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     First the patriotic chants.  Then, the real deal when Trusty scored the first goal. The group photo after the night scene is just as the hot game began.   It was one of many block parties and social gatherings in parks, restaurants, pubs, outdoor venues with giant screens, you name it, that were held in all 50 United States that had started since June 12.  The common people could not afford to go see the game in an expensive stadium, unless you had connections or you hocked your car and went into debt.  First video is when we took the lead 1-0 on a shot by Trusty.  The still photo facing the screen scene, is taken a mere few seconds after the U.S. second goal was made by Berhalter.   Second video is the second goal.  This is all a continuation from 6-12-26 onward, as ordinary people such as this example in San Jose, California, got more and more into it as the U.S. team showed they were no flakes.

      Like really wild. Parts of California and Tom Cruise. The capital.  And, a kaleidoscope from all over.  The younger you are, the more energy you have.  We have come a long way, baby, since the United States participated in its first World Cup in 1930 when the U.S. population was 122 million.  The fans at Union Station were of all kinds of people.  I saw no disturbances.  But after the first half, things did not get better for the U.S. team on the field, especially when it comes to defense.  The non-first stringers have had a habit to either bunching up, in both offense and defense and that, unfortunately slows down the tempo of the game, or, to top it off, do goofy things so that our back line can stink at times.  In this game, it showed.  
      I was there for the USA game and on Friday for the France game, although I forgot to charge my Smartphone and took few pictures on Friday. 
     On Thursday's game, the U.S. was not easy to defeat.  Several times the U.S. almost scored, however, all the “almosts” don’t amount to anything and will never give you victory.  Turkey demobilized our defense, and on their first goal in the first half, when they attacked us from their right, I saw what seemed unbelievable.   We had three Americans holding the line on our left side, numbers 12, 22, 21.  I will not say names, just jersey numbers, but #21 aggressiveness went down the drain, and that is no way to attract fans.  You need something close to this aggressiveness and hot style like this Brazilian used to twist and dance some 15 years ago.  He meant business, which I know our first string are very capable of doing.  His name is Ronaldinho.  When the attacking Turkey players made their move, 2 of our three tried, tried, to hold, however #21 just jogged, and seemed to feel like taking a stroll when his teammates were being attacked. Not even a jog, it was a despicable stroll, as if this was a practice game.  This is the World Cup!  You never saw that with the squad of 2002, not once.  
      A few minutes into the second half, however, Berhalter did a stunning first volley long shot that tied the score.  But, if you look closely, just as it was going on target, McKinnie did the quickest World class hop you ever saw so as not to impede Behalter’s shot, or it would have been stopped and wind up horrific.  Highlights of this game.
     After the game was all tied, both sides seemed to attack, but nobody scored.  
     We approached the final minutes.  Well, I said to myself, coach Pochettino did insert several other regular non-starters, and we still were tied up, and nobody was hurt.  Overall, the coach had 9 new starters, and that included 8 who were starting a World Cup match for the first time. (Later in the second half, he inserted Pulicik for a few minutes.)  However, note Pochettino never inserted any of our real starting defenders.  Anyway, when Turkey  went advancing in the closing minutes of the second half, I had this strange sensation something of doom was coming because of how the U.S. were not playing right.  It went into a 9 minutes extra time.  Then with about 1 stinking minute left, Turkeye did a corner kick. From our extreme left of the net, an attacker faked out our Pulicik, who came back to help the defense.  He is not used to playing defense. The ball danced around then it was hit to the center of the penalty box, and a Turkey player kicked it toward our left of the net if you are watching it from the midfield.  It was headed out by a U.S. defender but his header landed at the feet of a Turkey player who was all alone.  That Turk kicked the ball going right next to 4 U.S. boys in blue in front of the net.  The ball went to another unmarked Turkey attacker, near center of the box, steps from the goalpost, and lo and behold, the opponent was there all alone, unmarked by anyone.  Unless, he would be blind, he would have missed.  He did not miss just as an American closed in.  Too late, too slow. They won 3-2.  U.S. fans react to last-second loss with CBS who was there.  Fans at Inglewood coming out of SoFi stadium.  The U.S. selection played against Bosnia and Herzegovina on Wednesday July 1, and had an unbelievable win.  Down a man, Tillman did magic.  The U.S. demonstrated a fearsome pace and intensity that held together a show of performance, both on a high technical level and mental level.  And, now for the next match against Belgium, a do or die, at first minus Balogen. 

