No one thinks they weren't or aren't better, but on a good day we could absolutely hang with them.

For a variety of reasons, that last match wasn't our day.

Who?mikejones! said:

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zgolfz85 said:

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Who?mikejones! said:

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zgolfz85 said:

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You can argue in this echo chamber all you want. I'm telling you what the globe is saying.

Still amazes me how many of you guys think it was appropriate for POTUS to call in a red card review. Like do yall hear what you're saying?

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No one here cares bro. The world is welcome to theor clown opinions.


It's is beyond hilarious that people think overturning a red card given in error is the problem and not the giving of the red card or lack of review thereof.

Doesn't matter in the end. Belgium exploited our weaknesses and we didn't have the competency to deal with it. I suspect trump didnt have anything to do with the outcome since it was a repeat of an outcome from a recent game with them.

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I care. Most people outside of this weird TexAgs vacuum care. Belgium might ultimately be the better side, but we lost that match IMO mentally before we ever put boot to grass.

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Belgium is the better side. See every result we've ever played them in.

You've have an unhealthy obsession with what the world thinks. It's irrelevant

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It's not about what the world thinks. It's about what happened and what we witnessed with our own eyes. If you think that what we saw the other night would be the same with or without the Balo drama, then let's just end the back and forth here, because there's no point. I'd walk away thinking you're either dumb af, stubborn af or blind at though.

Guess you think the Kyle Allen/kyler/sumlin cluster**** also had no impact on that season either. Would it blow your mind if I told you off the field drama often impacts results in sports. You can say our guys are too soft if it had that drastic of an impact, but you can't argue the fact that off field drama rears its head in every sport in every season and in every tournament.

None of the times we've played them since 1930. Our last world cup was our best effort but belgium dominated thay game and only a magical effort from tim howard gave us a real opportunity to steal a win. There's nothing to suggest we should have beat them this time.

They just beat us 5-2 only 3 months ago.

We couldn't handle their pressure. They went directly at our back line, which is by far the weakest unit in the field. It surely didn't help we forgot how to both receive or make a pass.

Don't really care abiut that though. I'm simply stating that almost no one here cares what the world thinks. They can **** right off

Youre the one who keeps referring to "the world."

I saw a team come out and get dominated. I saw a team that couldn't live up to the pressure. I've seen it happen thousands of times across multiple sports., no presidential pardon needed.

Who?mikejones! said:

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None of the times we've played them since 1930. He last world cup was our best effort but belgium dominated thay game and a magical effort from tim howard gave us a real opportunity to steal a win. There's nothing to suggest we should have beat them this time.

They just beat us 5-2 only 3 months ago.

We couldn't handle their pressure. They went directly at our back line, which is bar far the weakest unit in the field. It surely didn't help we forgot how to both receive or make a pass.

Don't really care abiut that though. I'm simply stating that almost no one here cares what the world thinks. They can **** right off

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As someone who gives a **** about the USMNT, you should probably give a **** about what the world thinks…at least if you want the top leagues to keep plucking our guys overseas and respect the way Americans play.

It doesn't matter. Talent matters and we've produced very few players that can play at that level consistently.

Sports leagues, despite an alleged bias against American players, are ultimately a true meritocracy. If you can play, you will play. We just don't produce a lot that can play at the highest levels of European soccer (relative to our size).

Trump butting his way in doesn't change that

And if youre trying to compare the kyle/kyler/drunk sumlin situation to the balogun one you're really reaching at straws

YouBet said:

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"Blazing California sun"

It's 78 degrees. JFC with this fake news heat drama during this entire event.

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Yeah but with 76% humidity it feels like 81.

They walloped us in March and the lineup changes they made coming into this one told you they very much had the book on us

Who?mikejones! said:

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It doesn't matter. Talent matters and we've produced very few players that cannplay at that level consistently.

Sports leagues, despite an alleged bias agaisnt American player, are ultimately a true meritocracy. If you can play, you will play. We just don't produce a lot that can play at the highest levels of European soccer (relative to our size).

Trump butting his way in doesn't change that

And if youre trying to compare the kyle/kyler/drunk sumlin situation to the balogun one you're really reaching at straws

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I'm comparing any off pitch/off field drama as it commonly proves to be relevant. It's kind of the entire premise in drafting players across any sport…how much baggage will they bring, how will they fit in the locker room, what intangibles do they bring. You're seemingly suggesting something that immediately outraged the whole of soccer fandom outside this country had no impact on our play whatsoever….after we had a good showing in the 2 pre tourney friendlies and then throughout the tournament to that point. If we faced France, sure. Belgium is good. Belgium isn't the best side in the history of time, which they showed like on Monday.

I agree talent finds a way to rise to the top no matter what, but to suggest that WC play doesn't mean much is ignorant. Notice how many of the rumors (true or not) have been silenced. We were hearing about teams trying to pluck Freeman from Villarreal, Flo from Monaco and others. The silence is deafening now. Much of that value from the 4 matches leading up to was wiped out by such an embarrassing showing in the round of 16. And I can't be convinced the drama didn't impact our showing.

Not having a healthy Nico Williams has really muted Spain's attack.

Vox Clamantis said:

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YouBet said:

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"Blazing California sun"

It's 78 degrees. JFC with this fake news heat drama during this entire event.

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Yeah but with 76% humidity it feels like 81.

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lol. Oh no!

Who?mikejones! said:

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None of the times we've played them since 1930. Our last world cup was our best effort but belgium dominated thay game and only a magical effort from tim howard gave us a real opportunity to steal a win. There's nothing to suggest we should have beat them this time.

They just beat us 5-2 only 3 months ago.

