LOS ANGELES
\nFired-up Belgium brought the United States\u2019 World Cup party to a shuddering halt on Monday, thrashing the tournament co-hosts 4-1 to set up a quarter-final showdown with Spain.
\nCharles De Ketelaere scored twice, Hans Vanaken punished a goalkeeping howler, and substitute Romelu Lukaku added a fourth to settle a last-16 clash that had been overshadowed by the pre-match uproar surrounding US striker Folarin Balogun.
\nBalogun, named in US coach Mauricio Pochettino\u2019s starting line-up after Fifa suspended a one-game ban following lobbying by US President Donald Trump, was largely anonymous throughout Monday\u2019s knockout tie at Seattle\u2019s Lumen Field.
\nInstead, a rampant Belgium ruthlessly dismantled the USA\u2019s hopes of reaching a first World Cup quarter-final in 24 years, in a bitterly disappointing end to a campaign that had captivated the host nation.
\nBelgium captain Youri Tielemans said the furore over Balogun had motivated his team-mates.
\n\u201cLet\u2019s be honest: we held a meeting when we heard the news,\u201d Tielemans said.
\n\u201cWe told ourselves we needed to do our talking on the pitch. That\u2019s what we did today. I\u2019m very proud of the team,\u201d the Aston Villa midfielder told Belgium\u2019s RTBF broadcaster.
\nUS coach Pochettino said his team had not turned up on the day.
\n\u201cToday we were not the same team that we have been during the tournament,\u201d Pochettino said. \u201cIt was a very bad day \u2014 it wasn\u2019t our day in a collective and individual way.\u201d
\nDe Ketelaere fired Belgium ahead after nine minutes, and although Malik Tillman\u2019s deflected free-kick leveled it in the 31st-minute, the US fightback was shortlived.
\nDe Ketelaere headed Belgium back in front in the 33rd minute, and Vanaken made it 3-1 in the 57th minute after a dreadful blunder by US goalkeeper Matt Freese, who was dispossessed after charging out of his penalty area to clear.
\nVeteran striker Lukaku piled on the misery with a fourth in stoppage time.
\nThe defeat capped a tumultuous 24 hours for the World Cup co-hosts, who were lifted by Fifa\u2019s shock reprieve of Balogun on Sunday \u2014 a decision which brought widespread condemnation across the football world.
\nBelgium football chiefs had challenged Balogun\u2019s eligibility for the game earlier on Monday but saw their appeal dismissed out of hand by Fifa.
\n\u201cThere was a sense of injustice within the squad,\u201d Belgium\u2019s Nicolas Raskin said. \u201cWe were determined to respond on the field.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LOS ANGELES Fired-up Belgium brought the United States\u2019 World Cup party to a shuddering halt on Monday, thrashing the tournament co-hosts 4-1 to set up a quarter-final showdown with Spain. Charles De Ketelaere scored twice, Hans Vanaken punished a goalkeeping howler, and substitute Romelu Lukaku added a fourth to settle a last-16 clash that had …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":99935,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-99965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99965"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99965\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":99980,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99965\/revisions\/99980"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}