{"id":9139,"date":"2026-03-29T00:57:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T00:57:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/9139\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T00:57:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T00:57:19","slug":"belgium-blows-out-united-states-5-2-in-world-cup-warmup-that-exposes-american-defenders-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/9139\/","title":{"rendered":"Belgium blows out United States 5-2 in World Cup warmup that exposes American defenders"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>ATLANTA (AP) \u2014 Belgium blew out the United States 5-2 on Saturday in a World Cup warmup that exposed the Americans\u2019 defensive difficulties, rallying from a late first-half deficit on two goals by Dodi Luk\u00e9bakio and one each from Zeno Debast, Amadou Onana and Charles De Ketelaere.<\/p>\n<p>Weston McKennie put the U.S. ahead in the 39th minute with his 12th international goal, his first in three years, but Debast and Onana began Belgium\u2019s rally with their first international goals on a frustrating afternoon for Matt Turner, the former No. 1 American goalkeeper who made his first appearance since last June.<\/p>\n<p>Debast scored in the 45th, Onana put the Red Devils ahead in the 53rd and De Ketelaere converted a penalty kick in the 59th after a hand ball by U.S. captain Tim Ream.<\/p>\n<p>Luk\u00e9bakio entered in the 62nd minute and beat Turner from long range in the 68th and 82nd minutes to build a 5-1 lead before a disappointed largely pro-American crowd of 66,867 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, site of a World Cup semifinal in July.<\/p>\n<p>Patrick Agyemang scored for the U.S. in the 87th after Ricardo Pepi took advantage of defensive misplay.<\/p>\n<p>The U.S. lost a home game by three goals in which it scored the opening goal for the first time since an 8-1 defeat to England in 1959, according to Opta.<\/p>\n<p>Belgium extended its unbeaten streak to 10 games and has won six straight against the U.S. since losing to the Americans at the initial World Cup in 1930.<\/p>\n<p>The U.S. had entered with a five-game unbeaten streak that created optimism but was missing several injured regulars.<\/p>\n<p>McKennie put the Americans ahead when he took advantage of Johnny Cardoso\u2019s pick to cut in front of Nicolas Raskin and volley Antonee Robinson\u2019s corner kick past Senne Lammens. <\/p>\n<p>American players debuted jerseys with red and white stripes that resemble a waving flag.<\/p>\n<p>With the roof closed in an air-conditioned stadium, fans booed the water breaks in the middle of each half \u2014 which will take place at each World Cup match.<\/p>\n<p>Belgium was missing striker Romelu Lukaku, midfielders Leandro Trossard and Hans Vanaken and goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois because of injuries and fitness issues. The Red Devils play Mexico in Chicago on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>___<\/p>\n<p>AP soccer: <a class=\"Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement\" data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/soccer\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/soccer<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ATLANTA (AP) \u2014 Belgium blew out the United States 5-2 on Saturday in a World Cup warmup that&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9140,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[5463,4542,7,4988,5403,3933,4978,3853,5416,4553,5422,4540,5417,4554,4560,5400,3934,1176,3721,4539,4975,4564,5414],"class_list":{"0":"post-9139","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-belgium","8":"tag-amadou-mvom-onana","9":"tag-antonee-robinson","10":"tag-belgium","11":"tag-belgium-national-soccer-team","12":"tag-charles-de-ketelaere","13":"tag-fifa-world-cup","14":"tag-ga-state-wire","15":"tag-georgia","16":"tag-hans-vanaken","17":"tag-johnny-cardoso","18":"tag-leandro-trossard","19":"tag-matt-turner","20":"tag-nicolas-raskin","21":"tag-patrick-agyemang","22":"tag-ricardo-pepi","23":"tag-romelu-lukaku","24":"tag-soccer","25":"tag-sports","26":"tag-thibaut-courtois","27":"tag-tim-ream","28":"tag-united-states-national-soccer-team","29":"tag-weston-mckennie","30":"tag-zeno-debast"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@be\/116309750233880706","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9139","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=9139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9139\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}