The Match against Belgium.

     If this U.S. team is as hot as many soccer purists believed they are, they had to win the next game, and the next, to accomplish what the magical team of 2002 did.  At the beginning, it seemed a good omen as Balogen's red card was lifted.  How did he contribute to the game?

     What I have discovered has not been brought out in any post-match interview or spoken about in any six weeks since the first of June 2026.  It has nothing to do with weather, a particular team losing of a single star player, or any conspiracy.  From June 12 to July 5, there was a lot of hope for the U.S. team in this World Cup of hydration periods and soccer balls with a tiny microchip in it.  
    Gameday, July 6 before the match began, Lumen Field had a streak that is noteworthy, the U.S. had never lost there in Seattle, comparable to what Mexico felt when they played in their Azteca stadium. But, at least the team from Mexico played with such energy and fought hard for every ball.  To our dismay, the U.S. in a most mysterious way, fell from grace at the wrong tournament time. It cannot be a blame on a star player like Pulicik, nor just a downfall of the defense or just bad passing, or people on the right corner or the left corner of the field, none of that, for the whole U.S. team fell flat as a pancake, as against Belgium who did not.  But, how can that be?  Was each man on the U.S. team drugged? 
     The case is that it seemed to happen to practically every starter at the same time, on the same date.  There was no cohesion of attack to penetrate with accurate passing.  All that they showed the past weeks, like evaporated. That is what intrigued me.  How? How?  Then I drew up on my athletic experience.  It was not a case of everybody falling apart at the same exact time due to some odd disease.  Over half of our team played in Europe, and had appeared in great shape and were healthy.  We used to have speedy people with an intensive four weeks of accurate passing and scoring.  But, I saw running bodies, instead timid, unassured, and strangely disassembled of their quickness. So what went wrong?  I am sure you had trainers and people watching what our U.S. team ate.
     The U.S. with their two star forwards, Pulisic and Balogen, ready to play sounded like awesome news.  You had a controversial red card overturned so that Balogen could help his teammates, but for what?  The bright stars did not shine as normal.  None of our defensive players of past matches were injured before the game, with one exception, Roldan.  Neither weather or injuries were causes to blame for their sudden inability.  They were beyond normal, but not in a positive way.  It was strange. Unfortunately, the day ended in unhappy straits of dishonor, caused by a total disastrous meltdown when over 40 million people tuned in to their TV sets and media forms to watch the game—that figure was the initial estimate.  According to NBC, the Round of 16 match between the U.S.A. and Belgium had an astounding peak of 50.1 milllion viewers, across Fox and Telemundo.  The audience, including the sold-out crowd at Lumen Field, did not see bodily injuries left and right in the meltdown. 
     When before we had energy, the zest of weeks past was mysteriously gone on July 6.  Did they all wake up as a Rip Van Winkle internally? Not exactly, but here is the discovery.
     There is a relationship of how a body works and how it copes with long term expenditure of energy.  Soccer players are like long distance runners.  Unlike long distance track, it is a team sport but no matter, the individual covers a lot of distance individually, team or no team.  Any soccer team is composed of individuals.  We blew it, and nobody mentions it.
     Nutritionally, the America of the past is different, overall.  An American of 1930 is almost 100 years ago.  The 1930 U.S. team made it to the quarterfinals, so did the 2002 team when Donovan and Beasley played, but that is virtually close to 30 years ago, 24 to be exact, but more than that if you take into account the months that go before you make it to “your World Cup.”  It might be a coincidence that the U.S. has not beaten Belgium since 1930, but that is beside the point.
      As I pondered on the disillusionment, there can be only 1 logical explanation why so many first stringer young men fell flat at virtually the same time.  While in the second half the non-starters did better when they were called in as replacements ie. Berkhalter, Reyna and Pepi, yet, they came in too late.
      I believe there was a severe build up of lactic acid in the starters that affected the generation of today.  The quality or lack of quality did not appear on only one player.  It was not mental shiftness either, as the reality was bestowed on practically all the first string players.  And, their peaking was also at the wrong time.   I have seen the reactions when a body is short on oxygen, and it does not necessarily mean you are going to automatically drop for lack of oxygen—although carried to extremes on a non-trained athlete can cause severe consequences—in the soccer game on July 6, you were not seeing people fall down all over the place panting like if they were climbing a steep Himalayan mountain.  In general, as AI states, high lactic acid  does not automatically equal lactic acidosis, nor does it mean you are going to die, but it is a sign that your cells aren't getting enough oxygen.  It showed early in the game. The U.S. starters with little energy allowed 11 shots on goal in the first half because they did not have the energy to prevent it.  But, in all of the prior Cup matches of 2026 we had allowed a total of 10, when there was no build up of lactic acid, yet.  Eric Wynalda former captain of the U.S. national team, of some 30 years ago and my hero, said it succinctly in an interview with nypostsports after the game—although I disagree with the confidence problem bit—"If you want to survive today, you got to bring in the energy" exactly what I am talking about in this written section. We thought we were not running out of steam, and we still thought our bodies could speed up when we wanted to on July 6, just like the other matches, when lactic hadn’t built up, yet; Balogen and his team mates had all the carbohydrates they wanted when it counted they thought.  When Pulisic advanced he lost the ball too many times, whether he was double teamed or unusually lackadaisical in thinking fast.  None of his teammates got close enough to the opposing net to filter a fast pass to him either, and the record book shows he didn't get one shot on goal.  Chris Richards had a 100% accuracy passing rate in the game against Paraguay, because his body was not filled with lactic acid.  Ditto for everybody else.  What hit them by July 6 was a team problem that it seems nobody thought about, because nothing was done to alleviate it beforehand.  They all flopped at the same time on the same day that led all fans wondering why the heck now?  

