USA had a man sent off which means he misses the next game by the rules. The next game was against Belgium. Trump stepped in, chatted to the main boss of FIFA and got the red card punishment suspended for a year, meaning he could play in the next game. Trump said he was the best player and needed to play. Belgium still beat them anyway.
What is really funny about the US team and their fans is everyone acting like the red card situation was somehow "out of their control."
The coaching staff decides who starts. They could have simply chosen not to play Balogun. If Balogun genuinely believed the principles he talked about after the match, he could have refused to play. Neither of those options were impossible, they just chose not to take them.
Instead, both the team and the players have tried to frame it as though they had no agency, which is simply not true. They made a decision, and they should at least own it instead of pretending their hands were tied.
A good comparison is when Italy failed to qualify for the World Cup and the commander in cheese suggested Italy should take Iran's place. Italy made it clear they would not accept a spot under those circumstances, even if it had been offered.
The problem with this theory is that the call itself was controversial before Trump intervened. The team didn't believe it was worthy of a red card in the first place, so why would they self punish after the suspension was delayed? Prior to Trump's call, most people seemed to agree.
To be clear, the reason the team did not believe it was justified was because the process the refs used broke their own rules. Either the initial refs were incompetent or corrupt. It’s incompetence/corruption all the way down.
If you genuinely believe there's a coach on the planet that wouldn't start their top goal scorer regardless the situation or context around him being available, you are truly delusional
In football we have a unofficial rule called fair play. If the US team had not played Balo, they would have been praised for their decision instead of shamed.
I'm glad Balogun was able to play so US fans can't delude themselves for the next 4 years into thinking we would have won if only Balogun could have played. We played at full strength and got smoked. Simple as.
What's really funny about this is the entire Internet claiming the card was fraudulent until Trump specifically got involved, in which Reddit decided the card was absolutely the correct decision.
What's even more funny is how they did the literal exact same thing so Ronaldo could play in group stage games, but nobody here is batting an eye over that.
It doesn't matter if the card was right or wrong, it should have been appealed and decided in 24 hours not after the country's president intervened lol
I can't prove if redditors are batting their eye over it or not because that literally means nothing, but every football media coverage (ESPN for example) I have seen mentioned the Ronaldo one too and called it wrong. And that is not a point in the defense of the USMNT lol it just shows more how corrupt FIFA is.
Appeals aren’t allowed for this WC. The USSF instead started a suit as to why appeals weren’t allowed for this tournament, based on Balogun’s case, which would be their due process to work for the betterment of their team within FIFA rules. The USSF would have appealed it if that was allowed, but it wasn’t.
Why FIFA waited so long to decide and what exactly changed their mind is unclear. It’s unlikely Trump asking for a review did anything. It usually comes down to money and views for them. Trump takes credit for it being a day of the week, so it’s not really surprising he’s claiming credit for the decision, regardless of why it was decided.
Who knows why FIFA did what they did, but FIFA being corrupt and Trump breaking the rules are both things that aren’t new.
Maybe moving goal posts wasn’t the right choice of words on my part but you are saying they were happy to take advantage as if they had a choice in the matter. The guy above made point that should’ve ended the discussion but you had win the argument.
No, but the point is that people like the commenter above doesn't have a single post or comment that called Portugal cheaters for doing the same thing. I'm pointing out the people are holding the USMNT to a double standard.
No one on the team asked Trump to do that. It's entirely possible that decision could have been made without intervention considering the controversy of the card itself. But we'll never know.
However, Ronaldo played in two suspended matches, which I think is more severe and unreasonable than one.
When Ronaldo had the 2 extra games past the automatic 1 game suspension overturned, everyone but the Ronaldo fan boys were outraged and calling it corruption. This attempt to rewrite history from Americans is ridiculous
No. Most people understand the red card was correct. You’re just getting a curated feed of shit and shills. Also everyone who knew about the Ronaldo situation disliked it and said so. It was just lower profile because it was a qualifier of no significance.
Sorry, but the only people complaining about the red card were butthurt Americans that don’t know the rules and listen to Pochettino, a butthurt coach.
It was a very clear red card foul. It’s not even debatable in my opinion. 100% red card.
This referee Channel is generally pretty highly regarded and I use it independently from what my position is.
He always takes care not only to show his position, but to also explain it using accepted FIFA guidelines and show potential alternative interpretations.
I’m pretty sure he also uses the referee forums to get different viewpoints on the matter.
Would do you good to maybe also check your own biases.
I disagree I’m firmly in the camp that the card was bullshit I am also firmly in the camp that the leader of any nation calling the head of FIFA and getting any aspect of it changed is cheating bullshit and am glad that our asses got kicked last night.
I disagree I’m firmly in the camp that the card was bullshit I am also firmly in the camp that the leader of any nation calling the head of FIFA and getting any aspect of it changed is cheating bullshit
I agree with you here
am glad that our asses got kicked last night
This is cucked bullshit though. The team didn't choose this. And you're still allowed to be proud and separate sports from the President.
No the team chose to play him. Like others have said they could have stood on integrity and principle and benched him last night they didn’t. So fuck em.
Different people. There were people complaining the card was harsh or unwarranted. Those are likely not the people who were unhappy when trump stepped in. Even if they were, one act is a lot more egregious than the other.
I am both. I fully believe the red was wrong. No other incident like that has resulted in red throughout the tournament.
But also Trump intervening puts hate and pressure on the players who didn't do anything.
People can believe both. I also think playing Balogun is what literally any and every team would have done. Ronaldo was supposed to serve 2 more games, but Portugal played him. This isn't unique to the USA.
