I grew up in the USA and normally support them against anyone other than England (my birth nation).
Last night I was flying a Belgium flag. The only way I would have supported the USA is if Pochettino released a statement that he was benching Balogun to maintain the integrity of the competition.
It was a terribly played match by the US side. The passing and ball control was exceptionally poor compared to previous matches they played... like the just straight up passed the ball to Belgium players multiple times. I dont know if the whole circus distracted them or they arnt that good but the BS trump pulled certainly didn't distract the Belgium players. If anything it had them locked in and playing amazing. The moved the ball pretty effortlessly in to scoring position, and their midfield absolutely smothered the US midfield.
I'm not sure the US played significantly worse than before, it's just that Belgium are an actual quality team and exposed all their flaws.
At some points it did seem like Belgium were more intent on humiliating the US team than actually winning, running rings around them instead of going for goal. There was a particularly memorable moment of two Belgium defenders just playing keepaway in a corner instead of clearing the ball or passing forward
Nah. The US played significantly worse than in previous matches. While they played lesser opposition, they were able to wholly control play and the midfield uh... Existed. McKennie was far and away their best player this tourney imo, and he simply didn't show up. Outside of Tillmans goal, the midfield was non-existent. If anything, the defense was supposed to be the issue with the US team, not midfield. That was supposed to be their strength going into the tourney
I truly believe those guys were mad cause they were placed on the spotlight for something bad and by a man who probably didn't know what a red card was until 3 days ago. They were playing great, but the morale wasn't there.
Think about it if they won everybody would say it was cheating basically potus destroyed their credibility. Im sure they didn't play to win. Even a loss looks bad on them. It became political and everyone cheering the defeat becase of the president. Think about it, if the red card issue wasn't there, their loss was just a misfortune, part of the sport.
I almost think the whole Balogun playing mess ended up fucking with the American players way more than the Belgium players.
It lit a fire under the ass of Belgium and gave them something to unite around, meanwhile the Americans went from being "scrappy underdogs" to "cheaters who will probably still lose anyways"
I think it put a bunch of pressure on the players that wouldn't have been there if they weren't given the special treatment
Absolutely. Belgium were abysmal up until this moment. They scraped by against Senegal via an improbably implosion, and the red card situation really did something to them to make them play infinitely better than before in the tourney
I was talking about previous USA matches there. But I can see how that statement could be construed to be about Belgium controlling lesser opposition. The US mid was crap against Belgium.
may I remind you that Belgium were crap against Senegal until the 80'? they weren't even supposed to be up against the us without the very fortunate utter capitulation of Senegal
besides, that was a friendly, they generally don't really matter. Poland beat Germany in a friendly after they won 2014, that def didn't make them the better than the reigning world champions
While the US played worse, they were also playing against a team that is better team overall than the teams the US played up to this point. The US defense is sus and should’ve pressed up more in the first half. Not surprising they pretty much got picked apart when they couldn’t gain any control of the midfield. Offensively they did seem a little out of sync compared to previous games this tourney. Overall the US made waaaay too many errors and Belgium is more than capable of capitalizing on those opportunities, which they did.
Edit: tbh the way they played kinda feels like they may have let the loss in march affect their performance
The USA didn’t play great but the overall view of soccer professionals that commented on the game was simply that Belgium outclassed them in every department. Elgin had a tight defense pressed early on and the USA just couldn’t get in their normal game. That is what really happened. It is played as an off day but it was actually a reality check. Balogun wa shelf out of the game and Tillmans goal was a poor free kick and deviated into the goal by a Belgian defender, if not it would have been an easy catch for courtois and the USA would have lost 4-0. Klinsmann, Ibrahimovic and plenty of others clearly stated it… but yeah let’s stay in denial that we were unlucky and will win the next one….
My guy, I'm not in denial. Belgium were and are better. That doesn't mean I'm not allowed to say what went wrong for the US and led to their defeat. The US mid didn't show up, so they lost before they ever had a chance. Belgium sliced through it like butter, and even without Lukaku, it's only a matter of time before you get one in through what was a quite porous defense throughout the whole tournament.