     The U.S. team as a whole lacked overall precision to hold the ball, to mount accurate passing counterattacks, they seemed to have a lot of bad luck and our corner kicks like disappeared compared to the previous games.  We had only 3 corner kicks in the first half against Belgium when we were still down by only 1 point.  When we tied, it was a scream of joy.  Malik Tillman did It AGAIN. Tillman did a repeat miracle for us, except this time it was against the best goalkeeper in the world with a 6 foot wingspan: Thibaut Courtois.  A beautiful goal for the ages in the 37th minute. 
     Only his shot on goal over an enemy wall was a plus.  
     But, it involved no running so lactic acid did not play a part in his success, not a plus or negative role on a body’s response ratio in his free kick. He stood, measured the situation, and applied his expertise, strength, and talented foot—recovering from the bloodiness of the game before—kicked the ball, and into the net it went.  But, less than 2 minutes later, the U.S.A. on a rebound attacked with the ball controlled by Pulisic who did a run on the left wing, but he was grabbed by a Belgian player like if they were playing rugby, Pulisic escaped then was upended to the ground by another Belgium player and both times the ref calls no foul.  Then Belgium counterattacked very fast and what was our response?   We were all a step behind them in their speed and there was nothing we did to form a solid line of defense on time to stop them from making their second goal.  It was thirty-two minutes into the game, Belgium attackers worked their way into the U.S. side of the field and did 3 triangle passes on our left side of the field.   An unmarked 31-year old Leandro Trossard was waving his arms up and down frantically signalling for a pass from the opposite side.  The long pass went to him on our right side.  This looked to me like a setup, but the Americans were dumkoffs for it was literally a replay of how Belgium made their first score.  Except, this time, Trossard carefully advanced slowly, with Dest in front of  him, studying him.  Nobody rushed Trossard.  Suddenly, he sprang forward, the faster Freeman rushed in to help Dest, but was too late, and the Belgian executed an excellent cross to the front of our net, going straight for Tim Ream our 6ft 1 defender.  In the next second or two, both he and Charles De Ketelaere tried to jump for the air ball, both weighing nearly the same, the Belgian 183 pounds vs 175 pounds.  For some reason, Tim was the slower of the two to jump.  Charley at 6ft 4 cleverly towered over the back of the 6ft 1 and using his superior height and weight overpowered the 38-year old Tim.  But, note the Belgium never used his hands to push Tim down, hence no foul.  Before he knew it, Tim was on the floor.  The ball was in the net.  Tim Richards our best defender was a short distance from the entire play but, too far away from the attack. Coach Pochettino was mad as a hornet, and he kicked plastic bottles all over the place. During the first half, U.S. goalkeeper Matt Freese made a few good saves to prevent Belgium from scoring more.     
     Seattle had a beautiful day, temperature in the 80s.  There was a sell-out crowd of 66,925 people in Lumen Field stadium, who then witnessed the impossible in the second half, around the 57th minute.  Our goalie did the most irrational handling of the ball.  Everybody was screaming kick the ball out, hammer it out.  Instead, he acted slow and unsure, almost as if he were drunk.  Whether he was affected by lactic acid it is doubtful but the case is that his fumbling led to Belgium’s third goal of the game. The same guy #17 who just scored for Belgium had outraced Richards (Chris 26 yrs-old, Charles 25) as both were rushing for the ball in the middle of the field as the ball was zooming toward Matt.  Matt left his goalie post and got to the ball ahead of everyone else, and did his fumble, and #17 found himself directly behind Matt, but as Matt was about to do his kick, #17 grabbed the yellow shirt of Matt, just as Matt tried to kick it with his right, not his fumbling left.  Matt did a weirdo tumbling back by the tug on his yellow shirt.  Hans Vanaken, who has been playing for Belgium's national team since 1918, no not 1918 only kidding, since 2018—can you imagine a 100 yr old?-- but he might be oldy but not moldy, was the recipient of the fumble, and kicked as hard as he could a gifted ball.  In essence, the U.S. guys with an invisible build up of lactic acid were now down by two. When it rains, it pours. 
      Pochettino took out Pulicik and Dest and put in fresh replacements like Berhalter, Reyna and Pepi.  Compared to the first half boys, they came very close to scoring, but as my dad always said, in a tough game you have to have luck to win.  That was lacking. Too many misses by inches will not cut it.  Balogen almost made a goal or two, but sorry, no luck.   What is also not known, is that Pulicik, after he wound up  to take a shot at the edge of the penalty box in the 52nd minute, injured his right leg after a bump by Belgium Youri Tielemans.  The referee from Jordan said it was no foul, and did not call anything; neither did his assistants a Mohammad and Ahmad.  Later, doctors confirmed that Pulicik had a bone bruise and microfracture in his right leg.  I cannot leave it at just that, if you see the replay, no feet of Tielemans touched Pulicik, for it looked like Pulicik in his swing of his right foot lost control and he tumbled and hit an injury; he had the worst luck this side of NY.  He never had a chance to rev up his engines in the second half.  He had tears in his eyes on the bench because he was in pain.  Once you get it, as Wynalda said, "you can't continue." 

