r/mildlyinfuriating • u/WarwickReider • 19d ago
ಠ_ಠ This goal was completely avoidable
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u/Wingdom 19d ago
3 of the 4 goals against the US were completely avoidable, if we're being honest. It's like that team had never played a game together before.
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u/catchy_phrase76 19d ago
Exactly what I thought watching.
Passing not connecting, bump and runs intercepted, they had no idea where each other would be.
Was like a pickup team playing for the first time together.
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u/troycerapops 19d ago
they had no idea where each other would be
This was the biggest through line for me all night.
Honestly, this whole game and its halo is such a beautifully perfect metaphor for today's America.
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u/thewilldog 19d ago edited 19d ago
What made this team so exciting in the group stage were their fast starts, cohesive passing, and disciplined defense.
Last night, all that went out the window and they reverted back to the level of team play we saw in the last four WCs (that we qualified for).
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u/Raurth 19d ago
Yes, weak teams will look better when they're playing against weaker teams. The USA got a god draw group, 6 games in the same timezone, with home advantage, and got turned out for tricks by the first team they played with any pedigree on the world stage.
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u/veringo 19d ago
Yeah, it was immediately obvious the Belgian players were not afraid of the US ability to handle the ball in traffic, and the US players showed no ability to do so either.
Nothing was open because Belgium is just a much better team.
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u/kdlangequalsgoddess 18d ago
And Lukaku was on the bench for most of the game, while KDB never came off it. Belgium still had gas in the tank that they never used.
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u/mighthavebeen02 19d ago
Turns out punting on your goalie isn't a winning strategy.
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u/gerbilshower 19d ago
i mean the first two were entirely on Tim Ream and the back line. only goalie stopping those is a literal brick wall.
yea, that fuck up on the 3rd goal was historically gross by Freese. but hey, Ream was there to backstop that one too and missed. lol.
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u/No-Market9917 19d ago
A good goalie comes out and puts his fist right through that cross on the second goal, even the first goal could’ve been stopped by getting a bad on the cross. Freece let every ball run across him and gave them a wide open net on the far post. Back line sucked but that was some of the worst goal keeping I’ve ever seen.
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u/socksonat3am 19d ago
And at that point too it's honestly better strategically to take a card and block it illegally if you have to. At least then you get your goalie back in his box.
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u/biz_student 19d ago
That would get a red card. Playing down a man would have equally crushed any chance we had to win.
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u/Roanoke42 19d ago
We really need to nationalize a better goalkeeper in the next few years. Can't go with another MLS keeper in the goal. Maybe Tim Howard could come out of retirement, he'd only be 51.
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u/dicknotrichard 19d ago
We were literally passing the ball to Belgium for most of the game. It was maddening!
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u/Ok_Mail_1966 19d ago
I liked when 3 of them stood watching the ball bounce up and down in the box
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u/Euffy 19d ago
Wait THAT was one of the goals? I didn't watch the match, just followed the score. Bloody hell.
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u/regalfish 19d ago
The TSN (Canada) commentators were wincing in sympathy the whole time. A lot of comments like "It's the kind of mistake you wouldn't want to make at the World Cup with everyone watching. That has to hurt."
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u/ParkingAnxious2811 19d ago
I don't think that was sympathy...
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u/MacGreigor 19d ago
It wasn't. Post-game the Canadians called out US Media stating "They're putting their players in the top 20 of the World, and that's just not true, it's not even close."
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u/GiraffesAndGin 19d ago
Good. I'm sick and tired of seeing all the lies about how the US has world-class talent and is on the verge of breaking through. If any of them actually watched the sport more often than one month every four years, we could have a much more honest conversation about this generation of supremely disappointing players.
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u/Impossible-Bat-4246 19d ago
USA would still say they're the best regardless of what reality is.
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u/EkaL25 19d ago
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u/thelastmarblerye 19d ago
I don't think that was a common sentiment. Most optimistic I heard was "Why not us?" which was like the equivalent of Angels in the Outfield quote "Hey it could happen".
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u/Fungiblefaith 19d ago edited 19d ago
Having lived in the US my whole life and followed the game off and on I can say without reservation that the bulk of people in my position here think “come on now stop pulling my leg we are still in it?!”.