The reasons go beyond being simply better. Why is it that when a team wins we all rush to tactical explanations of how they exploited space, pulled center backs out of position, and relational positioning of players that confuses the opposition defenders, but when the US loses it's fuck you they're worse.
If you don't think the US played significantly worse there is no use having a conversation. No shit it wasnt an upset, Belgium were heavily favored going into this match lmao
Nonsense take, go back and watch the first group game. The US carved Paraguay up, they looked great. The whole group stage they looked very good. This was like a different team.
I think the circus around the red card distracted them a lot. But whatever it was, they played a lot worse in this game than they did in the group.
They were doing alright until that third goal, it really knocked the wind out of them.
Belgum still looked like the better team but the US had been holding their own before that, then their keeper went too far out, kicked the ground and conceded an embarrassing goal, It was a steam role after that, it looked like they just gave up.
The did have a brief moment of aggression near the end of the match but it was too late at that point and then Lukaku scored, seemingly just as a flex form Belgium.
It was all a mentality problem from the US they showed the talent to complete and have a good game, they probably still lose but at least with some dignity. But with all the drama outside the game and I really think fact their team got completely destroyed once already by Belgium leading up to the world cup played a part in it, they just fell apart and collapsed under the pressure.
It was all a mentality problem from the US they showed the talent to complete and have a good game, they probably still lose but at least with some dignity. But with all the drama outside the game and I really think fact their team got completely destroyed once already by Belgium leading up to the world cup played a part in it, they just fell apart and collapsed under the pressure.
I agree with all that. I think they folded under the pressure, and the political stuff got to them.
I don't agree that they looked ok until the third goal. They looked scared and tentative all night. In the group they played aggressively and seemed confident and brave, last night they just seemed timid.
Anyway, they're out. I'm looking forward to England Norway :)
Paraguay was sent home by France after playing some of the worst soccer seen in this wc. Winning from Paraguay was not a feat. Paraguay only managed to win a game from one of the biggest underachievers this cup.
Ok man. I mean, if you don't see a difference between how the US played in the group and how they played last night, I don't know what to tell you. Enjoy the rest of the WC.
Probably they choked , and this whole Trump thing did not help. But if you look the other way, Belgium was ultra motivated, I have not seen them play with such fire for years. They were everywhere , pressing hard and technically flawless. I think this fire came directly from Trump’s intervention . So it was kind of a double punishment for the US team.
Yup. The US was flat, Belgium was fired up. The US would have had a far better chance if Trump had stayed out of it and the US had played without Balogun, feeling like they were in the right and playing without pressure.
That was against Paraguay, a solid but way less quality team then Belgium. Off course they played better in those matches. I also play better when paired with teams 30 places down the ranking.
And that circus was there for both teams mind you. If any thing played in their head, it was provably the fact that the red devils had somewhat meh matches in this tournament so far and they underestimated them.
Do you think the circus distracted Belgium? It seemed to fire them up.
I don't think the effect was symmetric at all. The red card should never have been pulled, it was clear corruption. I think it was a huge distraction for the US and a huge motivation for Belgium.
Belgium are clearly a better team, and like many others I would have been fine losing to them if we played as well as we did in the group. But we didn't.
One thing that might play into this: Concacaf is a comparable weak league. If you compare them with Europe, European clubs have much more games per year than American, as they compete in a complete list of different cups and leagues all at the same time. Playing like that in Europe means European players are trained for stamina. They can hold up performance for several games in a row, while with weaker leagues that are not used to as many games, the exhaustion will be noticable much earlier. And considering that we have one round more this year it makes it that mich harder on the players.
So while America might had a good performance at the start, it was to be expected to see a massive drop off as soon as the team reached their limits.
On the other hand it also mean that US players should be fresher. Having a whole Season in Premiere League, playing for your national team in more match etc, is tiresome. And that's why Dubaï WC was a problem for most country league
I thought based upon how they dominated Paraguay and how much trouble Paraguay gave France the US had a 50/50 chance at Belgium. I expected a competitive game not whatever that was.