     Soccer involves running like long distance, for I remember so well it was not only nutrition, but carbohydrates.  They combat the build up of lactic acid.  Your muscles either have enough carbs, or your body faces the building up of lactic acid in your muscles.  I now realize what I saw that afternoon, they all seemed to have the same response, a funny slowness in their play and running ability.   They had few interceptions.  The United States were actually in the game up to 2-1, and players and people in the stands noticed the sudden adrenaline when Tillman scored, then overall we turned into slow pokes like snails as time went by, which surprised many people, and somehow this new adrenaline evaporated, unless you think in terms of this lactic acid build up business.  Furthermore, we runners all knew about peaking at the right time.  The U.S.soccer team most probably peaked too early, but that is only my interpretation.  On this game day, we showed a few fast runs here and there in an attempt to score, but showed no energy as before they peaked.  When I ran in college, I was virtually the same age as most of the U.S. team of 2026, and believe me I did many studies on carbo overloading, food ratios, conversion of carbohydrates, food amount volumes and my secrets on measurements of desiccated liver, ascorbic acid, and carbs, things that go internally to bring your body to another level in athleticism.  I never did or tried any doping, and do not believe in that stuff because it is wrong.  In track and field, since 2016 at least, running shoes have had a rigid thin carbon plate to the shoes, making them "super shoes" with some shoes returning up to an 85% of energy previously lost at the beginning of the stride—we never had them.  We also did not have lactate threshold tests for we were not far advanced in medicinal studies like today, but I saw it first hand when an athlete ate more non-carbohydrate foods and ran.  I did studies on myself, too.  There was a big difference when you concentrated on hamburgers and hot dogs and proteins vs a diet on beans, bananas, pizza and the like.  Big big difference.  You can not be in sustained shape for weeks and hold it without peaking, either.  A body can only go so far.  You can think you can do it, but your body will not respond.  That is attributable to both the timing of peaking and the strength of your muscles, and the less accumulation of lactic acid.  And, of course avoiding injuries, having enough sleep, eating the correct foods and getting enough rest.  When I was serious in training in college, I never touched a donut or cakes; I remember.  My conversion to glycogen was more attributed to complex sugars.  I ran normally over 80 miles weekly, and when we concentrated on longer distances to build up our endurance, it was near 100.  Running long distance is intense exercise, and your body breaks down carbohydrates faster than oxygen can be delivered to your body.  That's why it is stressed to have complex carbs not simple sugary stuff like donuts or candies.  The speed Freeman, McKennie, Tillman, Pulisic,  Adams, had shown in the past, had unfortunately seemed to have evaporated by July 6th, and they didn’t even know why.  Roldan never played due to a quadriceps injury. McKenzie never played, although after the game he was seen leading the team in a post-game prayer.  Robinson and Balogen did run their hearts out, at least better than the rest. 

