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Geez this red card thing is like a broken fingernail compared to the bribes, kickback, election fraud...
wait, am i talking about fifa or trump?
Yes, on both counts, but as pointed out earlier, it's a microcosm of Trump and his second term: soiling of the US, it's institutions, its landmarks, and its international reputation.
If Mauricio Pochettino has any class he will keep Balogun on the bench for the whole game.
I'm conflicted about that.... I'd like to see him start Pepi or whomever was going to fill the spot as a confidence booster... but if you believe that the call was wrong to begin with, why punish yourself?
The only way out of this without "what if" is if he benches Balogun and the US wins. Every other outcome is messy.
Ironic that an Argentinian is in control of US honor that our POTUS ruins in defense of someone he wants to "disown" but the SCOTUS rejected. You can't make this shit up.
(for the record.... I would support congress passing legislation that would remove birthright citizenship for cases like Balogun's. I think the mother should have to be legally resident in the US for the child to have citizenship... but we digress).
Location: At the dude ranch / above the sea Gender:
Posted:
Jul 6, 2026 - 6:20am
Coaxial wrote:
If Mauricio Pochettino has any class he will keep Balogun on the bench for the whole game.
Yes, and then I would expect trump to try to get revenge.
You know, instead of running the USA and improving infrastructure, healthcare, education, job security, and all the things he's supposed to be doing instead of covering the White House in tacky pedestrian laughable pathetic gold. And signs to tell him which room he's in.
For starters: I agree that the red card against Balogun in the US vs. Bosnia game was harsh, but it was a decision that was made and enforced. Them's the breaks. A rules a rule.
Unless you don't like the outcome, and you're the host.
Trump calling FIFA's president, enabling/forcing a reversal, and then taking a victory lap turns a refereeing dispute into proof that Americans abuse power to bend the rules. Fair or not, the optics confirm the swaggering, rule-bending American stereotype.
So now the wins will be a bit less authentic for the US, we'll eventually not win the tournament, and we will have confirmed that even though we're not so bad a host as most would assume (wonder why?), we don't play by the rules, whine whenever we don't like something, and only ever care about ourselves.
This was our chance to embrace the world, and instead Trump reinforced everything they already thought about us... and FIFA (which is sort of low-grade Epstein association).
It's not without precedent - there was a reprieve that Portugal's Ronaldo received, but that red card was received during a qualifying round last fall, and carried a three-game suspension. But it was reduced to one game with the other two suspensions deferred to a later time, which allowed him to play in the first round of the World Cup. But it apparently has not been done in the midst of a World Cup tournament since the early 1960s. No one wins from this decision.
The worst thing is that there probably were a lot of people, outside of the US, who were rooting for the US team, since many of their players play in European leagues, or for other reasons, but now it seems as if almost everyone will be rooting for Belgium tonight. Your last sentence is sadly true.
The biggest irony, is that Trump went through all of this for a player who is a birth-right citizen of the US, and grew up entirely in the UK.
For starters: I agree that the red card against Balogun in the US vs. Bosnia game was harsh, but it was a decision that was made and enforced. Them's the breaks. A rules a rule.
Unless you don't like the outcome, and you're the host.
Trump calling FIFA's president, enabling/forcing a reversal, and then taking a victory lap turns a refereeing dispute into proof that Americans abuse power to bend the rules. Fair or not, the optics confirm the swaggering, rule-bending American stereotype.
So now the wins will be a bit less authentic for the US, we'll eventually not win the tournament, and we will have confirmed that even though we're not so bad a host as most would assume (wonder why?), we don't play by the rules, whine whenever we don't like something, and only ever care about ourselves.
This was our chance to embrace the world, and instead Trump reinforced everything they already thought about us... and FIFA (which is sort of low-grade Epstein association).
If Mauricio Pochettino has any class he will keep Balogun on the bench for the whole game.
For starters: I agree that the red card against Balogun in the US vs. Bosnia game was harsh, but it was a decision that was made and enforced. Them's the breaks. A rules a rule.
Unless you don't like the outcome, and you're the host.
Trump calling FIFA's president, enabling/forcing a reversal, and then taking a victory lap turns a refereeing dispute into proof that Americans abuse power to bend the rules. Fair or not, the optics confirm the swaggering, rule-bending American stereotype.
So now the wins will be a bit less authentic for the US, we'll eventually not win the tournament, and we will have confirmed that even though we're not so bad a host as most would assume (wonder why?), we don't play by the rules, whine whenever we don't like something, and only ever care about ourselves.
This was our chance to embrace the world, and instead Trump reinforced everything they already thought about us... and FIFA (which is sort of low-grade Epstein association).
The current administration has apparently never heard of the Barbra Streisand effect.
I was in front of those signs last week, and the number of protestors outnumbers the number of visitors. Instead of having people read the boards (which most don't), they are now confronted with voices declaring that Washington held slaves on that site.
This is such a foolish thing to focus on... to the surprise of no-one.
