Belgium

The Story

Belgium has spent a decade being the cautionary tale of modern soccer — a country of 11 million that produced De Bruyne, Lukaku, Hazard, Courtois, Vertonghen, Kompany, and somehow never reached a final. The "golden generation" peaked at third place in Russia 2018 and has been losing players to age and injury ever since. The 2022 group-stage exit in Qatar was a funeral. The 2024 Euros, where Domenico Tedesco's side scraped through the group and lost to France, was the burial.

The coach is now Rudi Garcia, the well-traveled Frenchman who took over in January and has spent his first months blending the old bones (De Bruyne at Napoli, Lukaku, Courtois) with players who weren't on a senior roster three years ago — Doku, Onana, Openda, Saelemaekers, Debast. Belgium qualified the proper way out of UEFA Group J, beating Wales for top spot and putting seven past Liechtenstein on the final matchday.

What you're watching this summer is the last honest attempt by this group. De Bruyne is 34 and will not be at 2030. Lukaku is 32. Garcia is trying to get the most out of one more cycle while quietly handing the keys to the kids. Belgium probably won't win the World Cup. They might still beat anyone in a single 90 minutes, which is more than most nations can say.

3 Players to Know

Kevin De Bruyne

At 34, in his first season at Napoli after 10 years at Manchester City, he is figuring out a new role — a deeper-lying playmaker who scores more set-piece goals and provides fewer assists. He missed time with a hamstring injury in October but is back in camp and back in form. This is, by any honest accounting, his last World Cup. He has never won a knockout match for Belgium past the quarterfinals. Watch the way his teammates look at him when he gets the ball — they still believe he can produce one more impossible pass.

Romelu Lukaku

Belgium's all-time leading goalscorer by a long way, now 32 and recovering from a thigh tear that kept him out of the Nations League window. Has bounced through Inter, Roma, and Napoli on loan over the last three seasons trying to find the version of himself who terrorized defenders in his prime. New coach Rudi Garcia brought him back into the squad in March. If he is fit, he starts. Belgium does not really have a Plan B at the No. 9.

Jeremy Doku

The 23-year-old Manchester City winger from Antwerp who plays like a video-game character with the dribbling slider maxed out. He is the actual face of the post-golden-generation team — quick, fearless, allergic to passing sideways. If Belgium are going to surprise anyone in 2026, it will start with whichever right-back gets nutmegged by him in the group stage.

The Food

Signature Dish

Moules-frites is the national dish, and the rules are stricter than they look — fries cooked twice in beef tallow, served on the side, never under the mussels (which would steam them limp). The mussels themselves come in a black pot, steamed in white wine and celery and shallot, with bread for the broth. After that, a Belgian waffle (the gaufre de Liège, denser, with pearl sugar caramelizing on the iron — not the lighter Brussels version Americans usually mean) and a Trappist beer brewed by actual monks.

Where to Eat in DFW

The Old Monk on Henderson Avenue — technically an Irish pub, but the moules-frites are made the right way: Hoegaarden Belgian wit, shallots, celery, garlic, a basket of skinny fries on the side. It has been a neighborhood fixture for over 20 years, the bar gets it for matchday crowds, and the Belgian draft list is the deepest in the city.

Fan Culture

Belgian support is quieter than you'd expect from a nation this good. Red Devils away kits everywhere, beer in plastic cups by 10am, the chant "Allez Allez Allez" sung the same way it is in Liverpool because that's where the song was lifted from. Brussels itself splits between French-speaking Wallonia and Flemish Flanders, and the national team has spent two decades being the one thing both sides agree on. Expect them in the bar early, expect them to leave quietly if it goes wrong — they have practiced that.