A dozen years after disappointment, can the United States knock off Belgium in the round of 16?
Their last World Cup encounter in the round of 16 in 2014 ended with 30 minutes of crazy. The United States and Belgium had played a scoreless 90 minutes largely because of Tim Howard’s acrobatics in goal.
Then the teams scored three times in 14 minutes and the Belgians had to hold off an all-out American assault to prevail, 2-1.
“For my heart, please don’t give me too many games like that,” pleaded then Red Devils coach Marc Wilmots.
A dozen years later, the two sides will have at each other again in the round of 16 on Monday night, this time inside Seattle’s sonic boom of a stadium.
The Yanks are riding high after blanking Bosnia-Herzegovina, 2-0, despite playing the final three dozen minutes with 10 men. And with top gun Folarin Balogun available after his red-card suspension was overturned Sunday, the co-hosts will be at full strength.
The Belgians, meanwhile, are happy still to be among the living after staging the greatest comeback in tournament history.
Down two goals with four minutes left in regulation, they rallied to beat Senegal, 3-2, on captain Youri Tielemans’s controversial penalty kick in the waning seconds of extra time.
Belgium’s Golden Generation, studded with stars Eden Hazard, Kevin De Bruyne, Romelu Lukaku, Vincent Kompany, and Thibaut Courtois, had dreams of immortality in 2014.
But they never managed more than bronze — a third-place finish in 2018 after going out to champion France.
Four years ago, the Red Devils were past peak.
“No chance,” predicted De Bruyne before they went three-and-out in Qatar. “We’re too old.”
This time, they’re grayer than ever. Six of their starters are 30 or older. De Bruyne, 35, prowls the midfield. Lukaku, 33, came off the bench to score the first goal against Senegal. Courtois, 34, keeps the goal.
From the beginning, the Red Devils’ performance in this Cup was wobbly. They needed an own goal to draw with Egypt. They had a scoreless deadlock with Iran. They required a couple of late goals against winless New Zealand to be sure of advancing.
Yet they’re unbeaten in 17 straight matches, since March of last year, and still present a substantial obstacle.
The Belgians, who’ve won their last six meetings with the Americans, delivered a harsh tutorial in their March tuneup in Atlanta, spotting them an early goal then scoring five in a row in a 5-2 smackdown, four of them within 23 minutes.
“It’s a good reality check for us,” reckoned United States coach Mauricio Pochettino.
That defeat highlighted several of the Yanks’ unfortunate tendencies in recent years. Failing to hold an early lead. Conceding goals on either side of halftime. Becoming disorganized in transition. Losing one-on-one encounters within shooting distance.
Those would likely be fatal against the most technically skilled side the United States has faced this summer.
After not scoring a goal on their own for the first 208 minutes of the tournament, the Red Devils piled up eight in their last two outings, five of them after the 85th minute.
They’ll put up a significant challenge for a US squad that customarily has had problems closing out matches and has yet to win a Cup encounter in extra time.
That said, the Americans have made considerable progress during this tournament. They’ve scored first in all four matches, three times in the first 11 minutes.
They’ve produced three goals within two minutes of intermission and one four minutes after. They’ve scored three times off set pieces. And their starting lineup has allowed only one goal.
“They have been growing a lot since the last friendly game,” observed Belgian forward Dodi Lukébakio, who scored twice in that one.
Two matches in particular have shown that. The Americans demolished a Paraguay team that eliminated Germany and held France scoreless in the run of play.
And they not only staved off Bosnia-Herzegovina for an extended period, they also doubled their lead in the final eight minutes.
“There is a lot of danger in the team, a lot of quality,” said Belgian defender Maxim De Cuyper.
This is a decidedly more balanced and confident US group than the one that needed every bit of gumption to hang with a superior Belgian side a dozen years ago.
“C’mon, c’mon,” former US coach Jurgen Klinsmann urged his charges, waving them upfield from the sidelines in the final minutes.
Pochettino wants his team to attack from the start, to bring multiple men forward, to take risks to get rewards. So far, that approach has paid off nicely.
“It’s about here and now,” said US captain Tim Ream, whose colleagues would face defending European champion Spain or Portugal in the quarterfinals. “How much are we willing to do to move on?”
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