactics to address shortcomings when facing higher quality opponents. Playing well was paramount with an audience of 40 million watching in the USA.

What Should Have Happened?

I never understood why Auston Trusty and Brenden Aaronson were so out of favor. The formation that Poch used would only work with Trusty (assuming he was healthy) replacing Ream and Aaronson replacing Dest. Trusty has played 1 season in the Premier League and 2 seasons with Celtic, the top team in the Scotland Premiership. Aaronson has played multiple seasons in the Premier League, including last season when he started for Leeds. Neither would be intimidated or unaccustomed to playing against the caliber of opponent that Belgium posed. I guarantee Aaronson would not have been caught ball watching for that first goal.

If we stick with Poch's aggressive approach and the swap of Trusty and Aaronson for Ream and Dest:

If we go to a more sensible setup (the Tuchel approach that I favor):

Conclusion

For USA soccer to really progress, we need to stop worrying about the age old problems (though fixing them couldn't hurt). We should be focusing on the gross mismanagement by Poch of a winnable match. A match where sadly the USA looked as incompetent as they did at the end of the Gregg Berhalter era (the dreadful loss to Uruguay I saw in person at Copa America).