ATLANTA — Mauricio Pochettino and his trounced players tried dearly to accentuate the positive from a 5-2 U.S. defeat to Belgium on Saturday — a jarring scoreline 76 days before the World Cup opener.
Yes, the Americans were the better side for much of the first half. Yes, they led the ninth-ranked team in the world. Yes, because of several absences, they were able to try different things. Yes, it’s better for such results to occur in an inconsequential friendly than at soccer’s pinnacle this summer.
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But there was a resounding “No” to almost every other aspect of the performance before an announced crowd of 66,867 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
“Of course, 5-2 is always difficult to accept. It’s painful,” Pochettino said. “To feel the pain sometimes is good.”
Oh, they felt it. After Belgium scored a fifth consecutive goal, boos echoed around the roofed stadium, which is among the 16 World Cup venues.
The 15th-ranked Americans learned that, when they are not engaged and focused every moment against a superior side, they become vulnerable to such painful outcomes.
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“I think we can arrive with the wrong idea that we are so good, we are so handsome, we are so well-dressed and we are Americans,” Pochettino said. “It’s good to feel that [but] if we want to win the World Cup, if we want to go to the next [round after] the group, and we want to beat Paraguay [in the June 12 opener] and we want to beat this type of [team], do you think they are not going to fight?”
Mauricio Pochettino and the USMNT endured a difficult day in a 5-2 loss to Belgium.
(Andrew J. Clark/ISI Photos/USSF via Getty Images)
In the fall, the U.S. showed what they are perhaps capable of this summer by running off five consecutive matches without a loss against teams headed to the World Cup, capped by a 5-1 gem against Uruguay in Tampa, Florida. Such results, particularly the one against Uruguay, is not necessarily a true indication of where the U.S. stands in the sport, though.
Margins are fine, and when scoring opportunities are missed or assignments bungled, the repercussions can be devastating.
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“We’re going to have to beat teams like this if we want to have a chance to go far in the tournament,” Christian Pulisic said. “There’s no doubt. So that’s why we want to have these good tests. Wasn’t our best today, but for like 60 minutes of the game, it felt like we’re in it, and then just a couple things happen, and that’s it.”
What happened in the 52nd and 53rd minutes served as a prime example. Pulisic, the U.S. star and face of the program, did fine work to put himself in excellent position to break a 1-1 tie, but after getting the ball on his left foot, he missed terribly from 12 yards — one of his three squandered chances in the match.
Belgium quickly responded with the go-ahead goal. Elusive winger Jeremy Doku buzzed on the left flank and tried to cross. With the U.S. unable to clear, Alexis Saelemaekers dropped the ball into the path of Amadou Onana for a pinpoint one-timer as he entered the penalty area.
“Massive, big chance for Christian,” Pochettino said. “We should score there.”
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Pulisic said, “I’m disappointed. I have to finish my chances. They’re not easy chances, but they’re certain moments that I expect to do better, for sure.”
Charles De Ketelaere’s 59th-minute penalty kick extended the lead and, after a flurry of substitutions by both sides, Belgium toyed with the overwhelmed hosts. Reserve Dodi Lukebako scored twice in a 14-minute span before U.S. sub Patrick Agyemang ended the day on a bright note for the beleaguered U.S.
Belgian coach Rudi Garcia did not read too much into the scoreline, saying, “This [U.S.] team is better than the result. … It’s only [a] preparation [game].”
Indeed, for much of the first half, the U.S. was pretty good.
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“We play with the rhythm and the speed the game requires,” Pochettino said. “The problem was to keep that intensity in the moment. … That is the challenge and a good [reality] check.”
The match reminded U.S. goalkeeper Matt Turner of the 3-1 loss to the Netherlands in the 2022 World Cup Round of 16 in Qatar.
“You’re going against a really experienced team that knows how to suffer, knows how to accept pressure, and then turn around, and they were absolutely clinical in the final third,” he said after his first U.S. start since last summer. “I mean, some of the goals tonight were pretty spectacular. We didn’t defend our box well enough, and that’s something we cannot have. We can’t accept that we didn’t lay everything on the line to keep the ball out of the back of the net, because that’s when our tails should be up the most.”
Turner, the 2022 starter, is expected to yield the starting job against Portugal back to Matt Freese, who started the last 12 matches of 2025.
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Weston McKennie, who had put the U.S. ahead late in the first half, played down concerns about long-term implications from such a lopsided loss.
“I don’t think it’s a worrisome result for us, because within the team, we know we can do better,” he said. “We know what went wrong and we also know and believe fully that we can play with the team of this caliber.”
They’ll get another chance Tuesday at the same venue against the No. 5 team in the world.
“We need to keep going with the plan,” Pochettino said, “and that’s not going to change with the result today.”
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