The fact is soccer is not apart of the US's culture as it is in other countries. Our best athletes don't grow up dreaming to be the next Messi, Ronaldo, etc. We idolize our basketball, football, and baseball players the most. We don't have the right set up in the youth systems as well to compete with other countries, who have numerous soccer academies where kids go to play soccer & do school on the side.
Belgium is a vastly superior team to the US in terms of talent. They have multiple European stars on their team in Fellaini, Kompany, Vermaelen, Dembele, Hazard, Van Buyten, and Vertonghen. The US has two players on their team in Dempsey and Tim Howard that plays at high level competition (Tottenham & Everton). When you add in the fact that everybody else on these teams plays somewhere in Europe, and most of our players play in the MLS, we should indeed lose to most of these teams. I would say the US is still about 20 years away from seriously competing with these teams, and it may take even longer sadly.
Notes on the game: The US made defensive mistakes as usual that directly led to 3 goals. Without those mistakes, it's a much closer game. Although we looked bad, it wasn't as bad as it has been in the past. The US has made massive strides in possession of the ball, and we actually had some nice ball movement at times. We scored on a set piece, which is bright for our team as that's always been one of our strongest points. Beasley played well in the back, but the other defenders were pretty pathetic. The midfield played well for the US and helped keep nice possession at times, while the attacking players including Altidore made little impact on the game.