We’ve just endured the most miserable 24 hours in U.S. soccer history – and we’re a country that knows men’s soccer misery. Our women’s national team? They’ve always been terrific, winning four World Cups and five Olympic gold medals and bringing the country together, time after time, because it’s exhilarating to support a winner that wins the right way.
What about a team that loses – and loses the wrong way?
Oh, these have been a miserable 24 hours for the U.S. men’s national team in what should be – what had been – the most glorious months and weeks and days for our #USMNT. It was more growth in our country’s love affair with soccer, what with the 2026 World Cup being held on American soil and the U.S. side winning Group D and advancing to the knockout stage and beating Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Round of 32.
That led to Tuesday’s game against Belgium in the Round of 16 in Seattle, with the rest of the country getting involved with watch parties all over the place, including one on Monument Circle hosted by the Indy Eleven. Were you there? Maybe you saw me on my bike, there to see the red, white & blue and hear the “USA, USA, USA” and try to swell up with national pride.
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But that was early Monday evening, and by then so much – too much – had happened.
The game in Seattle was an hour from kicking off, but America had already suffered an “L” on the worldwide stage, an own goal off the noggin of President Donald Trump, who did what he does and inserted himself into an international uproar beyond his understanding – “I didn’t know what the hell a red card was,” he’d said the day before the disaster – and pulled off the impossible:
News: Trump talks Folarin Balogun controversy, didn’t know what red card was
Taken an event that had united our country, and used it to rip us apart.
Then came the game in Seattle, an ugly 4-1 loss to Belgium, a nation barely 3% of our size taking on FIFA and Trump and the most talented roster in #USMNT history, taking it to all of us, silencing the loudest stadium in American sports.
Afterward, the Belgium soccer team celebrated with what’s called “The Trump Dance.”
Now we are left to wait four more years, so we can do this again. One request:
Can we not do all of it again?
News: Belgium beats USA, celebrates with Trump dance
President Trump called FIFA’s Gianni Infantino
What if President Joe Biden had called FIFA president Gianni Infantino before the Belgium game and asked him to suspend Folarin Balogun’s red card, received during America’s win against Bosnia and Herzegovina? What if President Barack Obama or President George W. Bush had done it? Those are among the questions to ask ourselves as we consider what President Trump did in fact do – what Trump became the only U.S. president and the world leader, as far as we know, to ever do:
Talk FIFA into ignoring its own rulebook to benefit the host country in the World Cup.
We can describe what happened, what Balogun did against Bosnia and Herzegovina on July 1 and what Trump did about it, any way we like. That’s the beauty of words, isn’t it? We can use the ones we want to make it look as pretty and patriotic, or as petty and improper, as we want:
President Trump helped right a wrong.
President Trump bullied FIFA into an ethical failure.
Like so many things involving Trump, politics, even sports, the story of Folarin Balogun, Gianni Infantino and Donald Trump is a Rorschach test. We see what we want to see. You see a shoe, I see a scorpion. Which one of us right? Well, it’s like UFC president Dana White says on that Ram Trucks commercial, quite possibly the dumbest, most accurate slogan in the history of American advertising:
“In Loud We Trust.”
And the choir said: Amen.
The FIFA president, Gianni Infantino, claims Trump’s call was coincidental, unnecessary even, that FIFA was already planning to do the unthinkable, what it hadn’t done for any of the first 11 players to be sent off at this World Cup, and suspend Balogun’s red card for the Belgium game. But then, Infantino is the guy who created the FIFA Peace Prize this year and immediately bestowed it upon Trump – a contribution to Trump’s campaign, amid his military strikes on Iran, Syria and Venezuela, for 2026 Nobel Peace Prize.
And Trump had already sought credit for the good news about Balogun, talking about his phone call to Infantino, even as he was conceding in the same news conference that, until Balogun’s red card kerfuffle, he didn’t know what a red card was.
Who do you believe, Infantino or Trump?
Well, in loud we trust.
USA Today: USMNT still not ready to contend at World Cup with the very best
FIFA suspended Folarin Balogun’s red card??!
Did Folarin Balogun foul Tarik Muharemovic of Bosnia and Herzegovina when he stepped on the back of his leg in the Round of 32? Seemed like a clear foul.
Accidents can be fouls, you understand, and Balogun didn’t seem to be looking at Muharemovic before landing on his ankle. Intent enters the discussion when a referee judges the foul’s severity or recklessness, and after referee Raphael Claus was prompted by the Video Assistant Referee – after most of us watched the same replays and saw a shoe – Claus emerged from the VAR pit and decided he’d seen a scorpion:
Red card for Balogun. He was ejected from the game against Bosnia and Herzegovina – the USA played the final 29 minutes with 10 players – and would miss the next one against Belgium.
Wrong call, seems safe to say, but wrong calls happen. And FIFA rules, for some reason, don’t allow for an appeal, which means Balogun wouldn’t be eligible to return until the quarterfinals, should America advance to face the Spain-Portugal winner (Spain won 1-0 Monday).
But Trump, who has a genius for giving his supporters exactly what they want – if giving them what they want serves his purposes – made a call to Infantino, and you know what happened next. And if you don’t, Trump told us. In one of those shocking soundbites that don’t shock anyone anymore, full of non sequiturs and vitriol, a mixture of self-immolation and self-congratulation, Trump said all of the following on Monday.
“I saw the play, and I’m a person that loves sports,” he told reporters at the White House. “That wasn’t a foul. That wasn’t even an infraction … this referee, who is a little bit suspect if you check his past, he made a call that nobody could believe … he’s our best player, or one of our best players. And he gave him a red card. I didn’t know what that meant … yes, I asked for a review by FIFA.”
Much of America rejoiced over the suspension of Balogun’s red card, and you understand. This is the World Cup, our World Cup, and the Brooklyn-born Balogun has been our best player – not Christian Pulisic – and the call looked wrong, unfair even. Balogun can play against Belgium? Justice had been served, to some, because to some the end justifies the means.
To others, the means still matter.
Here in America, we’ve been justifying those means like nobody’s business. Everywhere else, it feels like, they see our country – our President – doing what our country has done a lot under this President: Making it up on the fly, equating right to might, bullying someone into doing our bidding.
All of which brings us back to a question posed earlier, one that requires more self-inspection than debate: How would you feel, how would I feel, if Biden or Obama or Bush had made that call to Gianni Infantino? That’s an important question, with an easy answer:
None of them would’ve called Infantino, based on their track records. Dignity, respect for the process – however flawed it may be – would have prevailed.
Dignity, respect, American greatness – they’re missing these days. They’ll be back, though, because if this country can survive British colonization and two World Wars and the Great Depression, we can survive a little noise.
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This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Doyel: Worst 24 hours in USMNT history starts with President Trump call, ends in World Cup loss
Reporting by Gregg Doyel, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Gregg Doyel, Indianapolis Star | USA TODAY Network
