Belgium loss in World Cup unveiled the truth about US soccer | Opinion

For 90 minutes on July 6, Belgium pulled back the curtain on American soccer.

The Greek word apokalypsis, or apocalypse, means "an unveiling." We now associate it with the end of the world because the end reveals the true nature of things. Monday night wasn't the end of American soccer. But it was an unveiling. And it wasn't good.

Up until that point, the United States Men's National Soccer Team had put in some decent performances, and American soccer fans, myself included, were starting to think we were finally good, finally worthy of competing on the biggest soccer stage.

Of course, those performances weren't against great teams.

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The illusion we wanted to believe

We beat Paraguay, a tiny country. We beat Australia, but soccer is only the fourth most popular sport in Australia behind rugby, Australian rules football and cricket. And we even lost to Turkey, who was only ranked 22nd in the world and who didn't even score in their first two matches. 

So maybe we fans were seeing more potential than was really there for the U.S. team.

But then it seemed like we had bounced back by beating Bosnia and Herzegovina in the first knockout round. The Turkey game was a fluke; our team actually was good, maybe even capable of going the distance. The fact that Bosnia and Herzegovina have populations smaller than the Tampa metro area didn't dissuade us. We believed our team was finally the real deal, that we were finally a real soccer nation.

But then came Monday night and the apocalypse.

Speaking soccer as a second language

Watching the disaster that was our loss to Belgium, the same thought kept occurring to me: every single Belgian player is better with the ball at their feet than every single American player. They weren't just a better team than us; they were better than us at every position, and it wasn't even close.

Their first touch was better, more confident, and more effective in setting up their second touch. Their turns and feints were more precise, more successful than ours. Their positioning in space, passing, triangles, and ability to carve through opposition were on another level than ours.

They were like native speakers of the language that is soccer, and we were like foreigners who've spent a lot of time trying to learn it but who aren't entirely fluent.

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Belgium is a country with almost the same population as Ohio, 1/30th that of the United States as a whole. The fact that after decades of soccer's development in the U.S., little Belgium can still field 11 guys who are each independently better than America's best 11 players is embarrassing. It is an indictment of the supposed American soccer revolution.

Now, the Belgian team is good. They're ranked 10th in the world. I'm not saying every country's team is that much better than ours. But this isn't even the best Belgian team of the past decade. In the late 2010s, they could field Eden Hazard, Kevin De Bruyne, and Romelu Lukaku. We might have lost 6-0 against those guys.

To develop the highest level of soccer skills, it requires relentless repetition to train the neural circuitry to perfect optimization for every possible soccer movement. From early childhood through adulthood. The top soccer nations have vast numbers of players, at all age levels, training at a higher level of intensity and quality than what is accomplished in America. You saw the results of that in the Belgium game.

Why hope still matters

I am disappointed. I was thinking that America had finally arrived at the big leagues of world soccer, or at least was on the cusp of arriving. But now I think we are at least a generation away from really competing for a World Cup title. Maybe two generations away.

Our limitations were unveiled.

I don't want to be too pessimistic. There's still a lot to be excited about. The fact that the World Cup is being played in the United States is awesome. It's undeniable that we are growing as a soccer nation.  Lionel Messi's move to FC Miami has been fantastic. FC Cincinnati has been a tremendous addition to the city and Major League Soccer. There's a lot to be grateful for.

But that Belgium game will haunt my dreams. I hope it haunts many other American soccer fans, players, and parents of players' dreams too, and pushes us to keep chasing true soccer greatness. 

Some day it will come.

Christopher Wood is a neurologist who lives in Clifton.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Belgium loss in World Cup unveiled the truth about US soccer | Opinion