For the first time in a long while, the United States is playing knockout soccer at a World Cup — and doing it at home. The U.S. men's national team has advanced out of its group at the 2026 tournament, which the U.S. is co-hosting with Canada and Mexico, and now meets Belgium in the Round of 16.
How the U.S. got here
The Americans punched their ticket with a 2-0 win over Bosnia and Herzegovina, Yahoo Sports reported. It was an eventful night: Folarin Balogun opened the scoring, Christian Pulisic had a goal called back, and Malik Tillman added a second — the U.S. holding on and even extending the lead after Balogun was sent off with a red card.
That dismissal carries a cost. Balogun, one of the team's most dangerous attackers, will be suspended for the Belgium match, forcing coach Mauricio Pochettino to reshape his attack for the biggest game of the tournament so far.
The matchup
The Round-of-16 tie is set for Monday, July 6, with an 8 p.m. Eastern kickoff in Seattle, according to World Soccer Talk. The winner advances to the quarterfinals; the loser goes home.
Belgium is a familiar kind of test — a nation whose "golden generation" made it a regular deep-run contender in recent World Cups, and one that has the pedigree and quality to punish mistakes. The Belgians reached the knockout stage from their own group and will fancy their chances against a U.S. side down a key forward.
The stakes for the host
For the United States, the significance goes beyond a single result. The last time the men's team won a World Cup knockout match was 2002, when it reached the quarterfinals in South Korea and Japan. In the two decades since, promising tournaments have tended to end in the Round of 16. Beating Belgium — on home soil, in front of a home crowd — would not just extend this run; it would break a long drought and validate the home World Cup's central hope: that a U.S. team could go deep with the country watching.
Pochettino's group has shown it can grind out results, which it may need to do again without Balogun. The reward for finding a way past Belgium would be a place in the last eight, and a country's growing soccer audience carried a little further into the summer.
