USA vs. Belgium LIVE: World Cup 2026 score, team news, updates

Hello and welcome to FootballWhispers' live commentary of USA vs. Belgium in the last 16 of the 2026 World Cup in Seattle!

The winner of this knockout tie will face either Portugal or Spain in a daunting quarter-final, and a few more neutrals may now be siding with the Red Devils following the recent Folarin Balogun red card farce.

Make sure you do not miss a beat with our minute-by-minute live blog below!

USA vs. Belgium: What's the story?

Clashing for the third time in World Cup action, the USA and Belgium both boast one victory over the other at the Mundial, where the Yanks defeated the Red Devils 3-0 in the inaugural edition back in 1930 before a 2-1 last-16 triumph for the European side in 2014.

The latter result represents the fifth of six consecutive victories for Belgium in this fixture, the most recent being a 5-2 friendly triumph as recently as March, and Rudi Garcia's men will be especially motivated to pull off a similarly emphatic beating in Seattle.

Belgium were set to face a Balogun-less USA side, after the Monaco striker was sent off for serious foul play in the co-hosts' 2-0 victory over Bosnia-Herzegovina in the last 32, and there was no appeal route for the Stars and Stripes to go down.

However, after president Donald Trump allegedly contacted FIFA and asked them to review Balogun's sending-off – which was controversial at the time – the governing body suspended the striker's one-game ban, allowing him to feature in USA vs. Belgium after all.

FIFA's decision – which was publicly praised by Trump on social media – sparked global uproar, and Belgium are ‘considering all options' as they prepare to meet the USA and Balogun, who has scored three goals and provided one assist at the tournament so far.

Mauricio Pochettino is aiming to lead the USA into the quarter-finals of a World Cup for the first time since 2002, but the co-hosts have already broken their record for the most wins at a single men's tournament with three so far.

Meanwhile, Belgium made it through to the second knockout stage with a gritty 3-2 comeback victory over Senegal in the last 32, thanks to a Youri Tielemans penalty which proved to be the latest World Cup goal on record, timed at 124 minutes and 44 seconds.

The Red Devils have progressed from their last two World Cup round-of-16 matches, last suffering defeat in the aforementioned 2002 tournament to Brazil.