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It was a disastrous night for the co-hosts. And the United States men's national team's leader thinks the blame should fall squarely on his shoulders.
After falling 4-1 to Belgium in Seattle, United States head coach Mauricio Pochettino spoke with FOX Sports' Jenny Taft about the bitter result.
"Maybe the explanation is so easy: it wasn’t our day, collectively and individually," Pochettino told Taft. "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 went on to congratulate his opponents, while acknowledging USA did not play to the fullest of its abilities.
"To congratulate Belgium, they were better than us," Pochettino said. "I think it wasn’t our day. That is. It’s not to find excuses or to find arguments because we didn’t show what normally [our] team can show. And that is the reality."
Belgium cruised into the quarterfinals behind a brace from Charles De Ketelaere, a goal from Hans Vanaken and a late finish from Romelu Lukaku to cap off a dominant performance.
Malik Tillman managed to equalize for the co-hosts at 1-1 after converting a free kick in the 31st minute, but it wasn't anywhere near enough.
"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."
Pochettino said the United States will need to evaluate what went wrong after failing to approach the game with the same intensity and sharpness it had shown earlier in the tournament.
"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 moves on and will take on Spain in the quarterfinals in Los Angeles on Friday, July 10.
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