United States men's national team head coach Mauricio Pochettino has taken responsibility for the team's 4-1 defeat against Belgium in the World Cup round of 16.
"Maybe the explanation is so easy: it wasn’t our day, collectively and individually," Pochettino told FOX Sports' Jenny Taft after the match. "Of course, the principal responsible is myself. And yes, we need to see and to check what we did because it wasn’t the performance or the way that normally we play."
Pochettino acknowledged Belgium's superior performance, stating, "To congratulate Belgium, they were better than us." He added that the USMNT "didn’t show what normally [our] team can show."
Belgium secured their win with goals from Charles De Ketelaere, Hans Vanaken, and Romelu Lukaku. Malik Tillman scored the lone goal for the United States in the 31st minute, but Belgium responded quickly. "I think everything was short," Pochettino said. "From the beginning, we didn’t connect the game. We never were on the game, even when we scored. And we scored the goal, 1-1, we conceded the next action. It was really tough from the beginning."
The head coach emphasized the need for the team to learn from the loss and assess why they were unable to replicate their earlier tournament intensity and sharpness. "I think we need to learn. I think it’s a process to learn. We need to assess that game, and we need to see why we didn’t approach the game in the same way [as] the rest of the World Cup."
Belgium will advance to the quarterfinals to face Spain on Friday, July 10, in Los Angeles.