A win over Belgium would send the USMNT to its first World Cup quarterfinal in 24 years, and organizers hope it becomes more than just a moment.
The United States men’s national team(USMNT)arrives in Seattle carrying momentum, high television ratings and a question that stretches well beyond Monday’s scoreline, whether this World Cup run can finally change the sport’s standing in the country for good.
A record breaking run building toward Belgium
The USMNT advanced out of the group stage with a win over Bosnia and Herzegovina that drew a record 33.5 million television viewers, a number that outpaced the 2026 NBA Finals and would have ranked among the top five most watched television events of the previous year. That surge in attention has turned Monday’s round of 16 match against Belgium into more than a soccer fixture. A win would send the U.S. to a World Cup quarterfinal for just the second time in the modern era, and the first time doing so on home soil.
The stakes carry extra weight given the team’s history. Several current players were toddlers or not yet born when the 2002 U.S. squad reached the quarterfinals in South Korea, a benchmark this generation has chased for years. Team veterans have described this tournament as a chance to leave a legacy that outlasts the current roster, one that could shape how the sport grows domestically over the next decade rather than just this summer.
A city with deep roots in the sport
Seattle carries its own symbolic weight in this moment. The city’s soccer culture dates back to the North American Soccer League in the 1960s and helped anchor Major League Soccer’s growth after the Seattle Sounders’ sold out 2009 debut, a moment MLS commissioner Don Garber has pointed to as a turning point for how Americans viewed the sport’s potential. That history, paired with Monday’s match, has made Seattle feel like a fitting stage for a team trying to translate a summer of attention into something more lasting.
MLS officials have been candid that a strong World Cup run alone will not guarantee sustained interest. Sounders owner Adrian Hanauer has acknowledged that once the tournament ends, the league’s real work begins, focused on converting World Cup engagement into steady support for domestic soccer. MLS is already preparing structural changes, including flipping its calendar and taking a larger role in the global transfer market starting in 2027, though larger roster rule changes remain unresolved.
Facing Belgium without Balogun
The matchup itself presents real challenges. USMNT will be without forward Folarin Balogun, who has scored three goals in three matches this tournament but was sent off with a red card during the win over Bosnia. His absence removes one of the team’s most productive attacking options heading into a match against a well organized Belgian side built around playmaker Kevin De Bruyne and dangerous wingers Jeremy Doku and Leandro Trossard.
Head coach Mauricio Pochettino may respond with a tactical shift, potentially moving from the team’s usual 4-2-3-1 setup to a 3-5-2 formation designed to add defensive cover against Belgium’s wide threats. That change would put extra responsibility on wingbacks Antonee Robinson and Sergino Dest to balance defensive discipline with quick transitions forward. In midfield, the trio of Malik Tillman, Weston McKennie and Tyler Adams will need to control tempo and limit space for De Bruyne, while the return of defender Chris Richards alongside captain Tim Ream should strengthen a backline last exposed in a lopsided 5-2 loss to Belgium in an earlier meeting.
More than one game
For a team and a league hoping this tournament marks a turning point, Monday’s result carries meaning that extends past the bracket. A win from the USMNT keeps alive the possibility that this summer becomes a genuine inflection point for American soccer rather than another burst of temporary interest, echoing past moments like the 1994 World Cup and MLS’s 2009 breakthrough in Seattle. A loss would not erase the progress the USMNT made this tournament, but it would leave supporters and league officials to wonder what more it might have taken to turn a record setting summer into lasting change.
