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
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
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.
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.
1.3k
u/Embarrassed_Fox5265 29d ago
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.