12 Years For Revenge

After Elimination from the 2014 World Cup, the Americans Have Been Waiting for this Monday Rematch

The last time the USMNT faced Belgium on this stage, it suffered one of the most memorable losses in American soccer history, and Monday's rematch in Seattle carries the weight of unfinished business that is twelve years in the making.

Back in the 2014 Round of 16 in Salvador, Brazil, a heavily favored Belgian side dominated the run of play but couldn't find a way past goalkeeper Tim Howard, who turned in a legendary performance under coach Jurgen Klinsmann. Howard made 16 saves, still a World Cup record, keeping the U.S. level through 90 scoreless minutes despite Belgium controlling the game almost entirely. The dam finally broke in extra time, when Kevin De Bruyne scored in the 93rd minute before Romelu Lukaku doubled the lead in the 105th. Teenager Julian Green, on for his World Cup debut, volleyed home a stunning goal off a Michael Bradley assist to cut the deficit, and the Americans nearly completed a miraculous comeback when Clint Dempsey saw a close-range effort denied by Thibaut Courtois. Belgium held on, 2-1, ending the run of a USMNT team that had shocked observers by escaping the "Group of Death" ahead of Portugal.

That defeat became legend more for Howard's heroics than the result itself. President Obama even joked about nominating him as Secretary of Defense. But it also cemented a lopsided head-to-head record, with Belgium winning six of the last seven meetings between the countries.

12 years later, De Bruyne and Lukaku remain on Belgium's roster, but both are past their prime years, no longer the same players who tortured Howard in Brazil. Meanwhile, this USMNT group enters as something closer to an equal. Most oddsmakers list the Americans as slight favorites rather than the significant underdogs they were in 2014. For a program still chasing its best World Cup finish since 2002, avenging that Salvador heartbreak, this time on home soil, in a rocking Seattle atmosphere, would mean settling an old score while opening a new chapter entirely.