Latest World Cup 2026 takeaways: USMNT delivers a knockout blow, but loses star player

England hasn't had a World Cup match at the Azteca since that fateful day, but its 2-1 victory Wednesday over the Democratic Republic of the Congo will finally see it return to the scene of the crime. It's set to take on Mexico there in the Round of 16, and that match will either be a cathartic release for the Three Lions or a painful reminder of the worst World Cup day in its history. No pressure.

Belgium delivered Senegal a hauntingly familiar knockout blow

Senegal looked to have things wrapped up against Belgium in Seattle — it entered the final phase of play in cruise control with a two-goal lead — but wound up losing 3-2 in extra time after a trio of late goals flipped the script. The final goal, a last-gasp penalty conceded by Lamine Kamara and scored by Youri Tielemans, was a near-perfect replica of the last-gasp penalty Senegal conceded to Morocco in the Africa Cup of Nations final earlier this year. (The penalty didn't wind up deciding that game in Morocco's favor, but the way Senegal reacted to it did: It walked off the field entirely to protest the call and wound up handing Morocco a 3-0 win on match abandonment technicality.)

Losing one tournament-deciding match on a controversial late penalty call is a heartbreaking coincidence; losing two within six months of each other is just straight-up awful. But still, the win was an important stake in the ground for Belgium. It needed a signature win to get its tournament off and running and it certainly found one here. Tielemans and Lukaku were brilliant in the final stages of this match and looked every inch of the Golden Generation they represent for Belgian soccer.

The USMNT and Bosnia and Herzegovina played a boxing match instead of a soccer one

The U. S. Men's National Team was prepped and ready for its first 2026 World Cup knockout match, but it couldn't have known just how literal the "knockout" part of the bargain would wind up being. 

Its Round of 32 fixture against Bosnia and Herzegovina was a literal slugfest, but the USMNT hung in there to snatch a deserved 2-0 win. It didn't escape unscathed, though: Folarin Balogun, the team's top scorer across four games of World Cup play, received a deserved red card in the second half and will miss the USMNT's upcoming Round of 16 game against Belgium.