The USMNT’s World Cup dream died ugly. They deserved better | Commentary

SEATTLE – The U.S. men’s national team deserved better than this.

Not the loss that brought their World Cup party to a screeching halt in the round of 16 on Monday. They earned every bit of that, finally looking like the team everyone feared they would be at this World Cup rather than the one that had established a new standard for the USMNT.

They looked tentative and sloppy, very much not ready to go toe-to-toe with one of the big European teams. Even one as vulnerable as Belgium has looked at this World Cup and without two regular starters in Kevin De Bruyne and Jeremy Doku.

The USMNT was on the back foot from the opening whistle and could never find their groove. Belgium made easy work of the U.S. defense, and could easily have had another two goals in the first half alone.

Even the jubilation after Malik Tillman’s equalizer in the 31st minute quickly evaporated, with Charles De Ketelaere scoring his second goal of the night for Belgium two minutes later.

The USMNT are professionals, and it’s their job to show up for a game that could have changed the course of soccer in the United States for decades to come. But their ineptitude also might have something to do with the firestorm the team found itself in the last few days, through no fault of their own.

FIFA’s Disciplinary Committee overturned Folarin Balogun’s red card suspension, allowing him to play in the round of 16 game against Belgium. Less than 36 hours before the game.

That already had folks howling, with Belgium coach Rudi Garcia saying he thought it was an April Fool’s joke and Norway coach Ståle Solbakken calling it a “big mistake.” Then it came out that President Donald Trump, who long ago turned FIFA president Gianni Infantino into a lap dog, had intervened.

Infantino and FIFA insisted Trump’s phone call had nothing to do with the Disciplinary Committee’s decision. But if anyone buys that, I’ve got a bridge to sell you.

Suddenly, the USMNT was a political football. All the goodwill they had built up the last month was overcome by the stench of Trump’s dirty dealing.

This was no longer a debate about the rightness or wrongness of Balo’s suspension being lifted. This was an existential conflict for many fans, who’d fallen hard for the USMNT in part because they saw the team as wholesome and a reflection of the country it represented, only to have it co-opted by Trump.

The USMNT’s success was now intertwined with Trump, and the opinions were loud and unending.

Athletes are supposed to be able to tune out distractions, to stay in a bubble and not let the outside world intrude. But that’s the beauty and the curse of a home World Cup. The USMNT has been on heavy rotation on television and social media, and asking players to avoid the noise about Trump and the damning ramifications of him putting his thumb on the scale for them would have been like asking them not to breathe.

Of course that’s going to have an impact.

Had the players spent the days after Balogun got his red card complaining or whining about the injustice, this would be a different conversation. But they went out of their way to be mature and not make themselves out to be victims.

Balogun even shook the referee’s hand after the game.

“I never want to react out of anger and out of emotion,” Balogun said Friday. “There’s still lots of people we’re inspiring, little kids, boys and girls who are watching, and we have to show them the correct way to handle things, even when you think it’s unjust. I felt I did that.”

And yet they still got pulled down into the muck as if they’d dialed Infantino’s number themselves.

The USMNT took the country on a heck of a ride at this World Cup. It’s too bad it ended in this trainwreck.