First 30 Rewatch

-Belgium came out to play a physical game, were aggressive and winning tackles at all levels early

-Seemed like both Pulisic and Balogun were man-marked at the beginning and Pulisic in particular didn't respond to it well

-US attackers relatively quickly had to come back further than normal to get touches on the ball

-The first Belgium goal was simply a missed clearance but a very sloppy, rec soccer type of play where 3 guys stand around waiting for others to clear

-A moment around 27 minutes Pulisic had a chance to take on the Belgium defense and for some reason doesn't and passes back. In the Paraguay game, he attacks there. Perhaps because he has lost the ball several times and Belgium are physical

-I think Belgium playing like EPL style and our guys are used to having more time on the ball and they are having real trouble adjusting. With Belgium playing so aggressively, US needs to skip the first level and make longer passes, but we weren't successful the few times we tried. Missed McKennie on one in particular. Maybe Belgium assessed all our "skill" players are not EPL style - Italian, Dutch, and French leagues and realized we wouldn't be used to the speed of the game. 

-Right after our free kick goal, Pulisic takes on Belgium defense, actually gets fouled but the ref no calls it. He was fouled on the first play when he takes it around Tielemans, then nutmegs a second guy, who bodies him and Pulisic flops. Ref no calls because of the second foul, but actually the first play was the foul.

-Reem looks out of sorts, has no wheels so gives Belgium too much space. Sure, on their 2nd goal, the guy climbs on his back...technically a foul, but basically Reem gets out-muscled there and can't count on ref to make that call.

Bottom line - Belgium clearly came out with an aggressive game plan and it threw us off. We were not ready for such a fast and aggressive game. First goal was a tiny bit flukey but we did not recover well. We got fortunate on the free kick goal - we weren't really making much of an attack, the shot glanced off the head of someone. To me on second watch, it looks like we were physically outmatched - Pulisic and Dest too small for the bigger, fast Belgium match ups. Reem too slow. Our goalie too klutzy.