It has gathered dust. There’s no other honest way to say it. Belgium defeated the United States 4-1 in the round of 16, but if you take away the goals and just look at the flow of play, the lead appeared to be wider than the scoreline indicated. The two goals came from our own defensive mistakes. The third one is born out of goaltender hesitation and will be shown in coaching clinics for years as an example of what not to do.
I still shake my head when I think about it, it really sucks…and that’s the end of the game.
God bless Malik Tillman with a beautiful free-kick, but that moment of brilliance from a player who loves Jesus and plays with true joy could not undo Belgium’s four-minute precision.
I’ve listened to commentators imploring America to remain interested in the sport even in the face of defeat. I can understand why they plead. I can understand why a petition is necessary. But I don’t think it will work.
We are not as good as Belgium. We may never be. that’s ok.
This wasn’t a fluke or a bad night. Belgium beat us 5-2 in a warm-up game in March, but the same defensive issues were exposed again in the round of 16. The two results, played against the same opponent several months apart, were both lopsided. That’s not upset. It’s a pattern, and patterns speak more truth than any single game.
It hurts to lose to a team dressed in pink and blue that has nothing to do with Earth since King Leopold sacked the continent (I recommend “The Ghost of King Leopold” for those who don’t know the history), but they may not be able to surpass Belgium.
Here’s why: Belgium is a country with a population of approximately 12 million people. No soccer team can pull off the fastest, strongest, most competitive athletes. No basketball program does the same thing. There are no baseball diamonds or track ovals to further divide the pool. Whatever sporting talent Belgium produces, a huge proportion of it goes into one sport. Ours are spread over 5.
Kevin De Bruyne is a generational talent, but he is also the product of a talent pipeline that lacks serious competition from the best athletes in the country. Romelu Lukaku, Jeremy Doku, Youri Tielemans, Charles de Quetelaere, we were not lucky with the two goals he scored against us. They are the players whose national federations pick Belgium’s best players every year, and no rival sport puts more effort into the same children.
America doesn’t work that way, and I don’t think it should. I’m glad we live in a country where talented 15-year-old athletes have to choose between football, basketball, baseball, track and field, and soccer, rather than being forced to choose by scarcity. Diversity of opportunity is a feature of American life, not a drawback. It also means that they will probably never have as concentrated a base of footballers as Belgium, France or England. Mathematics simply isn’t on our side, so pretending otherwise won’t help anyone.
If you want proof that this isn’t emotion, look at the amounts. The annual income of Belgium’s top five earners is about twice that of Japan’s top five earners, but that’s not because European fans are generous. That’s because the talent market has factored in the actual quality difference between the two player classes. Wage is determined according to ability. Ours has grown. Their growth has been faster because more of their best athletes are competing for the same few positions.
This does not mean that our team is without hope or without real talent. Christian Pulisic is fun to watch as an elite player in soccer, but this tournament hasn’t been great for him. In a tournament where Kane, Messi, Mbappe and Haaland were all star players, our star suffered and was never able to play like a star.
Weston McKennie brings the fight this country will always love.
Balogun was fun to watch and didn’t deserve a red card.
Malik Tillman was my favorite player of the tournament. Absolute stud. He is a leader on and off the field and I love his openness as a Christian and the prayer he leads.
We have better coaching now than ever before.
If you think coaching is the problem, you say you don’t know much about football, and that’s okay too.
Now we have faith. What we are missing, and will not be for long, are 10 players who could have played in stronger footballing countries instead. England international Folarin Balogun will likely remain on the bench. Malik Tillman may not start for Germany. If your depth chart is partially built from players that other countries were willing to part with, you’re still building. It hasn’t arrived yet.
I don’t say this with any bitterness. I say this with the intention of telling my children the truth about talent gaps in other areas. Effort is important. Coaching is important. The heart is important. And sometimes you honestly lose to him because he simply gave more and poured more for longer. It’s nothing to be ashamed of.
I loved hosting this competition. I love seeing my country welcome the world, and over the past few weeks I’ve seen X posts cut through the noise to show me how Europeans enjoy our country and feel lied to about its greatness.
Neither my wife nor I liked fiascos. It’s like experiencing theater and athletics at the same time, but shame on the guys who act like they’ve been shot with a rifle and get up 30 seconds after not getting a call.
My wife has never forgiven the existence of the offside rule either. I don’t expect most of my children to develop a deep and lasting love for this sport just because the commentators hope so. We will continue to love football in the fall and basketball in the winter, as most people in this country always have.
But I’ll keep an eye on this team. This country is doing something right when it puts only a fraction of its athletic talent into sports, and still builds teams that compete, sometimes win, and produce players like Malik Tillman, who play with joy on camera and glorify God, even if they lose 4-1.
If we were to break through, it would be as David rather than Goliath, and that’s a fun angle.
We are not the best in the world in this regard. We lost fair and square to a better team. It’s simply the truth, and the truth is worth speaking loud and clear, even if we lose the truth.
What is your favorite memory from this World Cup?
Do you plan to continue watching?
Who are you rooting for now?
Would you trade a basketball or soccer championship for your favorite team and a World Cup championship? Yeah…me too.
Clayton Wood is a Knoxville attorney, pastor, avid sports fan, and contributing writer to TriStar Daily.