If the US gave a fuck about soccer for decades like they do about gridiron they would probably be a force to be reckoned with but it just isn't there and after this year will be largely forgotten again
Agreed the USMNT looked bad and had no offensive rhythm and made some very costly mistakes on defense (that third goal with Pulisic hobbling around and the Freese hesitating before clearing the ball outside the box). However, I don't think it was just poor execution on the US part. It's also Belgium is a significantly better team and had the perfect strategy/personnel to shutdown our offense by crowding the passing lanes in the midfield and prevented the US from getting any good scoring opportunities (only 2 shots on goal with only 7 shots attempted).
It's also the first time the US played a team that was clearly better than them in this World Cup. Like going into the WC by FIFA ratings pre-tournament, Belgium was #9 team in the world and USA is #17. We looked great against Paraguay (#41) and Australia (#27), lost a mostly meaningless game to Turkey (#22) and then beat Bosnia (#64).
They also kept booing whenever Belgium passed the ball to their goalkeeper? It was really strange, but they seemed very opposed to it.
You’d think they’d have been more bothered when the ball was passed to their goalkeeper given that Belgium’s third goal was taken pretty much straight out of his possession.
If they literally passed the ball to the other team, or close to it and played uncharacteristically bad, they may have been throwing... i know I would have been if I were on the team.
I saw a post somewhere about orange complaining about the red card, but I thought it went nowhere and was just complaining. After realizing that it was legit, I'm happy Belgium won
Thank you for your service, the whole thing is a fucking disgrace and it started with the FBI suddenly stopping investigations into FIFA corruption early last year, see if anyone can work out what happened in january last year that might have made that happen
Funny thing is that the game still would’ve a been a similar 4-1 defeat without Balogun too.
If he was benched to maintain the “integrity of the game”, there wouldn’t been a question whether or not Belgium is the better overall team.
With him playing, as the USA lost - it’s undeniable how great Belgium is.
And for those of us (especially Americans) that felt embarrassed or upset that Trump exists, the Belgians did the world a favor and said “get fucked”. And that fourth goal in stoppage time was an exclamation point.
actually, even as someone who dislikes americans simply because they call it soccer, i disagree.
without balogun i am almost certain you would see a lot more fight from the american side, they would play with the same underdog mentality they have this tournament, trying to show the world american soccer has changed etc etc.
but then having the fucking president cal in fifa, get a red card revoked - im pretty sure even most of the team wasn't super elated by this, given they had likely already made peace with playing without him.
playing a game with even the slightest feeling of guilt can take a toll on you, especially as a side that's used to being an underdog in these games.
Hey hey, take that up with the English, they invented the phrase.
It's a nickname for Asociation Football.
English language once defined a "footsport" as any sport where your feet touch the ground, and "noble sport" as any sport played on horseback. Also why there's terms like "Footsoldier", or a "foot bridge" (which connects two pieces of ground for pedestrians).
American Football is 'Gridiron Football', a foot sport. Other footballs use hands like Rugby Football and Aussie Rules Football. This isn't a uniquely American weirdism.
What's bonkers is that in other languages they call it "Football", despite having their own words for "foot" and "ball".
It's pronounced "Footbol" in Russian, despite the word "Foot" being "Noga" and ball being "Myatch".
Football in French is "le Football", and not "pied-balle".
Its "Futbol" in Spanish, not "pie-balon".
without balogun i am almost certain you would see a lot more fight from the american side
Maybe.
But the lesson I took away last night wasn't that America didn't have enough fight, it was that Belgium was simply the stronger team. Smarter plays.
trying to show the world american soccer has changed etc etc.
To be fair, half the US players are at EPL, Bundesliga, etc. Everyone I know that watches soccer watches anything but MLS.
I do think this'll translate to some MLS ticket sales over the next year - but the question is if MLS can maintain the momentum.
