There was arguably more anticipation for last night’s Round of 16 tilt in Seattle for the USMNT than any other match in the 96-year history of the World Cup. Anticipation that grew exponentially after all of the shenanignas that played out over the weekend involving a certain bandwagoning fan and his self-proclaimed ability to restore the squad to full strength that would certainly secure a victory. Anticipation that among a disproportionate number of folks who crop up in my timelines was a feverish hope that said victory would be denied.
But as is often the case when newbies jump head-first and blind into conversations some hard and uncomfortable truths emerge. One is that it takes two to tango, and the other is that our team simply wasn’t all that good in the first place.
Let’s tackle the latter revelation first as that qualifies as breaking news. THE ATHLETIC FC’s Nick Miller certainly covered those bases this morning:
Don’t be sad it’s over, be happy it happened. Or maybe the USMNT should ignore the birthday-card wisdom and be grumpy at how their home World Cup ended: a comprehensive 4-1 round-of-16 defeat to Belgium, two of the goals coming from defensive errors, one of which was a goalkeeping horror show by Matt Freese (why did he delay his clearance, above?) and a performance by Folarin Balogun which made the fuss over his participation seem, well, not worth it.
The positive spin on things is that this team made the country not just embrace but love soccer for a few weeks, in a way not really seen before. If you accept they were never going to actually win the thing, and that they would almost certainly be beaten by Spain in the next round anyway…does it matter enormously when they lost? Did Mauricio Pochettino’s team do their job? The answer is… sort of. An exit at this stage is about par for a team of their talents, but in terms of the intangibles of good vibes and attention on this squad and the sport in general, they have still done some good.
But a few minutes later his colleague Chris Branch shared in his morning PULSE newsletter the yans to those yings:
1. A 10-second disaster
It will be hard to forget the seconds I experienced between noticing that my phone had updated the score of last night’s game to 3-1 while my TV was a few seconds behind. Nothing seemed in danger. My phone was glitching, right?
Then, U.S. goalie Matt Freese struggled with a routine ball. It escaped his feet. Hans Vanaken curled it around both Freese and American defender Tim Ream for an easy goal. Instead of an uphill-yet-manageable 2-1 game, any realistic chance of winning went poof just an hour in. Just look at this:
2. A week’s worth of shouting for nothing
The reinstatement of Folarin Balogun quite literally became an international political incident. President Donald Trump spoke loudly about it over the last two days. FIFA had to defend itself against a chorus of boos. A rejuvenated American squad got its top scorer back, just in time for the host country to make a deeper World Cup run than ever before.
And then Balogun barely touched the ball last night. He had just one shot on goal, which came far too late. It wasn’t all his fault; the entire U.S. team was listless in a bad first half, and Balogun didn’t have many chances. It still felt like a massive letdown after such a fuss.
And that might have been enough of a reality check to remind those who had all but willed this result into existence that despite delusional claims to the contrary there were other parties involved with histories of their own that made this much ado about nothing even before the first kick. For one, star players having red cards revoked is something FIFA willingly gave its blessing on mere months before, as Athlon Sports’ Yagya Bhargava reminded his readers yesterday:
On November 13, (Cristiano) Ronaldo was sent off against Ireland after catching John O’Shea with an elbow. He served the automatic one-match ban against Armenia a few days later, but FIFA’s Disciplinary Committee still had to weigh in on whether additional punishment was needed.
Under FIFA regulations, per reports by Mundo Deportivo, violent conduct offenses including elbowing, punching, kicking, biting, spitting or striking an opponent typically carry at least a three-match ban. On November 25, the committee went a different route. It acknowledged the automatic suspension already served and then suspended the remaining two-match ban for two years, invoking Article 27 of the FIFA Disciplinary Code, on the condition that Ronaldo stayed out of further trouble.
So maybe America’s Newest Soccer Fan was already planting his seed in loam already more fertile than he may have known.
And two, do bone up on what yet another ATHLETIC contributor, Tariq Panja, wrote back on May 24th regarding how FOX wound up with the chance to break all of these records in the first place. Suffice to say that “noble” peace prize awarded Gianni Infantino can give his donee more than a run for his money when it comes to making shady deals that theoretically yield benefits.
So for those of you who were so giddily wishing for karma, you got your wish. But not necessarily for the schmo so many of you prayed for. FOX is now stuck with an Elite Eight schedule that’s a lot less attractive to casual fans–though the fact that the true global stars like Kylian Mbappe, Harry Kane and Erling Haaland (and, if chalk holds later, the GOAT Lionel Messi) are all moving on will give the real fans something significant to see. Ronaldo? He also bowed out yesterday–possibly for good–after a tense and heartbreaking 1-nil loss to the Spaniards.
Things do have a funny way of working out, don’t they?
Courage…