The USMNT's World Cup ended in Seattle with a 4-1 Round of 16 loss to Belgium, Charles De Ketelaere scoring twice in the first half before Hans Vanaken and Romelu Lukaku finished the job. Christian Pulisic reportedly fractured his leg in the process. It was the most-watched soccer match in U.S. history, which somehow made the beatdown sting more, not less. A week later, Barstool still hasn't moved on.
New @PardonMyTake w podcasters @BradyTkachuk71 and @TKACHUKycheese_ live in Lake Tahoe and USMNT world cup post mortum with @TaylorTwellman PLUS MOUNT RUSHMORE OF AQUATIC LIFE https://t.co/QvIEyE3hXO https://t.co/6GDLwLJJvO
That PMT episode from Lake Tahoe turned into a full-blown postmortem. Big Cat and PFT ran through the whole case for why this one felt worse than a normal group-stage exit: expanded field, favorable draw, a golden generation, home-field advantage as co-hosts. "We looked like we didn't care," PFT said on the show, with Hank piling on that the U.S. was gifted its spot as host rather than earning qualification. It's the kind of gut-punch honesty that only shows up when a fanbase actually expected something.
We’re not some small country. This is why it’s ok to just come to the conclusion that maybe we’ll just never be good and that’s fine. I’ll still root and get swept up in WC. It just feels like the exact same hype/loss/convo about what went wrong every 4 years
Big Cat's follow-up take cuts at the real tension here: is this just America's soccer ceiling, or is it a talent-pipeline problem that keeps repeating itself every 4 years? He floated the uncomfortable idea that maybe the U.S. just isn't going to be good at this, and that's an okay thing to accept. PFT Commenter pushed back on the doom a little, pointing out that with Belgium looking like a legitimate top team in the tournament, losing to them isn't the same as losing to anybody. "Maybe US is just 3rd best, no shame in that," he wrote.
It's the same story with U.S. Soccer every 4 years https://t.co/K1T5A3CnrB
Then Belgium went and complicated the narrative further. Spain beat Belgium 2-1 in the quarterfinal on July 10, with De Ketelaere -- the same guy who torched the U.S. twice -- equalizing before Mikel Merino won it off the bench for Spain. That's not exactly "best team in the world" form, but Dave Portnoy wasn't backing down from his read on the Belgian talent that beat his country. He'd started the day calling the loss embarrassing, then flipped almost immediately into grudging respect for whichever Belgian forward he was watching manhandle Spain's back line.
Ok maybe Belgium isnt that bad. At least that dude who dominated us and just dominated that Spanish defender isnt that bad. He just ragdolls people in the box. Spain is still dominating though
The bigger question -- the one that actually matters past the venting -- is what the U.S. does about player development before 2030. Jeff D. Lowe put it as bluntly as anyone: the United States needs its own Mbappe, a generational talent who can single-handedly drag a roster past its ceiling rather than relying on a deep-but-not-elite pool. Macrodosing picked up that exact thread, framing it less as a hot take and more as the actual structural issue underneath all the memes.
How do we get better soccer talent coming up in the United States? https://t.co/XrxgzUm24I
None of this resolves anything, and that's kind of the point. Barstool's soccer content cycle is famously seasonal -- everyone cares intensely for a month, then it goes quiet until the next major tournament. But with Pulisic hurt, the World Cup still playing out without the U.S. in it, and Belgium's run proving the margins at the top were razor thin, there's more incentive than usual to actually keep the development conversation alive instead of letting it evaporate the second football season starts.