USMNT v Belgium<\/a><\/p>\nThey were unbeaten in a relatively-soft World Cup qualifying group and will tangle with Egypt, Iran, and New Zealand in the World Cup’s Group G.<\/p>\n
How will Belgium line up versus the USMNT?<\/p>\n
Thibaut Courtois is not with the team so Nottingham Forest’s Matz Sels is a strong shout to start but Manchester United’s Senne Lammens is hoping for a second cap.<\/p>\n
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Belgium’s back line is the biggest question for the club as the familiar Toby Alderweireld and Jan Vertonghen are long gone. Eintracht Frankfurt’s Arthur Theate has started their last three matches along with three different center backs. Zeno Debast may pair with him here, with Thomas Meunier on one side of a back four and Maxim De Cuyper or Timothy Castagne on the other.<\/p>\n
The midfield and forward groups are loaded even without injured midfielder Hans Vanaken, forward Romelu Lukaku, and forward Leandro Trossard.<\/p>\n
In the middle, looks for four of Kevin De Bruyne, Youri Tielemans, Axel Witsel, Amadou Onana, and Nicolas Raskin to start against the U.S. Tielemans is the captain but sometimes comes off the bench as Rangers midfielder Raskin has been getting run next to Onana and underneath De Bruyne.<\/p>\n
It’s pick your poison up top, where Jeremy Doku, Louis Openda, Alexis Saelemaekers, Dodi Lukebakio, and Charles De Ketelaere are all strong options. De Ketelaera has been a regular leading the line.<\/p>\n
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Matz Sels<\/p>\n
Thomas Meunier \u2014 Zeno Debast \u2014 Arthur Theate \u2014 Timothy Castagne<\/p>\n
Nicolas Raskin \u2014 Amadou Onana<\/p>\n
Jeremy Doku \u2014 Kevin De Bruyne \u2014 Alexis Saelemaekers<\/p>\n
Charles De Ketelaere<\/p>\n
![\"Belgium](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/a37339b7e83f3cdd89a4259eb5c28196.jpeg\"\/)
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Belgium v Kazakhstan -World Cup Qualifier<\/p>\n
How will the USMNT line up versus Belgium?<\/p>\n
The starting goalkeeper job is seemingly Matt Freese’s to lose as he leads a group of four MLS keepers including 2022 World Cup starter Matt Turner into Atlanta.<\/p>\n
Crystal Palace’s Chris Richards and Charlotte’s Tim Ream are locked into center back spots \u2014 and roles if Pochettino sticks with a back three \u2014 but we may see a number of players auditioning for the World Cup. Miles Robinson, Mark McKenzie, and Auston Trusty are the other CBs in this camp while Joe Scally and Alex Freeman are fullback who could slot inside. As for fullbacks, there’s no Sergino Dest so Max Arfsten and Antonee Robinson will compete for time. Given Robinson’s year-plus of playing through pain, they may split time between Belgium and Portugal.<\/p>\n
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Tyler Adams’ fitness gives more opportunities in the midfield. Tanner Tessmann has looked terrific in recent caps, while Malik Tillman has been a star regardless of accompanying cast while in a U.S. shirt. If it’s a 3-4-2-1 then there could be Sebastian Berhalter, Johnny Cardoso, Aidan Morris, or Cristian Roldan next to Tessmann. Maybe even Weston McKennie, but will he be a part of a very exciting front three (2-1)?<\/p>\n
Christian Pulisic and Folarin Balogun take two of those spots and Timothy Weah joins in-form Brenden Aaronson, healthy Ricardo Pepi and Patrick Agyemang in providing plenty of choices (Haji Wright and DIego Luna have not found full health and\/or fitness).<\/p>\n
Here are back three and back four options for Pochettino.<\/p>\n
Pochettino\u2019s possible 3-4-2-1 vs Belgium<\/p>\n
Matt Freese<\/p>\n
Joe Scally \u2014 Chris Richards\u2014 Tim Ream<\/p>\n
Timothy Weah \u2014 Tanner Tessmann \u2014 Sebastian Berhalter \u2014 Antonee Robinson<\/p>\n
Christian Pulisic \u2014 Malik Tillman<\/p>\n
Folarin Balogun<\/p>\n
Pochettino\u2019s possible 4-3-3 vs Belgium<\/p>\n
Matt Freese<\/p>\n
Alex Freeman \u2014 Chris Richards\u2014 Tim Ream \u2014 Antonee Robinson<\/p>\n
Tanner Tessmann \u2014 Johnny Cardoso<\/p>\n
Timothy Weah \u2014 Malik Tillman \u2014 Christian Pulisic<\/p>\n
Folarin Balogun<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The USMNT takes another step up in competition after a tremendous end to 2025 against some serious mostly-CONMEBOL…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8762,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[4541,4568,3924,5413,4542,5409,4538,4434,5424,7,4550,5403,4532,4561,4548,4566,5421,6111,5260,5442,4559,4563,5416,3164,6109,4252,5419,4549,4553,2196,5422,4557,1264,4562,4534,4540,5418,4525,2732,4565,2176,5417,4552,373,4554,335,4560,5400,4551,2061,4555,3721,5408,4539,5410,5694,6110,4544,375,4529,4564,5404,5414],"class_list":{"0":"post-8761","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-belgium","8":"tag-aidan-morris","9":"tag-alex-freeman","10":"tag-alexis-saelemaekers","11":"tag-amadou-onana","12":"tag-antonee-robinson","13":"tag-arthur-theate","14":"tag-auston-trusty","15":"tag-australia","16":"tag-axel-witsel","17":"tag-belgium","18":"tag-brenden-aaronson","19":"tag-charles-de-ketelaere","20":"tag-chris-richards","21":"tag-christian-pulisic","22":"tag-cristian-roldan","23":"tag-crystal-palace","24":"tag-dodi-lukebakio","25":"tag-ecuador","26":"tag-egypt","27":"tag-eintracht-frankfurt","28":"tag-folarin-balogun","29":"tag-haji-wright","30":"tag-hans-vanaken","31":"tag-iran","32":"tag-jan-vertonghen","33":"tag-japan","34":"tag-jeremy-doku","35":"tag-joe-scally","36":"tag-johnny-cardoso","37":"tag-kevin-de-bruyne","38":"tag-leandro-trossard","39":"tag-malik-tillman","40":"tag-manchester-united","41":"tag-mark-mckenzie","42":"tag-matt-freese","43":"tag-matt-turner","44":"tag-matz-sels","45":"tag-mauricio-pochettino","46":"tag-mexico","47":"tag-miles-robinson","48":"tag-new-zealand","49":"tag-nicolas-raskin","50":"tag-nottingham-forest","51":"tag-paraguay","52":"tag-patrick-agyemang","53":"tag-portugal","54":"tag-ricardo-pepi","55":"tag-romelu-lukaku","56":"tag-sebastian-berhalter","57":"tag-senne-lammens","58":"tag-tanner-tessmann","59":"tag-thibaut-courtois","60":"tag-thomas-meunier","61":"tag-tim-ream","62":"tag-timothy-castagne","63":"tag-timothy-weah","64":"tag-toby-alderweireld","65":"tag-tyler-adams","66":"tag-uruguay","67":"tag-usmnt","68":"tag-weston-mckennie","69":"tag-youri-tielemans","70":"tag-zeno-debast"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8761\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}