SEATTLE — Not for the first time, it ended with disappointment and an important reality check.Monday night’s 4-1 loss to Belgium in the World Cup round of 16 sent the U.S. men’s national team crashing out of the tournament. The Americans galvanized a nation with wins over Paraguay, Australia and Bosnia. Those were games they should have won. But on the biggest stage in program history, against a talented Belgium team, they simply looked out of place and out of their depth.As French World Cup winner Thierry Henry put it on Fox’s postgame set: “Levels. You didn’t play Bosnia. You didn’t play the teams you played in the group stage. Levels.”Four years ago, the U.S. walked off a field in Qatar after a loss to the Netherlands that exposed the gap between them and the world’s best teams. The go-to word that night in Doha was “potential.” It was a young team. Imagine what it could look like in four years.“The potential is just huge going into this next cycle,” Tim Ream said then.“Potential is just potential,” Tyler Adams said that night. “But we could see that, if we maximize it in the right way, it can be something good.”But potential must be pushed, harnessed and developed in order to turn into something more. And no one runs a race in which all the other opponents stand still. Four years later, this time on a bigger stage, with home-field advantage and a team in its prime rather than its infancy, the disappointment of this last-16 exit stings worse.Worse than it did in 2022. And 2014. And 2010.Because this one was supposed to be different. It was a “golden generation” and a home World Cup. It was the team that would change American soccer forever. The opportunity was there to convert non-fans into believers. To inspire the next generation and push the sport forward. We saw the potential in sold-out stadiums in Los Angeles, Seattle and Santa Clara, and in the record TV audiences.Instead, the U.S. was knocked out again in the same round — and in worse fashion than any of those previous World Cups.Dejected USMNT captain Tim Ream walks off the field after defeat to Belgium (Blake Dahlin / Imagn Images / Reuters)Hopefully now, rather than talk about potential, we can reflect on production. This team didn’t take enough steps between the last World Cup and this one. It wasn’t a team far better than the one we watched four years ago in Qatar. There were glimmers of something against lesser opponents. The U.S. played some fun, attacking soccer with the energy of those packed stadiums behind them, but ultimately wilted against the first top opponent it faced.“I think we put on some really good performances, for sure,” Christian Pulisic said. “We made it through our group in quite a dominant fashion, and then we won the game against Bosnia. We can be proud of that. But I just think we want to have higher hopes than that. We want to be able to go and compete with some of the best in the world. And we just still have that next step to climb.”