World Cup 2026: Round of 16 – Day 3

Today was set up to be a massive day in the World Cup. Well, at least for me personally as a US and Portugal fan. Portugal vs Spain is always a tight matchup. Spain eliminated Portugal from the 2010 World Cup and 2012 Euros. The teams also played to a thrilling 3-3 draw in the group stage at the 2018 World Cup and last year, Portugal beat Spain on penalties to win the Nation’s League. And then of course we had the US vs Belgium. Lots of drama heading into that one. It was either going to be an unbelievable day for me or a tragic one. Here’s what went down:

Spain 1-0 Portugal

This one was close right until the end, as it was always going to be. Spain started the game as the better team and it wasn’t just because they were holding on to the ball. Their counter press (winning the ball back right after losing it) was strong. In the 9th minute, Mikel Oyarzabal had a great chance to give Spain the lead but his shot went just wide of the post. Spain went on to create a few more chances but Portugal goalkeeper Diogo Costa was strong in goal. Towards the end of the half Portugal grew into the game a bit more and even hit the crossbar in the 41st minute. The game would go to half at 0-0 though.

A huge moment in the game would occur in the 56th minute when Portugal left back Nuno Mendes was forced off with an injury. In my eyes he’s the best LB in the world and one of the few players who could hope to contain Lamine Yamal. Both teams created some chances as the half went on but Spain still looked like the better side. Late on, the game started to slow down and it looked like we were headed for extra time. But just past the 90 minute mark, Portugal’s defense fell asleep. Spain took a quick free kick and Ferran Torres slid Mikel Merino through in the box where he’d finish past Costa. Portugal came close to getting an equalizer with the last attack of the game but Bernardo Silva’s flicked-on header ended up on the roof of the net. Spain were through to the next round.

Spain did well here to get the job done. They almost lulled Portugal to sleep in the end. It really is “death by a thousand cuts” when you play Spain. They’ll be really tough to beat for any team that meets them. It’s also worth noting that Spain haven’t conceded yet in this World Cup. That’s five games so far. Incredibly efficient.

And now I get to lament about Portugal. What a disappointment this World Cup turned out to be. For all of their talent, the team never came together and produced a performance worthy of a contender. The draw against DR Congo to open up the group stage wasn’t good, but teams will sometimes start slow at these tournaments. They then went and thrashed Uzbekistan 5-0 and all of a sudden, Ronaldo and this team were back. Except they really weren’t. A 0-0 draw to Colombia was a decent result but a win would have seen Portugal finish top of the group and they likely would have been playing Switzerland tomorrow instead of Spain today.

Through it all, there’s a lot of blame to go around. A lot of the attention will be on Ronaldo and I do think it’s warranted. He just didn’t produce at this tournament. He leaves with three goals but two of them came against a poor Uzbekistan team and the other was a penalty against Croatia. At 41 years old, he just didn’t have it in him to carry this team. But honestly, he shouldn’t have had to. I put a huge amount of blame on Roberto Martinez as well. He just didn’t set this team up to succeed. Such a frustrating end for this team.

Belgium 4-1 USA

What a disaster for the USMNT. I’ll have plenty to say about their tournament but first we have to talk about how we got to this result. Belgium absolutely dominated the first half of this game. They could’ve gone ahead within the first minute when Timothy Castagne hit a curling shot from long range but Matt Freese tipped it wide. Belgium wouldn’t have to wait long though as they went ahead 1-0 in the 9th minute. Alex Freeman blocked a Leandro Trossard cross just inside the box but the US defenders fell asleep and allowed Nicolas Raskin to get to the ball first and cross low for Charles De Ketelaere to finish. The US would get an equalizer completely against the run of play in the 31st when a Malik Tillman free kick deflected off the wall and went past Thibaut Courtois in goal. The good feeling was short lived. Belgium went down and immediately regained their lead when De Ketelaere beat Tim Ream in the air to put away a Trossard cross. They would take the 2-1 lead into halftime.

Mauricio Pochettino took Serginio Dest off for Gio Reyna to start the second half. It was the right tactical switch and the US immediately looked better. Belgium weren’t getting out of their own half. Then, a catastrophic error doomed the comeback effort. In the 57th minute, Matt Freese came out for a long ball over the top. He did well to chest it past the Belgium attacker, but then hesitated in clearing the ball away and Hans Vanaken was able to fire into an empty net. 3-1 Belgium. The US tried to get back in the game and showed a little fight but it just wasn’t nearly enough. Romelu Lukaku would add a fourth in stoppage time to seal the Belgian victory.

First, quickly on Belgium: they woke up. This Belgian team has a lot of talent but they hadn’t lived up to it yet this tournament. It took nearly going out last round against Senegal for them to wake up and start playing well. They came out strong in this one and fully deserved to win.

And now, the US. I’ll start with how I felt before the World Cup. I wanted the team to win the group, hopefully get a relatively easy game in the Round of 32, and then have a shot against a good team in the Round of 16. They kind of got there except for the “having a shot in the Round of 16” part. Tonight was a fiasco. And it’s honestly really depressing. There were such good vibes around this team after the group stage and the win over Bosnia in the Round of 32. And then they go out with a dud.

The last thing I want to touch on here is the impact of this World Cup on soccer in this country. A lot of it was always going to be tied to how far this US team went. This World Cup was supposed to be the opportunity for the US to go far and get more people on board with the sport. In the end, I wonder what impact this tournament will really have on soccer in this country. At the moment, I feel like it’s minimal.

Tomorrow’s Predictions

• Argentina 3-1 Egypt
  • The Cape Verde game will have been a warning to Argentina that they can’t just cruise through these games. I think they’ll be on it and handle Egypt
• Switzerland 1-0 Colombia
  • I’m going with an upset here. As much as we’d all like to see a Colombia vs Argentina in the Quarterfinals, I think an organized Swiss team will pull off a surprise here and take down Colombia. Colombia haven’t been clinical enough for me and I think it’ll hurt them here

Well that was a devastating day for me personally. Portugal and the US both bow out of the World Cup. I’m still going to keep up with the blogs as I am still enjoying writing about this tournament. But you’ll have to forgive me for not feeling excited about tomorrow in this moment. Just a sad day. Regardless, I’ll see you tomorrow.