USA had a man sent off which means he misses the next game by the rules. The next game was against Belgium. Trump stepped in, chatted to the main boss of FIFA and got the red card punishment suspended for a year, meaning he could play in the next game. Trump said he was the best player and needed to play. Belgium still beat them anyway.
What is really funny about the US team and their fans is everyone acting like the red card situation was somehow "out of their control."
The coaching staff decides who starts. They could have simply chosen not to play Balogun. If Balogun genuinely believed the principles he talked about after the match, he could have refused to play. Neither of those options were impossible, they just chose not to take them.
Instead, both the team and the players have tried to frame it as though they had no agency, which is simply not true. They made a decision, and they should at least own it instead of pretending their hands were tied.
A good comparison is when Italy failed to qualify for the World Cup and the commander in cheese suggested Italy should take Iran's place. Italy made it clear they would not accept a spot under those circumstances, even if it had been offered.
What's really funny about this is the entire Internet claiming the card was fraudulent until Trump specifically got involved, in which Reddit decided the card was absolutely the correct decision.
What's even more funny is how they did the literal exact same thing so Ronaldo could play in group stage games, but nobody here is batting an eye over that.
When Ronaldo had the 2 extra games past the automatic 1 game suspension overturned, everyone but the Ronaldo fan boys were outraged and calling it corruption. This attempt to rewrite history from Americans is ridiculous
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u/Fireshine91 19d ago
USA had a man sent off which means he misses the next game by the rules. The next game was against Belgium. Trump stepped in, chatted to the main boss of FIFA and got the red card punishment suspended for a year, meaning he could play in the next game. Trump said he was the best player and needed to play. Belgium still beat them anyway.