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Despite playing a World Cup on home soil, the round of 16 remains a major hurdle for the U.S. men’s soccer team — and former U.S. player Stu Holden can’t help but feel underwhelmed by its latest shortfall.
As the United States was outclassed by Belgium 4-1 on Monday, Holden was reticent to share his disappointment with the team’s performance.
“It’s a familiar feeling. We’ve been here before. I think that’s the most disheartening part of this, because we’re getting wrapped up in the moment,” Holden said on FOX Sports’ “World Cup Now.”
“We’re going to be big fans of this team, the way they played, their personalities, their stories. We’ve seen a lot of these guys come up through MLS academies. There’s a lot of good players out there and we want so much more for them. I wanted nothing more for these guys than to win.”
Although Belgium dominated the United States in the Round of 16, there were plenty of reasons to feel differently about this American team than some of the others who have reached the Round of 16 in recent World Cups.
The USA won three of its four games, which was the most it had ever won in a single World Cup. In the one defeat for the USA, it played largely its backups in a match that counted for nothing in the final group standings.
The American team also proved they could play through adversity. In the round of 16, the USA doubled its lead over Bosnia and Herzegovina after star forward Folarin Balogun received a red card.
But even with all that momentum, the US fell flat on its face on Monday. Three of the four goals it allowed came after it turned the ball over in its own bottom third. The second of those three showed a clear sign of caution from the American team, with goalkeeper Matt Freese freezing as he tried to clear the ball. That gave Belgium the opportunity to steal the ball and score.
Plays like those made Holden believe the spotlight was too strong for the US side.
“I know the referendum that will be written about this group of players and we’re going to sit here and dissect what was a disappointing night,” Holden said. “They shot themselves in the foot too many times. But again, it comes down to the moment being too big for a lot of these players and how they felt.”
“It will change over time, but I think that’s the only way you can explain it. Guys did things that were uncharacteristic of their normal stuff and what we’ve seen in this tournament. I thought they could have done it. But when you make those mistakes, the deflation — they just didn’t look like themselves tonight.”
Among the players Holden thought disappointed on Monday night was American star midfielder Christian Pulisic.
“We just didn’t get big plays from our big players tonight. Pulisic had a really tough night, a really tough night,” Holden said. “Even from the first minute of the game … Pulisic’s first five touches, three of them were turnovers. He looked like the moment was too big for him. I thought this was going to be a big game for him, and it just wasn’t.”
While FOX Sports soccer analyst and former USA Men’s Soccer Team standout Mo Edu gave Pulisic a 6.5 rating for his performance, he was statistically underwhelmed. Only two of his six dribbles were successful as he also won just 25% of his ground duels. On top of that, the lone corner Pulisic took went straight to a Belgian player.
Pulisic was eventually subbed off in the 59th minute after moving gingerly after a hard tackle moments earlier.
But between Pulisic’s play and the self-inflicted errors, Holden believed the U.S. could have played better than it did and gave Belgium a run for its money.
“That’s what’s hard to sit here and tell people right now is that these guys are really good and they can play with the Belgium team,” Holden said. “We’re not crazy to think they could have beaten that team. But tonight was a night where we didn’t show up, and it’s a harsh reminder that at this level, these are guys who play high-level games all the time. And they don’t let you make mistakes and get away with it. We were punished. We were just too naive.”
Ultimately, games like Monday add more fodder to the narrative that the U.S. has a ways to go to be considered among the best teams in the world.
Even as it won three of its first four games, the USA’s three wins came against teams ranked outside the top 25 in the final FIFA pre-World Cup rankings. Belgium, meanwhile, was in ninth place.
So with the U.S. men’s national team still looking to reach the quarterfinals at the World Cup for the first time since 2002, Holden understands those who might think this group underperformed.
“Unfortunately, we are what we thought we were. We said coming into this tournament that we hoped we could get to the quarterfinals. We could have. But we said the round of 16 was probably the realistic expectation.”
