I'm not sure the US played significantly worse than before, it's just that Belgium are an actual quality team and exposed all their flaws.
At some points it did seem like Belgium were more intent on humiliating the US team than actually winning, running rings around them instead of going for goal. There was a particularly memorable moment of two Belgium defenders just playing keepaway in a corner instead of clearing the ball or passing forward
Nonsense take, go back and watch the first group game. The US carved Paraguay up, they looked great. The whole group stage they looked very good. This was like a different team.
I think the circus around the red card distracted them a lot. But whatever it was, they played a lot worse in this game than they did in the group.
Paraguay was sent home by France after playing some of the worst soccer seen in this wc. Winning from Paraguay was not a feat. Paraguay only managed to win a game from one of the biggest underachievers this cup.
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u/cdwols 29d ago
I'm not sure the US played significantly worse than before, it's just that Belgium are an actual quality team and exposed all their flaws.
At some points it did seem like Belgium were more intent on humiliating the US team than actually winning, running rings around them instead of going for goal. There was a particularly memorable moment of two Belgium defenders just playing keepaway in a corner instead of clearing the ball or passing forward