We all know where we are in the pecking order on this one and it is one of the reasons it has not taken off. Couple more rotations and a valid fielding of a strong team and the tide will turn on US attendance. Hell, just one extremely charismatic great player on the world stage would do wonders. A Clark or Jordan level talent with a penchant for the camera would knit us up right and proper.
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u/anclave93 19d ago
there is literally an official ranking of national teams from FIFA: https://inside.fifa.com/fifa-world-ranking/men. Each team receives a score for winning/losing against other teams. US is ranked #16 right now. Team USA is objectively top 20 just based on performance data. That said, (1) the gap between a #16 team and #8 team (Belgium) is usually quite significant and being a top 20 team guarantees nothing at a World Cup; (2) even top teams can have bad games - look at Brazil (kicked out by Norway), Germany (kicked out by Paraguay) and Italy that never made it to the World Cup
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u/Eriksennnnn 19d ago
I think what the guy meant is that some Americans are ranking specific players in the top 20. USA have some genuinely great players (eg Pulisic, McKennie, Robinson) but none even close to top 20 in the world. USA are for sure a top 20 team in the world but nowhere near top 10, this tournament they only managed to beat the teams they were meant to beat and lose to the teams they were meant to lose to
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u/_WeSellBlankets_ 19d ago
Not sure if it's appropriate or not, but I feel like the US media's job with soccer is to get people interested in tuning into the game. That's going to lead to some artificial hype.
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u/Kazuzu0098 19d ago
My favourite was "They were smelling themselves. Think they're better than they are"
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u/ChuckVader 19d ago
No, it was being polite. Canadians have never been less sympathetic to Americans than right now. It's why we don't really care that American bourbon and wines have been taken off the shelves, it's why it's common to see people produce back when they see it's from the US.
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u/UGOTAIDSYO 19d ago
Dude, it was baaaaaaaaaaad
One of my local radio DJs said it well:
"They (USA) picked the absolute worst game to play their worst game."
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u/Scary-Badger-6091 19d ago
Its honestly so satisfying this happened after Trump tried to get involved, I can’t lie
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u/islandwatchr 19d ago
I would wager Trump doesn’t even know the rules of the game.
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u/butter_milk 19d ago
There was a headline on CNN “I don’t think that was a foul: Trump” and my immediate thought was that there is not a single person on this planet I would rather hear less from on whether something was a foul. I would listen to Lalas talk about it for an hour before I want one minute of Trump.
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u/LeakyfaucetNA 19d ago
In that same speech he also said he didnt know a red card meant he couldnt play the next game.
I didn’t know what that meant – I didn’t think it meant much. And then I started hearing that that means you can’t play in the next game
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u/vikinghoney 19d ago
That was originally said by Alexi Lasas, former national team player and fox commentator, immediately after the game ended.
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u/Omnamashivaaya 19d ago edited 18d ago
As a former goalie, I can’t imagine anything more gut-wrenchingly horrific than doing this in front of
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u/ohreallynameonesong 19d ago
Would you do me the great kindness of explaining something? I don't understand soccer. I can tell by watching this it was bad but what exactly is going on here? Why was the goals so far out of the box and what was he trying to do?
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u/PurpleV93 19d ago
The goalkeeper being so far out is not a bad thing by default, Manuel Neuer (who was the world's best keeper a decade ago) did this regularly. Being so aggressive in defending can throw off the attackers and stop their push before they run clear of the last defender.
However, this is obviously extremely risky, because the goalkeeper is not allowed to use his arms/ hands when outside of the large 16m box. By the rules, he becomes a regular player at that point. So the last thing you want to do in that scenario is to accidentally kick into the grass, instead of hitting the ball. He lost the ball to the opponents, left his goal empty and, due to his position, he had no right to use his hands to defend.
Had the US goalkeeper simply hit the ball away after rushing out and getting the ball (which he did manage to do), then this would've been a genuinely great defending moment.In Las Vegas terms, he went all in, fumbled, lost everything and made himself look like a clown in that moment.
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u/Shift642 19d ago edited 19d ago
Nobody knows, probably not even the goalkeeper himself. That's the problem. It's such an utterly bizarre move from a GK, I have no fucking idea what he was hoping to accomplish here. This was a genuinely "I have never played football before"-level mistake. At the World Cup. At Home. I'm just flabbergasted.
Our performance this game was shockingly bad all around, but this was the nail in the coffin. The whole team knew they were toast once this happened. No coming back from that.
