Mercedes-Benz Stadium (ATLANTA) \u2014<\/strong> The United States men’s national team impressed early against Belgium. Then the wheels fell off.<\/strong><\/p>\n A first-half lead in Saturday\u2019s high-profile World Cup warmup match against Belgium \u2014 FIFA\u2019s No. 9 ranked squad \u2014 melted away as the UA conceded four straight goals in front of a heavily pro-USA crowd of 66,867 fans at the home of the Atlanta Falcons and Atlanta United.<\/p>\n Weston McKennie put coach Mauricio Pochettino\u2019s team ahead in the 39th minute by deftly redirecting an Antonee Robinson corner kick past Belgian goalkeeper Senne Lammens. The visitors equalized before the first half was over, though, when fullback Zeno Debast\u2019s low rocket flew through a sea of bodies, past the outstretched hand of USA keeper Matt Turner and into the bottom corner of the net.<\/p>\n Belgium got another shortly after the break, then scored three more as they ran away with the second-to-last match before Pochettino must select his final 26-player World Cup roster, though the Americans did pull one back late via second half substitute Patrick Agyemang.\u00a0<\/p>\n Here are my takeaways:<\/p>\n Pochettino\u2019s side entered the match on a three-match winning streak, all against World Cup-bound foes. But Belgium is better than any of those teams by some distance. Still, the USA matched them almost evenly in the first half, even if the guests had almost 60 percent of possession and one more shot on target. Only a brilliant (and lucky) save by Senne Lammens on McKennie’s earlier shot in the opening stanza kept the game scoreless almost until the intermission.<\/p>\n With former Manchester City midfielder Kevin De Bruyne and current Man City star forward Jeremy Doku leading coach Rudi Garcia\u2019s attack, Belgium tested a USA backline missing injured center back Chris Richards repeatedly, mostly to no avail. Central midfielders Tanner Tessmann and Johnny Cardoso covered when fullbacks Robinson and Tim Weah bombed forward, repeatedly frustrating the Red Devils. Tim Ream and Mark McKenzie held firm, while Turner made a series of acrobatic saves in his first start since losing the No. 1 job to Matt Freese last June.<\/p>\n The winning streak is over. A 5-2 loss is unsightly, at best. But based on the performance, the lopsided scoreline was probably both a little bit harsh on the home squad and a crucial reminder that there are no moral victories at the highest level. For the U.S., it\u2019s better to learn that lesson now than in June.<\/p>\n Turner played every minute of the USA\u2019s four matches at the 2022 World Cup. Antonee “Jedi” Robinson was on the field for all but the final moments of the round of loss to the Netherlands in Qatar. But both veterans had been out of Pochettino\u2019s lineup for most of the Argentine\u2019s tenure \u2014 Robinson because of injury, Turner because of the emergence of Freese. But both returned to Poch\u2019s 11 on Saturday. And while Jedi\u2019s return \u2014 U.S. Soccer\u2019s male player of the year in 2024 didn\u2019t make a single appearance last year because of knee issues \u2014 was expected, Turner\u2019s was the biggest surprise before the match against the Red Devils kicked off.<\/p>\n Jedi looked as good as ever, just as he has done with Fulham in the Premier League. And Turner justified Pochettino’s decision by making a series of fine stops during an overall confident display, even if his poor clearance led to a goal that was only ruled out because it inadvertently deflected in off forward Charles De Ketelaere\u2019s arm. Turner’s best save of all might have been on the play that led to De Bruyne\u2019s successful penalty, with Turner tipping the ball over his crossbar after it hit Ream\u2019s hand and changed trajectory.<\/p>\n Richards wasn\u2019t the only projected World Cup starter missing on Saturday. Tyler Adams, who captained the Americans at the last World Cup in Qatar, is injured. So is right back\/winger Sergi\u00f1o Dest. Yet Poch still got his best available players on the field, deploying Weah as an outside defender even with natural right back Joe Scally available. (Scally came on late in the second half.) At his core, Poch is a pragmatist. His lineup choices on Saturday confirmed as much \u2014 and provided a preview of what U.S. fans can expect in terms of personnel decisions when their World Cup campaign begins in earnest on June 12 versus Paraguay in Los Angeles. Who fills those spots is another matter. With just three more tuneup games to go before then, there are still plenty of lineup questions remaining.<\/p>\n Belgium is good. Very good. Reigning UEFA Nations League champions Portugal \u2014 FIFA\u2019s sixth ranked side and the team that the USA will close out the March window in Tuesday’s match in Atlanta \u2014 is even better. That\u2019s a scary thought. Yet it\u2019s also an opportunity to right Saturday\u2019s wrongs almost immediately and end this month on a decidedly brighter note.<\/p>\n Time to regroup for that Tuesday game against Portugal, which will be taking on Mexico on Saturday night in Mexico City. The Portuguese are without superstar Cristiano Ronaldo during this swing through North America, but there is still tons of quality starpower. Manchester Untied midfielder Bruno Fernandes. AC Milan speedster Rafael Le\u00e3o. PSG dynamo Vitinha. The USA will have its hand full.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" POPULAR SEARCHES BROWSE BY Mercedes-Benz Stadium (ATLANTA) \u2014 The United States men’s national team impressed early against Belgium. Then the wheels fell off. A first-half lead in Saturday\u2019s high-profile World Cup warmup match against Belgium \u2014 FIFA\u2019s No. 9 ranked squad \u2014 melted away as the UA conceded four straight goals in front of a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":3230,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}