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USA Was So Bad Against Belgium that “James Franklin” Started Trending on Twitter
By Matt Schultz
Published:
That was a rough one. After a few weeks of incredibly good vibes and convincing wins over Paraguay, Australia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina, the USMNT’s World Cup dreams came to an abrupt end on Monday night in a demoralizing loss to Belgium. It was a brutal 94-minute gut punch for American viewers, and watching the game, I felt a kind of whiplash – it was hard for me to square just how disappointing and underwhelming the team looked compared to who I thought they were: Aren’t we supposed to be good? Didn’t we handle the last three games pretty easily? What happened to that USMNT? The hell is going on here?
The sensation was almost embarrassing – like I was tricked into believing in this team, then was forced to feel dumb the moment they ran into an actual good team and got exposed as second-rate.
In fact, it felt a whole lot like watching Penn State teams coached by James Franklin, who went 4-21 against top-10 opponents in twelve years, which is saying a lot:
Yeah we are Penn state (unironically)
— Joe 🇺🇸 🏴☠️ ن (@Joeyrandomguy) July 7, 2026
We beat teams we should but not much more than that.
— College Sports Only (@CSOonX) July 7, 2026
Beat up on the mid-tier teams, convinced everyone they were contenders, then folded the second they faced a real football nation. The script writes itself.
— David Adeniyi (@Liketricks2) July 7, 2026
Only four more years until we get to try it again. Maybe things will be different someday. You never know. It could happen.
This really is Penn State as hell…
Matt Schultz is a comedy and sports writer from Philadelphia. He’s written extensively for ClickHole, The Onion, and Conan O’Brien’s Team Coco. His work has been featured in Vulture, Deadspin, The A.V. Club, Paste Magazine, and other publications. Much of his sports journalism can be found on college basketball websites that don’t exist anymore (PhilaHoops Heads rise up…) email: M.Schultz@sportradar.com