Not incredibly interested in learning the sport, but I've had a blast watching games in this World Cup. I'll watch the rest of the games and then go back to not caring about soccer until the next Cup, women's or men's. I don't enjoy the game enough to watch club play, but international play in the World Cup is always fun, even when USA is out. I tend to root for the underdog and it's great when they pull it out. Of the remaining teams, I'm probably pulling for Columbia or England now. No one I'd just hate to win it all, though I think France would be kind of boring to win it after being the wire to wire favorite.
Every World Cup has a pretty measurable lasting boost in American viewership for European leagues
And Iâd go so far as to say for younger generations, soccer seems to pretty firmly be the third most popular sportâalthough ofc very distantly behind football and basketball
At least baseball hurts when a 100mph ball hits you. Soccer they have cleats and shin guards yet still act like they got disemboweled over a slight touch
Playoff baseball is some of the most entertaining sports around. If youâve never played itâs going to be hard to understand the skills involved in every play or how games are like a chess match. No doubt itâs not everyoneâs cup of tea though.
Legitimately the only reason why I watch it is because of the halftime shows and the commercials, fake football will never beat the World Cup or futbol in general on any aspect
After Germany went out there were a bunch of Americans claiming their team was better than Germany, despite being beaten by Germany three weeks earlier in their last match before the world cup.
I don't know, I saw a hell of a lot of people talking about this match as a formality after the suspension was overturned. There was a lot of hubris around, not least because Belgium are relatively weak compared to 5-10 years ago. Some of the things being said online where absolutely ridiculous.
So don't be surprised when there's a significant amount of people enjoying this result.
To be fair we have one of the better ice hockey teams in the world. Thatâs not the case with soccer. And goalies have new known to steal games and even series in hockey. Thereâs not much a goalkeeper can do on a well placed shot or tip in.
Eh that was the men's. Oddly Americans care more about women's Olympic hockey. You know, cuz they win.
American men's isn't super impressive, never has been, that's why the Miracle on Ice was crazy. They're good but if the NHL sends all the dudes to their home countries to compete America is not super impressive. Which is why the NHL won't do it on contract
I was rooting for America but had money on Belgium. We went crazy for that goal and the whole restaurant erupted into cheers like Iâve never really seen for a soccer game. It was a good run. But clearly we have a long way to go haha. Someday⊠maybe.
I donât know. There were a lot of Americans arguing with me 4 days ago on Reddit about how the US would beat Belgium and that the US were favored to win, etc.
I donât blindly hate on teams, but I actually follow the sport.
We got a relatively easy group given that we were a host nation, which gave us a bit of false confidence. Weâll see what happens in 2030. Should be able to get out of group stage. There is no denying that this squad is the deepest weâve had, but this match clearly shows that weâre still leagues behind the big dogs. Itâs unfortunate that Balogun got that red and then yesterday happened. That probably fucked our psyche heading into this match, leading us to have our worst performance. I genuinely think weâd have a better showing if the Balogun suspension was upheld for this match.
I think USA may have lost regardless, they just looked overmatched, sloppy, and unorganized. Granted, you wonder if the big distraction was the main catalyst
Pot meet kettle. In fact Iâd say the US is more progressive in regard to different cultures and ethnicities than anywhere else. The rest of the world will tune in to a news station and think thatâs how the majority of people act here when some dumb hillbillies attack a person of color. In the last 10 years Iâve seen a rise of migrants into other countries that act like they are soooo tolerant only for it to be the furthest thing from the truth. All these countries only act tolerant because they are still 90%+ their own race and culture. Seen Spain protest tourists. England has a far right movement gaining traction and these people literally made monkey noises in a stadium to a black footballer in THIS century. Donât get me started with the Middle East or China.
All those teams are good and US played well against them, you asked what teams they played well against and I told you, your jsut shifting goalposts cuz r32 and 16 are all objectively good
Senegal is literally the only good team in that list. Who gives a shit what round the others made it to? The bracket matters. If you get an easy group stage, you're getting through.
The US beat no one this tournament. You were never as good as you thought you were. Gassed up mids
Who give a shit except the team that wins the world cup? Argentina is top dog until someone beats team. They are on track to defend that title. STFU for teams that ar e not competitive against them. No one remembers second place.
Yes, but the question was why people felt confident of the US's chances. The answer was that the US was playing decently against their weak opponents while Belgium was playing poorly against theirs. I think people just hoped that Belgium would come up flat against the US and that the US would come out swinging. Things like that do happen in single elim tourneys.
The difference is that Belgium is an actual good team. They're ranked 8th in the world for a reason. And the US thought they were going to run all over them
Dog, we literally always lose to any European teams damn near lol. The United States menâs national team has always sucked and they always will suck. I was shocked to see how good they played right away and then once I saw them play Belgium, I was like. Ahhh thereâs the team I know.
Itâs because Trump got the card overturned and his supporters thought that means USA would win , without having watching a second of soccer in their lives
from me, only because the last World Cup I watched was in Korea and Japan. And before the match, FIFA, on the orders of the US president, lifted the suspension for the red card. Do I need to explain further?
Belgium has always been the better team but looked mediocre in the group stage. US looked better. Trump decided to involve himself in the WC made the world hate watch the US even harder.
Not sure how so many people here ask this same question. I feel like the majority of people are brain dead until something crazy happens.
There wasn't, it was hope. Everybody was praying f9r a US downfall though so the world has to take its victory lap. When we all knew what the outcome would be. But you always gotta stuck it to the US
Home teams DO have a distinct advantage and do tend to do better in the WC than in other international matches. It was always a long-shot match but not inconceivable.
Still, the whole red card thing and freaking Trump getting involved left such a bad taste in my mouth. The result was very obviously well deserved and well earned by Belgium. Happy for them.
Where it always comes from. Propaganda and screaming "we are the free-est!" while not having the basic human rights of the entire rest of the developed world.
It's called hope for our team. Belgium had beaten us in our 2 prior match ups in World Cup history. Aside from Turkey, there is no denying we have played well in this tournament and deserved to be where we got. We just played bad tonight and Belgium was the strongest team this match.
Because most âfansâ wouldnât know about the results of a friendly. They watched because itâs the WC and theyâll go back to our domestic sports now.
The US team was playing out of their ass, like considerably better than 99% of Americans thought they would play, so people bought into the âCinderella runâ narrative. Mexico had a similar run this World Cup.
Europeans were overly confident in the US too, since that 5-2 loss came with balogun in the starting roster. somehow they convinced themselves heâd be a difference maker this time, I guess.
I knew we were going to lose the second Trump put his grubby fingers in the pie. The Trump sports curse continues. Don't let the airbag touch your team or you're fucked for that game.
that's a friendly though, it's hard to make massive assumptions about that. I certainly would have expected belgium to win previously, but US at home and belgium looking meh had me thinking it was 50-50. Their defense against belgium was completely embarrassing though. Certainly would have had little chance against spain though
Plenty of precedent for teams rising to the occasion when the odds are stacked against them. One that comes to mind is 2007 Super Bowl when the Giants beat the âperfect seasonâ Patriots. The two teams had played against each other a few weeks prior in the season ending game.
Different team, home field world cup home advantage, Belgium had looked weaker, we had looked stronger, vibes were goodm then we looked like a scared dog with no idea how to play
That's how it's always been. I remember in like 2014 or whenever it was, American fans were convinced the USA was gonna beat Germany, who ended up winning it all.
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u/SignificanceAny7239 Jul 07 '26
Belgium literally beat the US 5-2 a few months back, don't know where all this confidence in the US came from?