SEATTLE — Chris Richards keeled over, and Tyler Adams sobbed. Weston McKennie slumped in a chair, mind spinning, stare blank, while Matt Freese wandered and Tim Ream pondered the end. They, the U.S. men’s national soccer team, had just been banished from their home World Cup, beaten down by Belgium; and in the misty aftermath, players seemed and sounded shellshocked.They were shocked by their inexplicable sloppiness, by a flop that not a single one of them could answer for.But they were also shocked by the abruptness of their exit, by the sudden end of a charmed run that they genuinely felt would take them to places the USMNT had never been before.“We’ve had so much faith and belief in each other, and felt a nation coming together and getting that belief too,” fullback Antonee Robinson said after the 4-1 loss. “And, you know, it feels like we let ourselves down, let them down. It’s beyond disappointing.”Any World Cup exit is, of course, but this one felt especially crushing because the descent was so rapid.USA's dreams come to an end in the round of 16Tom Bogert and Lia GriffinOn the first day of the first week of World Cup camp last month, head coach Mauricio Pochettino gathered his players on a sun-splashed training field in Irvine, Calif., and fantasized about “touching the moon.” And for a few magicals weeks, players dreamed they could.They believed they could win the World Cup. At the very least, they were confident they’d reach a quarterfinal. “We all had in our minds that we were definitely gonna be heading back to LA tomorrow,” midfielder Gio Reyna said, referencing a trip back down the west coast for Friday’s would-be quarterfinal against Spain.Instead, they crashed from outer space down to earth.“And most of us,” Reyna said, “are just heading home now for vacation.”