SEATTLE (USA), JULY 7, 2026 \u2013 Belgium reached the quarterfinals of the 2026 World Cup with a resounding 4-1 victory over the United States at Seattle Stadium. Rudy Garcia's national team dominated the match thanks to a Charles De Ketelaere brace and goals from Hans Vanaken and Romelu Lukaku.<\/p>\n
The Americans, supported by the home crowd, had found the temporary equalizer through Malik Tillman, but were unable to contain the superiority of the Red Devils.<\/p>\n
De Ketelaere addresses the challenge<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n Belgium took the lead in the 9th minute through Charles De Ketelaere, who completed the European team's initial dominance.<\/p>\n The United States responded in the 31st minute through Malik Tillman, who converted a free kick won by Folarin Balogun to bring the score back to 1-1.<\/p>\n The tie lasted just 100 seconds, however. In the 33rd minute, De Ketelaere scored his second goal, putting Belgium back in front before halftime.<\/p>\n Vanaken and Lukaku close the deal<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n In the second half, Rudy Garcia's men managed their lead and found the third goal in the 57th minute through Hans Vanaken.<\/p>\n Romelu Lukaku also scored in stoppage time, making it 4-1 in the 93rd minute, securing qualification for the quarter-finals.<\/p>\n Balogun's return, whose suspension had been revoked before the match, wasn't enough for the United States. The striker created a few chances and secured the free kick that temporarily tied the score, but was unable to make any further impact.<\/p>\n Social irony and controversy in the USA<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n At the end of the race, the official account of the Belgian Red Devils<\/b><\/span> celebrated the success with an ironic message published on X: \u201cOverturn this\u201d<\/b><\/span> ("Turn this around"), accompanied by images of Romelu Lukaku. The reference was interpreted as a joke about Balogun's suspension being revoked before the match.<\/p>\n In the United States, however, the ironic theory of the so-called \u201cTrump curse\u201d<\/b><\/span>. Among the comments was that of former White House spokesman Anthony Scaramucci, who recalled other sporting events in which, despite predictions or the former president's presence, American teams were defeated.<\/p>\n Belgium thus continues its journey at the 2026 World Cup and reaches the quarter-finals.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" SEATTLE (STATI UNITI), 7 LUGLIO 2026 – Il Belgio conquista i quarti di finale dei Mondiali 2026 superando con un netto 4-1 gli Stati Uniti al Seattle Stadium. La nazionale guidata da Rudy Garcia domina il confronto grazie alla doppietta di Charles De Ketelaere e alle reti di Hans Vanaken e Romelu Lukaku. Gli americani, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":121339,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sb_editor_width":"","h5ap_radio_sources":[],"footnotes":"","_ppma_block_editor_authors":""},"categories":[693],"tags":[264,85,1467,881,1540,1382,1400,1196,1541,846],"ppma_author":[30],"class_list":["post-121338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-primo-piano","tag-belgio","tag-calcio","tag-charles-de-ketelaere","tag-folarin-balogun","tag-hans-vanaken","tag-malik-tillman","tag-mondiali-2026","tag-romelu-lukaku","tag-rudy-garcia","tag-stati-uniti"],"relative_dates":{"created":"3 months ago","modified":"3 months ago"},"authors":[{"term_id":30,"user_id":1,"is_guest":0,"slug":"paolopicone","display_name":"Redazione Centrale","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/54de8379a15a6539d41f5cd43c1b6fc220d10161ae5fefcd739b4111632a6a1a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","first_name":"Redazione","last_name":"Centrale","user_url":"https:\/\/primasport.eu","author_category":"0","description":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/primasport.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/primasport.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/primasport.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primasport.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primasport.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121338"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/primasport.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121338\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":121341,"href":"https:\/\/primasport.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121338\/revisions\/121341"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primasport.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/primasport.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primasport.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primasport.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121338"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primasport.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=121338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}