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Even as it played a World Cup on home soil, the round of 16 remains a major hurdle for the U.S. men’s soccer team — and former USA player Stu Holden can’t help but feel underwhelmed following its most recent shortcoming.
As the USA was outclassed by Belgium 4-1 on Monday, Holden was blunt in sharing his disappointment with the team’s performance.
“It’s a familiar feeling. We’ve been here before. I think that’s the most disheartening part of this because we get wrapped up in the moment,” Holden said on FOX Sports’ “World Cup Now.”
“We become big fans of this team, the way they played, their personalities, their stories. We’ve seen a lot of these guys come up through MLS academies. There’s a lot of good players out there, and we want so much more for them. I wanted nothing more for these guys than to win.”
Even though Belgium dominated the USA in the round of 16, there were plenty of reasons to feel differently about this American squad than some of the others that have reached the round of 16 in recent World Cups.
USA won three of its four matches, which was the most it had ever won in a single World Cup. In the one loss for the United States, it largely played its backups in a match that didn’t count for anything in the final group standings.
The American squad also proved they could play through adversity. In the round of 32, the USA doubled its lead over Bosnia and Herzegovina after star forward Folarin Balogun received a red card.
But even with all that momentum, the USA fell flat on its face on Monday. Three of the four goals it allowed came after it turned over the ball in its own lower third. The second of those three showed a clear sign of tentativeness from the American squad, with goalkeeper Matt Freese freezing when he tried to clear the ball. That allowed Belgium to steal the ball and score.
Plays like those had Holden believing that the spotlight was too bright for the USA side.
“I know the referendum that will be written about this group of players, and we’re going to sit here and dissect what was a disappointing night,” Holden said. “They shot themselves in the foot too many times. But once again, it comes to the moment being too big for a lot of these players and how they were feeling.”
“That will change over time, but I think that’s the only way you can explain that. Guys were doing things that were uncharacteristic to their normal things and what we’ve seen in this tournament. I thought they could’ve done it. But when you make those mistakes, the deflation — they just didn’t look like themselves tonight.”
Among the players that Holden thought disappointed on Monday night was USA star midfielder Christian Pulisic.
“We just didn’t get big games from our big players tonight. Pulisic had a really tough night, a really tough night,” Holden said. “Even from the first minute of the game … Pulisic’s first five touches, three of them were turnovers. He looked like the moment was too big for him. I thought this was going to be a big game for him, and it just wasn’t.”
While FOX Sports soccer analyst and former U.S. men’s soccer team standout Mo Edu gave Pulisic a 6.5 rating for his performance, he statistically underwhelmed. Only two of his six dribbles were successful, as he also won just 25% of his ground duels. On top of that, the lone corner kick Pulisic took went straight to a Belgium player.
Pulisic was ultimately subbed off in the 59th minute after he was moving around gingerly following a tough tackle moments earlier.
But between Pulisic’s play and the self-inflicted errors, Holden thought the USA could’ve played better than it did and gave Belgium a good run for its money.
“That’s the thing that’s hard to sit here and tell people right now, is that these guys are really good and they can play with that Belgium team,” Holden said. “We’re not crazy to think they could’ve beat that team. But tonight was a night where we didn’t turn up, and it’s a harsh reminder that at this level, these are guys who play high-level games all the time. And they do not let you make mistakes and get away with it. We were punished. We were just too naive.”
Ultimately, matches like Monday add more fodder to the narrative that the USA has a ways to go in order to be considered among the top teams in the world.
Even as it won three of its first four matches, the USA’s three victories came against teams ranked outside the top 25 in the final FIFA rankings before the World Cup. Belgium, meanwhile, was ranked ninth.
So, as the U.S. men’s national team is still searching to reach the quarterfinals at the World Cup for the first time since 2002, Holden understands those who might believe that this group underachieved.
“Unfortunately, we are who we thought we were. We said coming into this tournament that we hoped we could get to a quarterfinal. We could’ve. But we said the round of 16 was probably the realistic expectation.”
