SAN JOSE, Calif. — The U.S. men’s national team has been riding a wave of euphoria practically from the moment the FIFA World Cup started. The team has already set numerous records in terms of the program’s history, winning three World Cup matches in a single tournament for the first time, and its 10 goals is also a record.
Now the USMNT will try to get greedy and claim a win over a Belgium side that, heading into the tournament, was ranked No. 9 in the world. The problem for the Red Devils is that they’ve looked nothing like a team ranked in the top 10, and it took an otherworldly comeback against Senegal — with two goals in the final five minutes of regulation — to get the game to extra time, where they ultimately prevailed to move on to the round of 16.
For this scouting report of the two teams, ESPN turned to former U.S. men’s national team manager Bruce Arena to give some insights on both sides and provide a sense of how the game will shake out.
Belgium has quality ‘from the goal forward’
So far, Arena hasn’t been impressed with the level of opposition thrown at the U.S. Though FIFA rankings have their limitations, the Americans’ ranking of 17th is higher than each of their four opponents so far.
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“There’s some quality players playing for Belgium from the goal [and going] forward,” Arena told reporters Thursday. “So we haven’t played many teams that you could look up their first 11, and think they’re better than us. I don’t think a player in the starting 11 for Bosnia-Herzegovina could break into our starting 11. That’s not the case against Belgium. Belgium will have a half a dozen players of equal caliber or greater. So it’s going to be a real game. It’ll be interesting to see.”
Belgium’s advantage starts in goal with Real Madrid‘s Thibaut Courtois, and goes right up the spine of the team to midfielders Youri Tielemans and Kevin De Bruyne. The real advantage lies out on the wings, with Arsenal‘s Leandro Trossard and Manchester City‘s Jérémy Doku. Doku, in particular, is a menace off the dribble, and tore the U.S. apart in a 5-2 friendly drubbing in March.
But Doku hasn’t been sharp in this tournament. He briefly left the Belgium camp to attend to the birth of his first child and hasn’t looked his best. Both he and De Bruyne were on the bench during Belgium’s aforementioned comeback against Senegal. There’s also question of where he’ll be deployed. He was on the left against the U.S. in March but was on the right against Senegal.
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Arena has a simple idea for how to try to blunt Doku’s influence.
“You’ve got to stand him up with another player and they’ll be aware of that,” Arena said about Doku in an interview with ESPN. “Unfortunately on [the right] side of the field, it’s Christian Pulisic who would be the guy trying to help stand him up with [Antonee] Robinson. So I would not prefer that, personally. We’ll see.”
One holdover from the last World Cup match between the two sides in 2014 is forward Romelu Lukaku. The Napoli striker scored in that famous 2-1 victory in Salvador, Brazil, and seems to be undergoing a bit of a renaissance at in this tournament, with two goals off the bench, including the tally that started the comeback against Senegal. If he doesn’t start, he’ll be a wild card that Belgium manager Rudi Garcia can play.
‘They won’t play any differently’
Confidence in the U.S. camp has never been higher. It’s not just the wins, it’s the manner of the victories that has them thinking they can beat Belgium. The U.S. has employed a withering press that has served to put opponents off their game and create chances deep in opposition territory.
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As Arena put it, the U.S. “play as a team.”
That’s even more the case now that Folarin Balogun has been deemed eligible to play by FIFA. He was red-carded in the round of 32 against Bosnia and was thought to have been suspended for the match, but now that Balogun is eligible, he and Pulisic will be counted on to be difference-makers in the attack.
“I think Christian always has pressure on him,” Arena said. “I don’t think this is going to be any different.”
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But this is also where the team aspect comes to the fore for the U.S. The Americans seem more together than any previous incarnation.
“This is all about the teams, and the U.S. has put a team on the field. It hasn’t been about any one individual, although Balogun, you could argue, has probably been their best player in the World Cup to date,” Arena said. “There’s no reason to believe with the home-field advantage that we have that we can’t beat Belgium.”
Arena said he doesn’t anticipate that manager Mauricio Pochettino will change tactics, even though Belgium is the most talented opponent the U.S. has faced.
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The U.S. will need to be wary, given that the Red Devils have the skill to play out of tight spaces. That could allow the likes of Doku, De Bruyne and Trossard the space to punish the U.S. in transition. It will be up to the U.S. midfield trio of Tyler Adams, Weston McKennie and Malik Tillman to stop those opportunities from happening, but Arena says he likes what he has seen out of that trio so far.
“I think Adams quietly does his job, communicates, gives them balance in the midfields offensively,” he said. “Obviously it allows Tillman and McKenzie to have the freedom to move where they want to move and he can hold the fort down there. So Adams does a terrific job and Tillman and McKenzie have been very good.”
The U.S. has been in this position before, having reached the round of 16 in 2010, 2014 and 2022. Moving into the quarterfinals for the first time since 2002 will take something special. The U.S. is firm in its belief that such a performance is possible.
