Long Island soccer fans reflect on Team's USA's run and eventual World Cup loss to Belgium
Fans at a watch party at Mulcahy's in Wantagh celebrate after Team USA scored during a World Cup round of 16 game against Belgium on Monday. Credit: Howard Simmons
Merrick’s Ed Vettere arrived at Wantagh’s Mulcahy's well over an hour before kickoff, the first to do so. Wearing a red U.S. Olympic soccer jersey, he sat at the bar ready to watch one of the most pivotal soccer games in the United States men’s national team’s history.
He knew what Monday night meant as the USMNT took on Belgium as it sought its first World Cup quarterfinal since 2002.
“I watch the team; these guys are competitors," Vettere said. "They play with heart.”
Vettere thought the U.S. could hold its own with Spain in the quarterfinal round. The USMNT squandered any chance of proving that as Belgium ran away with a 4-1 win to eliminate the United States Monday night.
Belgium’s Nicholas Raskin helped open the scoring in the ninth minute when his low cross found the foot of Charles De Ketelaere. Malik Tillman equalized in the 31st minute off a free kick, but De Ketelaere headed in his second goal within two minutes of conceding.
The bar fell silent when goalkeeper Matt Freese failed to clear the ball in the 57th minute, resulting in a turnover that Belgium’s Hans Vanaken slipped into an empty net. A sarcastic cheer erupted when Freese successfully cleared minutes later.
John Dominguez, of North Babylon, grew up playing soccer at MacArthur High School and said he’s watched nearly every World Cup game thus far. He said he entered the tournament with “low expectations.”
“I didn’t expect them to get this far,” Dominguez said. “I also didn’t expect them to be scoring this many goals.”
The USMNT’s 11 goals and three wins are both program records, but the team struggled Monday as it didn’t attempt a shot until Tillman’s goal. It would be the only shot on target until the 82nd minute.
When Belgium’s Romelu Lukaku scored the team’s fourth goal in the 93rd minute, the bar began to empty out.
Despite the result it’s been a tournament filled with milestones for the USMNT, which set a program record when it scored four goals against Paraguay, its most in a World Cup contest.
“I think they’ve been playing really good team soccer, which I haven’t seen in a long time from the United States,” Dominguez said.
The team’s win over Bosnia-Herzegovina in the round of 32 saw a record 24.4 million viewers to become the most-watched soccer telecast in English language history, according to Fox Sports. The broadcast peaked at 31.2 million.
Folarin Balogun also became the first American since Bert Patenaude in 1930 to score multiple goals in a World Cup game when the 25-year-old scored twice in a group stage win versus Paraguay.
Belgium and the United States last World Cup meeting came in an unforgettable round of 16 match in the 2014 World Cup, when Tim Howard made a record 16 saves in a 2-1 loss in which all three goals came in extra time.
East Meadow’s Joe Barberio admitted he “didn’t have high hopes” then. But as someone who’s watched the USMNT since the early 1990s, he expressed pride at watching the team’s growth.
“Before, it was more like kick and run,” Barberio said. “Now they’re like other countries. They’re more laid back, they do more plays, more passing, more thinking, more elegant. You got to have that. Twelve years ago, it was all over the place.”
Still, Barberio wanted to see the USMNT beat Belgium before fully believing in the team.
“We haven’t faced the big countries yet, like England, France, Argentina, Spain,” Barberio said. “I’m proud of them, but I’m still worried.”
And as it turned out, for good reason.
Michael Sicoli covers high school sports for Newsday. He graduated from Quinnipiac in 2022 and left with a master’s degree in sports journalism in 2023.
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