A record number of viewers tuned in to watch the United States’ men’s national team get humiliated in the Round of 16 at this year’s FIFA World Cup.
The USMNT was coming in hot into the matchup against Belgium with a pair of group stage victories against Paraguay and Australia coupled with a 2-0 victory against Bosnia and Herzegovina while down to ten men.
But in Seattle, despite intervention from President Donald Trump helping to convince FIFA to let striker Folarin Balogun take the field in spite of a red card suspension, the United States was humbled and throttled 4-1 by a stronger Belgian side.
There was nowhere to hide for the Americans. Not on the field, not in front of the nearly 67,000 fans at Seattle Stadium – and not from the largest national television audience for soccer in US history.
According to preliminary data from Nielsen, 30million viewers tuned in to watch the match on Fox Sports – making it the most-watched soccer telecast in American history.
This included a peak audience of 36.895m viewers in the window from 9:15-9:30pm ET – which was the exact window when USMNT goalkeeper Matt Freese and center back Tim Ream combined to give up one of the worst goals in the national team’s history.
The USMNT’s humiliating elimination from the World Cup took place before a record audience
Over 30million tuned in to watch Belgium beat the breaks off the US by a 4-1 scoreline
The audience peaked at 37m to watch Matt Freese (L) and Tim Ream (R) concede a third goal
These numbers only reflect the viewership on Fox and do not include the numbers from Telemundo, which has the rights for Spanish-language broadcasts. It’s likely that once those are included, the average viewership will approach or top 40million total viewers.
The United States went into the half losing 2-1 after giving up their first goal just nine minutes in after failing to mark Charles De Ketelaere.
While Malik Tillman whipped in a free kick goal in the 31st minute, De Ketelaere responded just two minutes later to take an advantage into the half.
Just 12 minutes after the start of the second half, Freese committed a horrific blunder by coming far off his line and then catching his foot in the turf as he tried to clear the ball.
He was dispossessed by Hans Vanaken, who then shot the ball past Ream – who moved his foot out of the way of a potential deflection – and into the American net. The nail in the coffin was delivered by Romelu Lukaku in the third minute of stoppage time.
The USMNT once again failed to reach the quarterfinals of the World Cup – a stage they have only reached once in their history since the knockout phase expanded to 16 teams in 1986.
This match was shrouded in controversy after President Trump confirmed he reached out to FIFA president Gianni Infantino to review the controversial red card given to Balogun in the Round of 32.
FIFA announced they would probationally suspend Balogun’s ban for the Round of 16 the day before the match – a move that drew international condemnation.