We couldn't handle their pressure. They went directly at our back line, which is by far the weakest unit in the field. It surely didn't help we forgot how to both receive or make a pass.

Don't really care abiut that though. I'm simply stating that almost no one here cares what the world thinks. They can **** right off

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Belgium and our record specifically against them isn't relevant.

The US is not as good as, but has enough talent and the capacity to beat, a world top 10. We've done it before.

On a match where everything is clicking and we get a break or two, we can absolutely beat Belgium.

Shaq getting ready to come in.

tysker said:

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zgolfz85 said:

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After listening to some pods and respected talking heads across the globe since Monday's abomination of a match by us, it's universally agreed to that the Balogun stuff was a clear distraction. They reference the inconsistency in play sure, but more so the different body language and energy both before, during and especially after the game.

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Maybe a hot take from me compared to a globes worth of mid-IQ soccer pundits, but I would argue Belgium's early aggression resulting in the 9th-minute goal was a bigger driver of game outcome than the pregame Balogun drama.

"energy before the game" may be one of the most specious talking points. It's just so dumb and meaningless

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they punched us in the mouth no doubt, but we just didn't seem to have any of the same energy we'd played with in the 6 matches leading up to that game (including the Senegal and Germany friendlies). I'm not suggesting that without the drama we win the match, but I fully believe we don't get bent over like we did. We watched at a big watch party in a crowded bar, so was hard to hear the audio leading up to match time, but I turned to my buddy when Fox was showing the player walk-ups and didn't like the body language. Whether it was pure nerves, or some distraction, maybe we'll never know. Hopefully someone in that locker room speaks on it in time though. Hopefully we won't have to wait for memoirs like we did with Landon's book to get a lot of the details.

For whatever reason, we were definitely lacking the swagger from our earlier matches.

Balogun drama couldn't have helped.

fig96 said:

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For whatever reason, we were definitely lacking the swagger from our earlier matches.

Balogun drama couldn't have helped.

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I would agree, and instead of the players finding their zen place, overcoming extreme odds like in some Disney movie about reaching your highest potential, the team and the pressure get into their heads, more like Vincent Gambini wondering what other **** could be piled onto the outcome of a soccer match.



But ultimately getting kicked in the teeth within the first 10 minutes in a reversal of the previous swaggerrific matches was too much to overcome. After about 5 minutes, we all kind of appreciated Belgium was at a higher level and it was going to take a 95%+ max capability to win

yeah you're right, it was solely the pressure of the moment and nothing more. it would be insane to even suggest that maybe the distraction played a part as well, even though the team looked like a shell of themselves, looked like the fun had been stripped out of the game and tourney, and that we saw a very awkward pochettino hit the podium like a muppet with a seemingly scripted answer in that oh so awkward presser when asked about the Balogun red card suspension. But sure, it's way more believable that they just collectively all of a sudden forgot how to make simple passes, were routinely out of position, let the most basic of crosses bounce into the box, etc. I mean how could they possibly not be rattled to their cores? I mean, it's Belgium we're talking about here. The Belgium, aka the mightiest football powerhouse in all the land.

ffs. it was a distraction. I don't even understand the argument of saying it wasn't.

redline248 said:

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You know what I care about? Fielding a team full of tough SOBs that will walk on glass to prove everyone wrong instead of one full of a bunch of social media engulfed wankers that can't play like pros if the president takes an interest in their success.

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Good luck with these younger generations. I hate it too.

the next generation is raised by the back half of GenX - we will be fine

The horse is so dead that Romero couldn't do anything with it.

But the thought occurred to me:
Maybe Trump's involvement rattled them.
Maybe the Balogun card situation rattled them.
Maybe being in the round of 16 rattled them.
Maybe the Belgian national anthem rattled them.

The only thing that's consistent across any of those scenarios is that they **** themselves at the starting whistle and played like it for 90 minutes.

U.S. men’s national team forward Folarin Balogun said he knew that his red card suspension being overturned would “cause a lot of controversy” during the World Cup and said he could see it impact his teammates ahead of the round-of-16 loss to Belgium.

More from @PaulTenorio

🔗… pic.twitter.com/rIithvb0XX

— The Athletic | Football (@TheAthleticFC) July 14, 2026

🗣️ "I was happy to be back in the team, but when I started to reflect I knew it was gonna cause a lot of controversy. I could almost see within my teammates a bit of nerves because it was... so unique."

Folarin Balogun on his suspension that wasn't 🇺🇸pic.twitter.com/dYrDmqJzk0

— Men in Blazers (@MenInBlazers) July 14, 2026

TXAggie2011 said:

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U.S. men’s national team forward Folarin Balogun said he knew that his red card suspension being overturned would “cause a lot of controversy” during the World Cup and said he could see it impact his teammates ahead of the round-of-16 loss to Belgium.

More from @PaulTenorio

🔗… pic.twitter.com/rIithvb0XX

— The Athletic | Football (@TheAthleticFC) July 14, 2026

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Well well well….

Soft as socks. This team was never going anywhere

Even though it is likely the truth (that it was a distraction, not that it was to blame which I don't think he is saying) it's a bad answer.

Best to blow it off.

Kinda like Wemby's answers after the Spurs lost. Young guy who doesn't have the experience or maturity to know how to deflect the question.

No love lost for Balogun from me.

Flo also states 'we're all professionals and its not too difficult to separate what's happening,' which is toward the end of the video, so maybe the MiB guys and the Athletic staff didn't get that far before sending out their tweet

you call them soft...who is disagreeing there? is there anyone under the age of 30 in the social media era who isn't soft?

The guys went from being worshipped to hated overnight and couldn't handle it. Couple that with the expectations put on them that it was QF appearance or bust and they imploded. But, to say it wasn't a distraction is just silly.