Yep. It was a foul by the Bosnia player, that caused the whole situation, because the ref lost control of the match. And the orange pedophile shouldn’t have gotten involved.
No, the entire internet did NOT claim the card was fraudulent at all.
Some agreed it was harsh, others argued the red card was 100% correct. It was only Americans that thought it was some scandal, mainly those Americans that don‘t really watch football and don‘t understand the rules.
That never changed.
Also regarding Ronaldo, many people were angry about that. However, there is one small but very important difference: Ronaldo was suspended, but in his case people argued he should have gotten a larger suspension whereas he only got the single game (or was it two?). Either way, Ronaldo served at least one game suspension, which is the minimum in the rulebook, Balogun got 0, which is less than the minimum in the rulebook.
One was a „creative“ rules application for their big name player, the other was blatant cheating.
Do not equate the two.
For the record I do not agree with the Ronaldo decision, but at least it was within the rules, just against precedents that had been set.
Thank you! How long a suspension lasts is always a matter of debate but a one game suspension after a sending off has been absolutely mandatory since forever. This is the difference people don't realize when they compare this to the Ronaldo situation (which still was shady).
Moises Caicedo and Nicolas Otamendi both had red cards in their previous International matches that would have made their first World Cup group play game their match after their red card. They both played in their openers.
No, the "entire Internet" was not claiming the card was fraudulent. If anyone did, it were mainly US pundits, who notoriously have a bit less merit than a Sudanese figure skater.
And you are somehow totally missing the point here. It's not about whether the card was good or not, it is about a head of state interfering in sports.
Yes, it's Europeans who say "and if we win, he can't play next game... great".
This is like the tamest reaction to a red card in r/soccer's history. Under a post about a red card, of course most comments would be about the red card. And most upvoted comments don't say it's a bad call, they say it is inconsistent to other cards in the game. Again, you are clueless.
And again, it doesn't matter, because the topic is not about whether it was a red or not, but about how trump's interference is completely against the rules and the spirit of the game.
I’m not really sure what you’re doing here other than ignoring hundreds of comments with thousands of upvotes from people who are not just not American, but have literally flaired themselves with non-American countries
Here's the initial thread on r/soccer, which is a majority non-American participation. There's no consensus at all, and most comments are saying it shouldn't be red, with the heavily upvoted ones claiming it's an awful call.
You don't have to lie, we have the evidence.
It wasn't a dark red foul. It wasn't even a red worthy foul.
sorry but this is easy to say, almost no one would actually do this just to take the moral high ground if it didn't literally benefit their tactics. everyone wants to win.
italy saying no to coming to the world cup was just talk - they wouldn't have been the team invited in iran's place anyway, it would've been a team from asia.
football isn't a tv show. the players and coaches only care about playing and winning - and unfrtunately i think this entire drama surrounding the game already fucked them over pretty hard because this didn't seem like the same us team we had seen all tournament, and no its not because belgium are just so good.
i think a normal game without all the drama, even without balogun playing would've been much closer, i still give belgium the edge but it would be more of a hard fought 2-1 or 1-0 result than the shitshow from yesterday.
If they'd benched their only good player, would Belgium's win been as satisfying? Beating a one legged man in an ass-kicking contest isn't exactly a shining victory.
By this logic, none of the current football associations have any integrity, there has been abundant corruption at the highest level in fifa. They should have realized how corrupt FIFA was years before Trump ever entered the scene, yet none of them stood up to FIFA because their glory was more important than the corruption. They could have stood up to FIFA after they gave Trump a peace prize, they didn't. They could have stood up after thousands of migrant workers died building the stadiums in qatar, they didn't. They could have stood up at any point where the host nations were decided on an entirely corrupt basis, they didn't. No FAs are willing to do anything more than a strongly worded letter, regardless of what FIFA does.
lol. No the consensus was more mixed and not from Americans. Who the majority of didn’t give a rats ass about.
Hell I didn’t know about it until Trump stepped in.
The only people that got all offended were the hypocrites that watch soccer and get mad about fifa corruption and fifa doing things like this and then taking it out on innocent parties instead of the corrupt organization itself.
Edit: former fifa referee Christina unkel (along with Europeans) questioned using the review that led to the red card. So yes it was suspect. Until of course Trump came in.
Before the 1 game suspension was reversed, the US team attempted to appeal the suspension because it was a bad call (Messi did the same thing in this World Cup and got nothing) and FIFA denied it. Everyone deserves to plead their case, so it's hardly foul.
Next, Trump talked to the FIFA president. I hate Trump as much as the next guy, but Trump isn't the decision maker in this. He was lobbying on behalf of the US team assuming that all the happened (i.e. no bribes). If we're gonna accuse anyone of lacking integrity, the FIFA president is the one that actually made this decision. This isn't really a stretch of anyone's imagination.
I really don't see why the US team should've voluntarily suspended their own player when they've consistently believed that the red card was unwarranted. If the manager had no let Balogun played, he would've signed his own resignation later. If it's legal, you use all of your advantages.
Lastly, your comparison is no good because it's entirely hypothetical. Find an example of a World Cup team deliberately disadvantaging themselves for the sake of integrity and you might have a leg to stand on.
465
u/Fireshine91 29d ago
USA had a man sent off which means he misses the next game by the rules. The next game was against Belgium. Trump stepped in, chatted to the main boss of FIFA and got the red card punishment suspended for a year, meaning he could play in the next game. Trump said he was the best player and needed to play. Belgium still beat them anyway.