Heading into the World Cup, the U.S. Men’s national team played a couple of friendlies to finalize the team that we see now; one of those matches was a 5-2 loss to Belgium in Atlanta. If that loss didn’t sting enough for this current group of players this week, they got a reminder of how another loss has continued to fester in the minds of former USA players. The last time Belgium faced USA in a game that mattered; they were known as the golden generation and were picked as favorites to go deep into the tournament.
On July 1, 2014, in Salvador, Brazil, Tim Howard made 16 saves and still ended up on the losing side. Kevin De Bruyne scored in extra time. Romelu Lukaku added a second. The United States went home. Belgium went to the quarterfinals. The final score was 2-1, but it told you almost nothing about what actually happened on that pitch.
Monday night in Seattle, what's left of Belgium’s golden generation faces USA’s golden generation in a World Cup knockout game. De Bruyne is still there. Lukaku is still there. Thibaut Courtois is still between the posts. And Axel Witsel — 37 years old, Belgium's most-capped player at this tournament with 138 international appearances — is still there too. Four veterans of that night in Bahia, still standing, still a hurdle, but this time it doesn’t feel insurmountable.
The Americans who faced them? Most of them are long retired. Howard. Clint Dempsey. Michael Bradley. DeAndre Yedlin. Gone from international football, but not, it turns out, gone from this moment. According to sources, Mauricio Pochettino has brought all four back into the fold in the days before Monday's match. They were invited to speak directly to the current squad, to pass on what it felt like to go to the wall against one of the world's most celebrated teams and come up just short. This wasn’t a therapy session. It was a message. This is what it takes. This is what they felt. Now go finish it.
It's the right call. What those four men lived through in 2014 is precisely the psychological blueprint this squad needs heading into Seattle. The 2014 USMNT didn't have the individual quality of that Belgian side. They didn't have the budget, the European pedigree, the depth. What they had was hunger, heart, belief, and a goalkeeper who refused to let his country down until his legs gave out. They showed the world that USA football was serious. They played physical, tactical, and emotionally intelligent, and showed the world they were worth watching. They showed it was possible to go toe to toe with the original golden generation and make them work for every single inch.
The 2026 squad has a much different squad. Never before has USA gone into a tournament with this much talent. Christian Pulisic, Weston McKennie, Antonee Robinson are some of the best players in their respective leagues. This is a squad operating at a level the 2014 team could only dream about, and it is being asked to do something the 2014 team never could: win.
Belgium, by contrast, are carrying the weight of time. Courtois, De Bruyne, Lukaku, and Witsel form the veteran core of Rudi Garcia's squad. There are four survivors of a golden generation that peaked at the 2018 World Cup, finished third, and has been searching for its final chapter ever since. On July 6, it will be 12 years since Belgium knocked the USA out of the World Cup also in the round of 16, with De Bruyne and Lukaku still making an impact. Belgium's match-winners from 2014 are still being called upon in 2026. They are in their mid-to-late thirties, carrying the emotional and physical toll of a decade at the top, asked once more to be the difference against a team that has become categorically better than the one they beat twelve years ago.
The 2014 result was never a measuring stick of whether the two squads were equals. It was a measuring stick of heart. USA played their way to extra time against better individual players, restricted De Bruyne and Lukaku for large portions of the match, and only lost because they didn’t have enough firepower in the end. It was Yedlin who came on earlier in the game to create some chances, and little-known Julian Green who would come on in extra time to score USA’s only goal, and gave Belgium one last scare. What the world learned was that Belgium was never unbeatable. The world learned that the gap was closable.
The United States received a blow in its win over Bosnia and Herzegovina. Striker Folarin Balogun, who scored the winner against the Bosnians for his third goal of the tournament, was sent off in the second half and will miss the game against Belgium. That's a real problem. Balogun had been the tournament's most dangerous American forward and his absence reshapes Pochettino's attacking options significantly. Ricardo Pepi and Haji Wright are capable replacements, but neither carries the same movement between the lines or the same instinctive goal threat.
What Pochettino does have is a back five capable of suffocating De Bruyne's supply lines and a midfield engine. McKennie, Tyler Adams and Pulisic can control tempo and press with an intensity that 2014's squad simply couldn't. If the USA keep it tight in the first half, trust their transitions, and make Belgium feel the weight of expectation, they are more than capable of going full circle and getting the revenge the former USA players so desperately want. .
The voices of Howard, Dempsey, Bradley, and Yedlin will be somewhere in this team's heads on Monday night in Seattle. Men who gave everything but came home early, but they proved it was possible to go to the wall against one of the world's best and not flinch. Howard became a USA immortal that night. His 16 saves are still a record in a World Cup, only just matched by Eloy Room in the group stage when Curaçao stood up to Ecuador in a 0-0 tie. Bradley and Dempsey were fearless that night and Yedlin gave USA an edge no one expected. It’ll take performances like that to change USA’s fortunes.
Witsel, at 37, is the oldest man on Belgium's roster. De Bruyne recently turned 35. Lukaku's last 2 seasons have been hampered by injuries. Courtois is ageless, but he's standing behind a team whose best days are behind them. Everyone knows it. Belgium knows it too. This is USA's time now. Seattle will be raucous. This time USA have the talent, the home field, and all the advantages Belgium had twelve years ago. It's time to settle the score.
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