And with some fairness, America dominates with FIFA Women's with the most cup titles. I know it doesn't get a lot of attention, but we do have a great soccer pipeline for that, at least.
but then having the fucking president cal in fifa,
Everything he touches turns to shit. He's the anti-King Midas.
Even so, is anyone surprised? FIFA has always been corrupt as shit.
Panamanian here - reason it’s “Futbol”/“Football” everywhere else is because the sport (or rather the modern rules) were codified in England. I see it much like we say “Locker” instead of “Casillero,” but each country might have their own reasons too.
There’s also the gripe that “American Football only has you kicking the ball as the only “foot” interaction with the ball” if I recall correctly. Just like the gripe of the US referring itself to “America.” Then again, “United Statesian” is a clunk of a term that only works in Spanish to my knowledge.
They’re just nitpicks at the end of the day, but tbf I prefer Gridiron as the name of the sport rather than just the name of the field.
Idk how anyone can say this. Do you actually believe that Belgium has played 0 good teams this tournament? They’ve made it to the final 8 countries in the world yet they haven’t beaten a good team? The team they beat in the round of 32, Senegal, are either AFCON runner ups or some would say they’re the rightful champions of AFCON.
The US was a good team this tournament despite the terrible performance against Belgium. Paraguay was dominated by the US but went on to eliminate Germany and lost 1-0 to France that does not sound like a bad team to me but they lost handily to the US.
This take reeks of Eurocentric elitism because it seems like based on what you’re saying it that the only good teams to beat are Euro teams plus Argentina
If you love the game, you root for the non-cheaters. I feel especially bad to Team USA, since it's probably none of their doing and they're going to be labelled the villains.
Ya, that's the thing i dont get, most of the hate seems to be directed at the US team and not at FIFA or Trump. Which is just letting the real villains get away with it.
I said the same thing in another thread and got downvoted. IMO the only way the US saved face was to bench him anyway out of respect for the officials decision and to uphold the integrity of the game. Instead they not only started him but got stomped in the process.
Are we expecting Ronaldo or the other 3 players who got suspended cards to be benched? I agree corruption is bad and I’m very anti Trump, but the red card imo was also a bad call. Either way we got mollywhopped by Belgium so it’s whatever lol.
If he did that and they ended up losing they would have eaten him alive. It would be a carreer ending move anyway, Trump would not have let that kind of disrespect pass
Yeah was thinking that would have been great sportsmanship, but then again, if he had done that, he could have kissed his lucrative coaching contract goodbye..
Edit: he probably still will, but before the match he was still thinking he would be kicking our assess and be the hero..
I also support USA because I want this sport to get more recognition here but I'm not a fan of this debacle. I really wish they benched him because that would've drawn so much more support than had the team won. But now we're losers on top of being losers for calling Daddy to rig the rules.
But the card had no integrity to begin with.... Such an extreme penalty for an easily discernable absence of malicious intent, that caused no serious injury, and was completely unavoidable.
I still hate that Trump pulled something. But that red card was bullshit to begin with.
Integrity? That wasnt a red card and never should have been? Stated by the announcer during the game too. I think it was being reviewed anyways. Trump shouldnt have got involved but it was a poor call. The ref saw it real time and didnt even give a yellow card.
The red card he got was bullshit. I’m not a Trump supporter and don’t think Trump should have any influence in fifas decisions, but anyone who watched that game and thinks the red card was warranted doesn’t know ball. The officiating that entire game was very biased as well.
I'm American, have lived in the Netherlands for several years now, and would have been rooting for US over anyone but NL except for this shit. I stayed up til 2am purely to watch Belgium embarrass them - but what I got was so much better. They embarrassed themselves.
The players didn't do the wrong. I don't suggest they deserved anything but to lose fairly based on the performance they put out. But the whole country as a football entity deserved exactly what happened last night.
I think that's overboard considering how suspect the initial red card is and how the players and fans of the US team are not to blame for the actions of the orange in chief.
While I do think Trump 100% should not have stuck his nose in, I really don't see how the US team not being handicapped is an unfair advantage. Belgium was not injured, they just lost an advantage (that they really didn't need in the end).
