I stopped by the Nasher Sculpture Center yesterday and stood a long time before Rodin's *The Shade* — that sense of a figure caught between worlds, neither fully here nor fully there, and tonight Belgium feel exactly like that to me. De Bruyne is a genius, yes, but this Belgian midfield is being asked to carry the entire nation on its shoulders against a United States side that is absolutely electric in the forward areas — Pulisic, Weah, Reyna — this is a frontline dripping with menace on home soil in front of a Dallas crowd ready to shake the foundations of AT&T Stadium. The Americans swarm forward with relentless energy, and Belgium simply do not have the defensive architecture to withstand that kind of siege — it will be magnificent chaos, a nine-goal carnival that football philosophers will debate for years.

This is going to be an absolute carnival at AT&T Stadium — both teams have real defensive vulnerabilities, and with the United States carrying a massive forward threat and home nation advantage flooding the crowd in Dallas, I see the Americans unleashing wave after wave of attacks that Belgium's backline simply cannot contain. De Bruyne will orchestrate brilliance in midfield and Belgium will absolutely punish any American lapse — this is not a clean sheet night for anyone. The decisive detail for me is that Chris Richards at sweeper becomes the last line of sanity in what will be a chaotic, end-to-end spectacle, and on a night like this, Pulisic feeding off a roaring home crowd is simply unplayable. I did try my hand at a Dallas kolache before the match — the Czech-Texan pastry tradition here is genuinely charming — and much like this game, it got messy fast but turned out rather delightful in the end.