'We let them down' - USMNT let golden World Cup moment slip as Belgium expose gap between Americans and true contenders in Round of 16 exit | Goal.com

SEATTLE -- One by one, the U.S. Men's National Team players admitted they did not have the answers. For some, it was too soon to look for them. For others, they may never fully arrive. That was the cruelty of Monday's nightmare: there was no single mistake, no single explanation, no easy way to make sense of how it all fell apart. The answers, ultimately, do not matter as much as the result. And the result was a 4-1 loss to Belgium that, honestly, probably was not even that close. This was the USMNT's moment in the spotlight, the one they had dreamed of their whole lives. Instead, they fell, and fell hard. A night that could have been remembered as a turning point for American soccer became one they will be desperate to forget. Is that the unfortunate legacy of this summer? Maybe. That will be debated in the coming weeks. But Monday night did the USMNT no favors. They won over no critics and rewarded few of their most fervent backers. A World Cup that began with so much promise ended as a letdown. That stings. "In this moment we let them down," midfielder Tyler Adams said, "but I think together, people gravitated towards this team because we were relatable. We represented exactly what the U.S. was. Today wasn't a good day...You start to think about what you could have done better. That's the environment of elite performance. If no one ever lost, then there probably wouldn't be any progress, and that's for the best players in the world. "You go through it, you put yourself in those situations to try and break through. At this moment, yeah, it sucks." What will sting most is that it was there for the taking. There was no overstating the opportunity in front of the USMNT, both in this game and this summer. In the end, they let it slip with their worst performance at the worst possible time, and that fact may outlive almost every other takeaway from this World Cup.