So much for home-field advantage. Belgium came to Seattle and absolutely dismantled the United States 4-1, turning what was supposed to be a raucous co-host send-off into a thoroughly miserable afternoon for anyone wearing red, white, and blue. Charles De Ketelaere was the chief architect of this demolition job, bagging a brace and earning himself the Player of the Match award, while Hans Vanaken and a late Romelu Lukaku finish added the gloss to a scoreline that honestly flattered the Americans less than a cheap tuxedo.
The warning signs appeared almost immediately. Timothy Castagne let fly from 18 yards and forced Matt Freese into a desperate flying save that was more acrobatics than goalkeeping. Youri Tielemans nearly turned in Dodi Lukebakio's cross moments later, and then the dam broke. Leandro Trossard whipped in a teasing delivery that caused total chaos in the American backline, Nicolas Raskin fumbled it across the face of goal, and De Ketelaere tapped home from roughly two inches. It was the kind of goal that makes defenders want to study a different profession.
To their credit, the USA briefly made things interesting. Malik Tillman swung in a free-kick that took a wicked deflection and wrong-footed Thibaut Courtois in the 31st minute, and suddenly it was 1-1. The crowd perked up. Hope flickered. And then, 116 seconds later, that hope was smothered with extreme prejudice. Trossard delivered again from the left, and De Ketelaere rose to head home his second, restoring the Belgian lead before anyone in the stadium had even finished celebrating the equalizer.
Things went from bad to catastrophic just before the hour mark when Freese charged off his line like a man chasing a bus he was never going to catch, completely missed the ball, and watched helplessly as De Ketelaere stole possession and set up Vanaken for a long-range finish that evaded Tim Ream's desperate lunge and trickled into an empty net. It was the kind of defensive calamity that gets replayed on blooper reels for decades.
The Americans showed brief signs of life late on, with Sebastian Berhalter firing wide and Courtois denying Folarin Balogun, but Lukaku applied the final insult in stoppage time by pouncing on a loose clearance and dispatching it with the casual confidence of a man who has done this a thousand times before. Belgium now march on to face Spain in the quarter-finals, while the USA join Canada and Mexico as co-hosts who all exited at the Round of 16. At least they can all commiserate together.
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