Folarin Balogun’s red card reprieve appeared to hinder rather than help his country as an out-of-sorts USA side were thrashed 4-1 by Belgium to end the co-hosts’ World Cup dreams.
The two-day PR circus which had followed FIFA’s decision to suspend his red card, including questions raised over Donald Trump’s involvement in the supposedly independent process, appeared to only galvanise the Americans’ opponents and overwhelm themselves as Belgium left their hosts sleepless in Seattle to set up a quarter-final tie with Spain.
The Europeans were particularly dominant before half-time and could have been ahead inside a minute when Timothy Castagne forced Matt Freese into a full-stretch save, while the largely peripheral Balogun had just 11 touches in the opening period.
The USA showed none of their usual hallmarks of Pochettino verve and were unusually passive as schoolboy defending for each of the Belgian goals put paid to their World Cup hopes.
For Charles De Ketelaere’s early opener, three players hesitated to intercept Leandro Trossard’s bouncing cross allowing Nicolas Raskin to steal in and square for the Atalanta forward to tap home.
Shortly after the first hydration break the hosts were level courtesy of Malik Tillman’s deflected free-kick – their only shot on target of the opening period – before they switched off again 116 seconds later when De Ketelaere nodded home Trossard’s hanging cross at the back post.
Pochettino finally got through to his side at the break but just as momentum appeared to be turning in their favour, they shot themselves in the foot yet again as Freese was caught in possession outside his area and substitute Hans Vanaken’s long-range effort trickled beyond Tim Ream’s clumsy attempted interception.
Romelu Lukaku’s late fourth after another defensive howler from Chris Richards mattered little that point with the USA’s World Cup hopes already up in smoke – and questions to be asked about whether Trump’s intervention was worth the media furore which appeared to negatively affect his national side.
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