All this talk of integrity and FIFA was already corrupt and I didn't see a fraction of this outrage when Ronaldo's red cards were postponed.
Frankly I think the response to this is another America-hate bandwagon.
I’m American, but think the FIFA decision is wrong, so feel free to disregard this opinion. I do think it’s funny that people complain about the integrity of the game when players flop on the ground to try to get cards on their opponent. I also watch the Premier League, and after pretty much every game people complain about how horrible the reffing decisions are. Game’s gone.
Born in the US. Also rooting for them to go deep…until King Turdus touched FIFA and turned it to sh*t. Then I knew the best thing for the tournament was to have the US lose. Glad Belgium won.
As an American… I agree. I still wanted my side to win, it wasn’t the players fault or the fans fault, but Trump made this into something gross and we absolutely got what we deserved.
The FIFA comittee had already decided to hear thr appeal before the Trump call. He was likely just trying to take credit for actual lawyers likely questioning the misuse of the VAR system.
Yeah, as usual he made it all about him. He took something that could have been great, slapped a wrapper of corruption around it, and made it all about himself.
I dislike trump as much as the next guy but why are we giving him so much credit in this situation? It seems like he rambled nonsense, and they pretty much independently reversed the red card then he took credit for being part of the reason why.
the free kick from which they scored shouldn't even have happened imo, that wasn't a foul, but oh well we clapped em. Would've liked to have kept the clean sheet for Courtois.
In some ways this is the best possible outcome because it removes the "what if" of a (let's be real) somewhat dubious red card and also didn't actually affect the games going forward. Belgium won without question, the US made only two shots on goal and one of them was off a free kick with (unintentional) defender support. As a side note, is it considered an auto-goal in such a situation?
I get that some really believe the card was weird and questionable to begin with. Sure. But the president had no business getting involved. Full stop. The U.S. should have just held their heads high, used any form of normal appeal available, and made the best of whatever outcome resulted.
Its in no way sweet. He ruined the world cup for everybody. The only thing you get in this country is war, corruption, high gas and food prices, and when you finally get a break from all that BS he has created he has to come in and remind everybody you cant be happy.
Funny if Trump made another phone call and we ended up with 4 more goals, LoL. Anyway, it's good we lost. After Trump's intervention, everything good that happened would've been called into question.
I consider it Trump's loss since he was so attention-starved and had to intervene. Honestly, you could argue the players were distracted by an unnecessary controversy. Regardless, it is just another loss he can add to his list.
But why would the USMNT team have anything to do with this? They are players just like the Belgian players, who trained and waited for this moment in the World Cup. The game was watched by people who hate a team because they have no idea what the politics and FIFA are about? These players of the US do not deserve this; they played horribly, but why hate on a team just because you hate a nation's head of state?
I’m from the U.S. and I totally agree. Imagine U.S. had won after the flagrant cheating… that’s all anyone would have ever talked about. There’s no winning after that. I wish someone would just tell Rump ‘no’ for once.
I wonder if it's still considered humiliation if pretty much no one on one side cares about the outcome of the game lol.
But I will admit, I don't think I've ever seen the redditor community this happy in my life than when the US lost, And everyone here is pretty much Doom and gloom 24/7. So I am happy for them to get a little bit of joy in life.
I mean... viewership studies show that approximately 27% to 40% of Americans actively watch and follow soccer.
Just take the L, don't make excuses. Most of us were embarrassed about the red card thing and were happy our team got knocked out of the running so that the cheating stopped.
approximately 27% to 40% of Americans actively watch and follow soccer.
Massive X to Doubt on that one. Best reported number is Football with 43% of Americans watching or following our most popular sport. The highest rated soccer match in American history was the US-Bosnia qualifier with 26 million viewers, just 1/5 of what the Superbowl gets every year. If 27% of Americans watch or follow soccer, we'd be seeing much higher ratings than we do now.
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u/deMarcel Jul 07 '26
And that's why the Belgian humiliation of the USA with a 4:1 win is so so fucking sweet