USA

Trump’s World Cup meddling was a culprit in brutal U.S. exit

SEATTLE — Is everyone happy now? Are you okay, Mr. President?

President Trump put our children in the blender in his phone calls with FIFA President Gianni Infantino. They ruined their mojo by playing politics to get American striker Folarin Balogun’s red card cancelled.

We will have to check VAR, but this may be the first time Trump has managed to overturn a decision.

Presumably what he is trying to reverse this time – the discipline resulting from Balogun’s accidental contact with the US victory over Bosnia and Herzegovina – is actually it was unfair. Balogun should not have received a red card.

The problem is that our President coming here was a joke. It’s not funny and it’s out of bounds, offsides, own goals, everything.

This placed the US team at the center of a geopolitical vortex; This was exactly what they didn’t need hours before the biggest game of their lives and the biggest game in the history of the U.S. men’s soccer program.

About 40 or 50 million viewers were expected to watch; How many watched it for the first time? So what impression did Monday’s blunder-filled 4-1 defeat against Belgium leave? We stink in football – still?

If you are one of them, please believe your football-loving friends when they tell you that the Americans played much better in previous matches.

But that’s it for one magical run. The Americans limped across the finish line on their home field (aka, for team USA purposes, their first quarterfinal since 2002).

After the failure, members of the US team did not complain that anything was rigged. They didn’t use distraction as an excuse. And they did not point fingers at anyone; to no one.

U.S. forward Folarin Balogun, 20, walks to the locker room during halftime during the World Cup game against Belgium at Lumen Field in Seattle on Monday.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

“We’re playing on home soil,” defenseman Chris Richards said. “So the only pressure we put on ourselves was to perform for our country and ultimately we didn’t feel the way we wanted today. But I don’t think the oddities of the last 24 hours have anything to do with it.”

No, they said, “controversy,” “outside noise,” or “political manipulation,” as Tim Ream, Alex Freeman, and coach Mauricio Pochettino described what others called “Balogate,” were not responsible for the gut punch that answered the question: Why not us?

Because the USA is not yet good enough to beat the big teams in the world. Especially when pre-game preparations involve trying to prevent international unrest.

To have any hope against the Belgians in the round of 16, which will pit FIFA’s 9th through 17th ranked teams, the Americans had to be full steam ahead, focused, determined and probably a little lucky.

Instead, they looked shaken, shaken. And they rolled.

They were the worst version of themselves at the worst time, which was strange for a team that was on the front foot from the first whistle against Paraguay.

Not Monday. They were after them from the beginning against Belgium. Heavy touches, slow steps, they play as if the weight of the World Cup is on their shoulders.

And all this maddening interference from the White House – for what?

Balogun started and played for most of the match, but substitute striker Ricardo Pepi could also have been available. Or you or I, Balogun, were that ineffective.

The play of the day came after the match when he approached Belgian coach Rudi Garcia and the two had a respectful conversation. A true diplomat, born in Brooklyn and raised in Britain as a natural-born American.

This defeat was of course a real team effort. Christian Pulisic was substituted in the 59th minute after spraining his right ankle, leaving him without scoring a goal in his four World Cup appearances.

Harvard-educated starting goalkeeper Matt Freese suffered a brain cramp of epic proportions when he stepped out of the box and was unable to keep the ball. Belgian Charles De Ketelaere released the ball and set up Hans Vanaken, whose shot went behind Ream for an easy score to make it 3-1 in the 57th minute.

There were a lot of bad decisions made on and off the field in this game.

Ultimately, Trump’s appeal to Infantino did more harm than good. But what if some good could come from this?

How about giving teams a process to appeal cards like our American athletes in FIFA, NBA, NFL and MLB do?

Offering a suggestion box would not be opening Pandora’s box, if it were a transparent and regular part of the game we would hope that it would offer increasingly fair results in a tournament where every match is so monumental – as our President more than enthusiastically agrees.