Before Monday night’s World Cup Round of 16 game, Belgium coach Rudi Garcia was asked about the importance of the event. This is not a difficult question, and in any other context it would be a rather silly one. His team was playing an elimination game against the United States in the World Cup, the biggest sporting event on the planet, with the opportunity to reach the quarterfinal against juggernaut Spain. What could possibly be more important than that?

But after what had happened in the previous 24 hours, in which the president of the United States and his administration apparently strong-armed FIFA into allowing one of the host country’s best players to compete despite facing a red-card suspension, setting off a firestorm that threatened to engulf a tournament that had previously been going smashingly for everyone, Garcia understood what he was being asked. This was about more than Belgium, or a quarterfinal game, or even the United States team his squad was playing.

“We’re not defending the national team or federation,” Garcia said. “We are defending football.”

So, as it turned out, his team played with the passion of a nation, a continent, an entire sport defending its honor. And its opponents, our USMNT, a team that had played magnificently the entire tournament and had been just about the only non-Knicks thing unifying anyone in this clawing-itself-apart country … played like it knew the entire world was cheering against it. It crumbled accordingly. The U.S.’s World Cup dream ended on Monday night with a 4-1 loss to Belgium, but all told it was over long before that. Belgium pressed the U.S. team from the opening seconds, and the response was not increased aggression but undeniable fear: The U.S. looked spooked. It was as if it felt the weight of the soccer world’s anger all at once.

It’s important to remember that this is a new thing for the U.S. men’s soccer team. They are not the women’s national team, or USA Basketball, or any other sport in which the United States is the empire everyone’s........

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