New Delhi, July 30 -- SEATTLE - Three weeks after the final whistle rang through Lumen Field, Matt Freese says he still sees the 57th minute when he closes his eyes.

The ball was in the air. Charles De Ketelaere was closing fast. And the USMNT's goalkeeper made a decision to rush from his box, a judgment call in fractions of a second, that he will carry for the rest of his professional life.

Belgium won 4-1. The United States, hosting the 2026 World Cup on home soil, went home in the round of 16. And the man who had been immovable for three weeks of group stage play, one goal conceded, two clean sheets, the steadiest presence in the most scrutinized American soccer team in a generation, walked off Lumen Field as the painful face of what...