      An article I read on a Fox site said, "Balogun never got a clean look to find the back of the net as he has in past matches."  Of course not, the quickness I had seen beforehand had disappeared, the U.S. were not the quicker of the two teams, were too inaccurate in their passing, and lacked the pizazz of the past few weeks.  Do not take away credit due Belgium, they did a great job bottling up the U.S. to the point of being superfluous over a team that was not their usual self.  The lactic problem bit seemed to overall fall on everyone, not just one or two Americans.  I did not need a PhD in science or some lactate threshold test machine to tell me what my body felt, or what was witnessed on July 6 of 2026. 
     The more energy, the more your accuracy on passing and hustling shows up.  Thus, the Belgians overall appeared a better team because they showed more energy, which we by what seemed an illogical timing, the opposite hit us all at once. That I explain is due to both the build up of the invisible lactic acid and the peaking too early.  Belgium, I bet, had veteran nutritionists.  They are the ones who finally advanced to the quarterfinals in Los Angeles; and lost to Spain, who had traveled over 10,000 miles in Cup travel to eventually combat France in the semis July 14.  This semifinal occurred in a Dallas stadium; behind-the scenes.  The other will be in Atlanta (Mercedes-Benz Stadium), rain or shine.  Available tickets for Spain vs France ranged from $1,986-$3,431—by the time you read this, tickets at $1,696 will be gone, I bet.  Of course if you are from Beverly Hills, why not Event Level Suite 109?—no, not a pair for row 2, section c106 that's only $4883 but—Suite 109 $6,209 each. As for the Final, forget the Suites, as of July 10, way up with the birds it is between $7,229-$8,870 (you get 1% Credit back on the $8870 from Tickpick.com.)  A closer level is $19,635, ah, but you get two tickets instead of one, and access to an indoor pavilion with high-end food and drinks.  For the non-plebians in the crowd, luxury suites and corporate hospitality suites with premium views managed exclusively through FIFA World Cup Suites Portal are available: average $12,000 to $22,000, each. With the current population of the United States standing at 342.6 million--compared to 151 million in 1950--FIFA is hedging its bets that there will be enough non-plebians and affluent elite to make their day.  If you are some Hollywood notable or your uncle is a shiek, you would want only the best, the July 14, 2026 match between France and Spain was $285,300 USD (two suites were still available as of July 10) which includes 18 tickets for your friends.  Who knows what the Final on July 19 is, there was only a waiting list. 

    You can dance if you have energy beside skills. If not, you fall flat as a pancake.  Did you know Erling Haaland of Norway eats on the average 6,000 calories a day, source Fox Local Futbol HQ 7-10-26.

    And in championships, you can raise your level of play only if you have energy.

