Soccer <\/p>\n
ATLANTA \u2013 This time the humbling happened on home soil, before a massive, supportive crowd of 66,867 at mighty Mercedes-Benz Stadium.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
But Saturday afternoon\u2019s \u201creality check\u201d loss to high-powered Belgium, in the words of head coach Mauricio Pochettino, felt the wrong kind of familiar for Matt Turner<\/a>, sending him back nearly four years to the night the US men\u2019s national team<\/a>\u2019s 2022 FIFA World Cup<\/a> dreams ended in a Round-of-16 setback to European royalty in Al Rayyan, Qatar.<\/p>\n \u201cIt reminded me a lot of the Netherlands game in the World Cup,\u201d the New England Revolution<\/a> goalkeeper told reporters after the Yanks\u2019 5-2 friendly loss<\/a>, \u201cwhere we’re going against a really experienced team that knows how to suffer, knows how to accept pressure, and then turn around \u2013 and they were absolutely clinical in the final third.<\/p>\n \u201cI mean, some of the goals tonight were pretty spectacular.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \u2014 U.S. Soccer Men’s National Team (@USMNT) March 28, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote><\/div>\n Tests like these against truly elite opposition remain a bridge too far for the USMNT, just as they have for decades, despite American soccer\u2019s enormous progress in every aspect. The Yanks have now lost seven straight games<\/a> against European opponents dating back to that cool desert evening in Qatar, outscored 20-6 in the process.<\/p>\n To borrow from video-game terminology, this is the \u2018final boss\u2019 for the US men to defeat, and they know their aspirations of a deep run in this summer\u2019s World Cup on North American soil hinge on finding a way to overcome the challenge.<\/p>\n The home side were superior to their guests in the first half, stretching the Belgians with their energy and movement, snatching an early lead via Weston McKennie\u2019s corner-kick finish.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were breaking the lines and playing in between the lines and just exposing their weaknesses,\u201d said McKennie postgame. \u201cI think we maybe could have exposed their weaknesses a little bit more. I feel like they struggled a little bit with the balls in behind the lines.\u201d<\/p>\n The Yanks failed to protect that advantage, leaking an equalizer just before halftime and fading badly after the break as the Red Devils shifted into a higher gear and dominated, paced by Manchester City\u2019s devastatingly effervescent winger J\u00e9r\u00e9my Doku \u2013 the game\u2019s \u201ccatalyst,\u201d as his manager Rudi Garcia phrased it.<\/p>\n \u201cFor many moments of the game, I think we play with the rhythm and the speed that the game required,\u201d said Pochettino. \u201cThe problem was to keep that intensity.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the moments that we matched the intensity of Belgium, I think we were even or in some moments we were better. But it\u2019s true that when we dropped a little bit in our intensity \u2013 and how we can confirm that is, in too many actions we were in place, we have superiority, but we were not aggressive enough, like in the way that we concede the first goal. Because I think in this action we have 10 players inside the [penalty] box, but we were not aggressive enough.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n MCKENNIE MAGIC IN FRONT OF NET! \u2728#USMNT<\/a> x @VW<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/jYEJyy2VjJ<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 U.S. Soccer Men’s National Team (@USMNT) March 28, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote><\/div>\n Handed his first USMNT start since last June, Turner looked pained as he spoke to the media, perhaps most of all as he recalled that subtle but costly lack of defensive urgency when Belgium pushed his side back into their own end.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the end, we didn’t defend our box well enough, and I think that’s something that we cannot have,\u201d said Turner, the US No. 1 at the last World Cup but seemingly a step behind New York City FC<\/a>\u2019s Matt Freese<\/a> for this one. \u201cWe 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.<\/p>\n \u201cThey are great reminders for us of what the level is going to be like, and then our minimum standard of what we should expect from ourselves,\u201d he added. \u201cCredit to Belgium, but all of what went wrong tonight wasn’t just on how good they were. We were also pretty poor in certain areas.\u201d<\/p>\n As he praised the strong US start that left his team laboring in the early going, Garcia made clear that this scoreline did not accurately reflect the run of play. Pochettino and Yanks star Christian Pulisic agreed, while cognizant of what cold comfort that really is.<\/p>\n \u201cWe played well for big stretches of the game, but then it’s just fine margins. I mean, it’s just \u2013 we have to be a bit more clinical,\u201d said Pulisic, acknowledging that his squad must \u201ctake this on the chin\u201d and raise their level vs. Portugal on Tuesday.<\/p>\n \u201cOverall, it’s a tough result for us, but I don’t feel like it was a 5-2 game, necessarily. So there’s some things that we could definitely take positive from it, but some things for sure we have to work on.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Patrick Agyemang capitalizes on Ricardo Pepi’s press for his sixth USMNT goal \ud83e\udd1d pic.twitter.com\/sJbe4zxiu3<\/a><\/p>\nTop-tier opponent<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
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Lessons learned<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
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