All that fuss for nothing: Belgium rout USA to dump the co-hosts out

Belgium outclassed and eliminated co-hosts USA 4-1 in Seattle to reach the World Cup quarter-finals, a Charles De Ketelaere brace leading the rout. The result rendered the week-long saga over Folarin Balogun's overturned red-card ban meaningless: cleared to play after a Trump-FIFA intervention, he could not stop the hosts being swept aside. Belgium go on to meet Spain in Los Angeles.

The United States' home World Cup is over, and it did not end with a brave last stand but with a chastening rout. Belgium came to Seattle and dismantled the co-hosts 4-1, a ruthless, clinical performance that flattered nobody in red, white and blue. And after all the noise, all the drama of the build-up, it counted for precisely nothing.

Belgium were ahead inside nine minutes, Charles De Ketelaere turning in a low cross after the American defence switched off. The hosts did hit back, Malik Tillman levelling on thirty-one minutes with a deflected free kick that wrong-footed Thibaut Courtois, but the parity lasted barely two minutes. De Ketelaere rose highest to power a header over Tim Ream and make it two, and the belief drained out of the home crowd.

The second half was an exercise in damage. On fifty-seven minutes Hans Vanaken pounced on a horrible piece of goalkeeping by Matt Freese, who dwelt on the ball outside his box and was robbed, and deep into stoppage time Romelu Lukaku drove in a fourth. The United States actually had more of the ball, fifty-seven percent of it, but were carved open again and again by a side that needed only a fraction of their chances.

And so to the saga that swallowed the entire week. The build-up was consumed by the extraordinary decision to overturn Folarin Balogun's red-card ban, a suspension lifted under a rare clause after Donald Trump personally lobbied FIFA. He was cleared to play, and in the end it was a footnote to a hammering. Belgium's players and fans made merry with the whole circus. All that fuss, and the co-hosts were swept aside anyway.

For Mauricio Pochettino, whose side had ground out a win over Bosnia to reach this stage, it is a heavy, sobering end to a tournament that was supposed to announce American football to the world. The inquest into where it went so wrong will be loud, and it will be long.

Belgium, for their part, could not have timed a performance like this better. Rudi Garcia's Red Devils, so often accused of flattering to deceive, look sharp and dangerous, and they march on to a Los Angeles quarter-final against Spain, a heavyweight collision that is now the tie of the round.

For Kenya and for neutrals, there was something fitting about the anticlimax: a week of political theatre and outrage, and then a football match that settled the argument in the most emphatic way. Wenyeji Marekani wametolewa nyumbani kwao, na zogo lote la Balogun halikusaidia kitu: the hosts USA have been knocked out at home, and all the Balogun drama helped nothing in the end. Our Europe verdict fancied Belgium to find their level, and here it was. Follow the quarter-finals on our bracket.