     In the closing minute of the match, the muscular 6ft 3 Romelu Lukaku, fresh as a daisy whom the Belgium coach had him sitting on the bench for the most part of the day, outhustled the U.S. defense and blasted another goal.  The game ended 1-4.  And, the game did not even go into any 15 minute overtimes.  Their muscles were beat.  
     In terms of soccer tactics, furthermore, I had not seen the U.S. play the beautiful game so cautious in the first half as on July 6,  it was as if they had forgotten how they had played weeks before.  They also lacked triangular passing, had too much weak passing, and in the midfield either we were out hustled or the Palestinian referee called fouls on us, but let it slide when Belgians did the fouls, it all added to the frustration.  Everything seemed to go wrong.  Thinking and thinking of whom to pass, slows the nature of what had been the bread and butter of this team after May 31, 2026, our quick lightning speed attacks.  We seemed to improve and that is what attracted the whole United States.  Lest we forget, the U.S. 2026 squad had done something no other U.S. World Cup team had ever done before, going back historically to 1930, namely winning three games at the World Cup.  Oh, a whole school of ties have existed, but not bona fide victories. The level of excitement in the historic match against Paraguay, a Paraguay that barely lost to France 1-0 and had beaten Germany on penalties in the last 12 months with a stingy defense, was no two-bit team.  [A word on the semifinal between Spain and France.   I thought I would never say this about France, they played as flat as a pancake. It was a France that did too many lousy bad passes and never showed any dominance, with such an undesciplined effort enough to give away the ball too many times.  They forgot how to defend collectively correctly.  In the last 20 minutes when they were down 2-0, they lacked their former speed, even when France put in their fresh substitutes.  The U.S. lost a key player to injury, Christian Pulisic.  France lost a key player to injury, William Saliba.  Spain scored because they showed speed and energy.  This was the first time France was behind in the entire tournament, minus energy, and as Alexi Lalas stated, "they picked the day like the U.S. did, to not play their best."  Spain played on a higher level, what was not seen by France, I might add.  They "passed the ball around France as if they were not there," to use the words of Thierry Henry.  Both quotes from FOX World Cup Postgame, 7-14-2026.  Muchas gracias tambien para la buena suerte, La Roja moved on to the big Final.  Editors Note: In the other semi, between England and Argentina it was outside normal.  Argentina scored two goals in 6 minutes and 34 seconds in the final ticks to advance to the Final, 2-1.  It was the 39-year-old Messi who hustled like crazy to retrieve the ball that was heading outside, quickly did a composure, ran inward from the line attracting English defenders, then zipped a cross to L. Matinez who headed in the second goal; actually, the old-timer still had it in him, and against younger English lads, was really instrumental in assisting on both goals.   Never give up until the whistle blows.  The World Cup final of July 19, some speculate, may have some impact from uncontrolled wildfires in Canada burning for days that brought toxic air on the lungs—over 190 fires are burning in Ontario alone. But, there is a chance a rainstorm will arrive on Saturday, with thunderstorms, that will clear the skies by evening of Saturday.  It is fifty-fifty the game July 18 between France and England will escape the smokiness.]

     This U.S. team has made 11 goals overall in this Cup, a feat no other U.S. team ever came close. (The golden team of 2002 scored 6 goals total although at no time did they ever fizzle.)  Then, mysteriously in 2026, it seemed we ran out of steam, after playing four straight weeks of strong, speedy plays with such accurate passes—until we had muscles blocked by lactic acid...and, so the road to the final ended for the U.S. team, but not what they had accomplished, bringing a touch of class and suspense and wins to a world audience.  They are still young for another World Cup in four years, except for our tall veteran running defending back, Tim Ream.  Adios.

      Addendum.  The U.S. team that is under 20, competed and played against Mexico in the Final (8-12-2026) and were shut out, but here's the trick in the 2-0 loss: of 5 top teen players the U.S. has, none of them suited up.  Zavier Gozo (19-yr old who just landed a 5-yr contract with Britain's Crystal Palace, leaving U.S. club Real Salt Lake), Mathis Albert, Julian Hall Zakrzewski, Ndahkai Banks, and Cavan Sullivan.  As an analogy, it is like telling General Patton, you now have the support of the best planes of the 9th A.F., new tanks, and top veteran commanders from past campaigns, BUT YOU CANT USE ANY. The following little extra encapsulates and encompasses all who came to be part of the grand event of World Cup 2026.  A few parting words on the World Cup and the Final are found on the climate page.