THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL team was served with a cold dose of reality on Saturday night in Atlanta when they were trounced 5-2 by Belgium. It raised serious questions about the team. The chief among them is whether the U.S. team is closer to the team that defeated Uruguay 5-1, or the team that was just pounded by Belgium?

The answer is likely somewhere in the middle.

Then the question becomes about direction. We know the U.S. team can, on its best day, be pretty good. We also know that this team is only a year removed from an embarrassing display at the 2025 Nations League final rounds where it lost to Panama and Canada. The team has been wobbly and rocky heading into its final destination at the World Cup and Pochettino needs to get this team to some level of consistency.

As everyone, including Pochettino, has noted after this game is that this performance and result might be good for the U.S. team. No one is going to remember this result just as no one ever remembers how teams perform in friendlies leading up to World Cups. There have been plenty of good results in friendlies for teams that would soon go onto fail at the World Cup. It is also true that teams have been lackluster in spring friendlies and would later go onto have World Cup success.

Form, confidence, and momentum can all change very, very quickly. Nothing is going change the fact that Belgium has more talent than the U.S. team. But the U.S. team can still give itself a better chance to win. Afterall, success will depend on finally being able to beat a good European team.

Here are a few thoughts

A tale of responses

Even in the win over Belgium, the U.S. team was inconsistent. The team started off well and was going head-to-head with the top-10 Belgian team. The high point of the night for the USMNT was Weston McKennie’s 39^th minute goal when he made a stealth run into the box to direct an Antonee Robinson corner into the net.

Oddly enough, the McKennie goal was probably the best moment of the game from Belgium as it was a wake-up call. Prior to that moment, the Belgians were stuck in second or third gear. They had plenty more to give and not picking McKennie up on that run motivated them to play better and play up to their potential. They shifted into fifth gear.



The good news is that the U.S. wasn’t in their top gear either in the first half. They couldn’t get Christian Pulisic, Folarin Balogun, or Malik Tillman into the game in the ways they could or should.

The bad news is that the U.S. team never responded to the Belgian surge. The team wasn’t able to find another level, not even for spurts, after the McKennie goal.

That’s not good. Pochettino said on Friday that he doesn’t like the term “friendly” for these games because suggests the games are not serious. But if these games are serious, the U.S. needs to find ways to fight through tough times, slow down opponents, and find another level. Instead, the team rolled over.

Tactical mistakes

One of the biggest questions for Pochettino and his approach to this game is why Pochettino has been easing away from his three-man backline formation? One of the low points since Pochettino took over was the 2-0 loss to South Korea in New Jersey. Following that loss, Pochettino shifted to a three-man backline with three central defenders and fullbacks pushed further up the field. It seemed to work very well. Moving forward, the team continued to play with some sort of variation with defenders shifting formations between offense and defense.

Regardless, a three-man backline formation seems to play to the team’s strengths. Fullbacks Tim Weah and Robinson are typically much better suited being able to get into the attack. Plus, with central defenders a weakness on this team, having more on the field at any given time helps them cover for each other as well as the fullbacks.

Then you get to a player like Max Arfsten who loves to get forward and still plays the left back position like a winger. He still looks naive in defense, and that was also seen in this game. A right back like Sergino Dest (not on this roster) also benefits with more defensive coverage.

Weah was given an enormously difficult assignment of defending Jeremy Doku, a world class winger. It was a situation where there needed to be a better game-plan tactically to give Weah help. Playing in a back four, the U.S. seems very vulnerable to teams with top wingers.

Even with the U.S. team short on central defenders with injuries to Miles Robinson and Chris Richardson, players like Joe Scally, Alex Freeman, and Tanner Tessmann can pitch in.

This team is can be prone to being very leaky defensively. It is a question why Pochettino moved away from the three-man backline at a time when it seemed to play to the strengths of the team.

Notes on specific players

Johnny Cardoso was pulled at halftime, which might have ultimately helped his case to make the World Cup team given that Belgium romped after he left. But that doesn’t mean Cardoso was great either, or that the U.S. team fell apart because he wasn’t there (the USMNT didn’t play worse in the second half more so than Belgium raised its game and the U.S. didn’t have a response).

Cardoso is so difficult to figure out. There have been many players who have struggled to translate club form over to national teams (not just the USMNT), but the gap between club form and national team for is unusually wide for Cardoso. Ultimately, he likely makes the final roster but unless he plays and plays well against Portugal, he might enter World Cup camp as a distant backup unlikely to play a lot.

 It was very good for the U.S. team to have Antonee Robinson back, but it was also interesting to see him taking set pieces, typically crossing isn’t a strength for him.

But Robinson taking corners is also noteworthy because it means Christian Pulisic wasn’t taking them. Pulisic has been the U.S. team’s best player but it has been a long time since he has been dangerous on set pieces.

Neither Tim Ream nor Mark McKenzie had good games in central defense and the tactical approach in this game made things more difficult. I guess if there was good news for Ream, it was that he wasn’t beaten for pace, which is a huge concern for him and something where he has been showing weakness with Charlotte thus far in 2026.

Matt Turner could have made a statement to return to being the team’s No 1 but did himself no favors in this game. No, the loss was not his fault. Yes, he made a few nice saves. But yes, he also could have done better on at least one Belgian goal. He also made things harder than necessary. Matt Freese likely starts the Portugal friendly, likely as the team’s No. 1 unless he has a very bad game.

Even when he’s in a strong run of form with Monaco, Folarin Balogun typically doesn’t always get a lot of touches. Against Belgium, Balogun only had 14 touches over 71 minutes. But in this game, Balogun was invisible and wasn’t even bothering Belgium much with his typically smart runs. Ultimately, that comes down to chemistry and getting him on the same page as the other attackers is a priority.