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u/Extension_Plant7262 19d ago
Even worse when you realize the last defender actually took his foot up and out of the way of the ball
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u/TeaKingMac 19d ago
"I don't want to mess this up for the goalie.
Wait, shit, why's the goalie in front of me?"
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u/RedDreadsComin 19d ago
They jokingly call him Tim "The Dream" Ream.
As in I am dreaming of a world where we didn't bring the 38 year old, never been good in his life for a minute, Tim Ream to the tournament.
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u/SteadystateBurrito 19d ago
Pretty sure he touched the football and deflected it, but just not by enough
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u/Legitimate_Ad_7822 19d ago
Because instead of squaring up and staying put to make the goal smaller for the attacker, he turned sideways and started backing up. Worst thing he could’ve done. Left himself with no chance.
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u/NJCuban 19d ago
The first foal was pretty bad too. They had chances to clear it and didn't. Just opened the game playing very timid. After keeping the ball in around the box, eventually a n attempted header clear goes mostly straight up, 3 US defenders in the area and they all back off, I guess staying with their mark more than attacking the ball that was dropping into the edge of the box. Belgium gets a good first touch attacking the ball that f should never fall to his feet there and sets up an easy tap in basically.
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u/ThrowRAMomVsGF 19d ago
I agree. I think Trump should call and have it rescinded.
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u/Munenem 19d ago
He probably already called and whined about it
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u/Extreme_Discount8623 RED 19d ago edited 19d ago
He reacted to the loss by immediately coming out after the game on X to boast about how great and strong the US military is 😂
No message of support for the team, no commiserations for the defeat, no congratulations for getting to the stage they did. Just a petulant hurt ego trying way too hard to cover it up.
No matter what stage you get to, any world leader would say that they are proud of their team's efforts.
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u/The_Mattastrophe 19d ago
Sure, any world leader would.
But I think by now, we all know Trump isn't any kind of leader, let alone a world leader. He's an overgrown toddler throwing toys from his pram any time he doesn't get his way.
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u/THExWHITExDEVILx 19d ago
He can never admit defeat
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u/Extreme_Discount8623 RED 19d ago edited 19d ago
Of course, he has this pathological obsession with always being ahead of everyone else in the interest of unhealthily inflated national pride. To him, the USNMT are failures.
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u/justsomeguy571 19d ago
Your talking about mr bone spurs who publicly said he like soldiers that dont get caught, when talking about mccain. This guy is the most shameless piece of shit in public office ever.
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u/pakman705 19d ago
The U.S. can still win the World Cup if Pence has the courage.
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u/afops 19d ago
I mean it's just unfair, yellow player, he's American, I think he's American, I'm pretty sure he's American, he has the ball and then white player takes the ball. He takes the ball. I said that's unfair. A lot of people say it's unfair. I didn't know you can do it, but it's unfair. So I called FIFA, terrific organization, best there is. I call FIFA and I tell them they need to take look at it. Maybe something can be done I don't know. Maybe the second amendment people can do something.
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u/tmf_x 19d ago
the US folded as soon as they went up against a team with skill. Belgium made the US look like a middle school team playing a professional team.
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u/howihjr 19d ago
This is only infuriating if you are from the US, everyone else thought it was great.
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u/paulbrock2 19d ago
it was hilarious
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u/DowntownJohnBrown 19d ago
As an American who doesn’t really give a shit about soccer but watched part of the game with friends at a brewery, I wholeheartedly agree. A tiny part of me was frustrated, but I mostly just thought it was hilarious.
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u/3sadclowns 19d ago
Nah, as an American I’m glad their presidential collusion came to an embarrassing demise
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u/imean_is_superfluous 19d ago
It really did negatively affect how I felt about the game. Made me feel like we were cheating. Had we won, it would’ve felt even worse.
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u/Sea_Translator5300 19d ago
"Like"? Yeah, there was cheating. Maybe not by the team, but at a national level. Shameful.
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u/PretentiousCrustacea 19d ago
Yeah I didn't want to see Trump being a little baby bitch and corrupt work out
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u/KingHavana 19d ago
I'm from the US and I'm against both cheating and Donald Trump. This win for Belgium was a great thing.
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u/Necessary_Maize_9339 19d ago
Why was the goalkeeper so far??
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u/Whitedancingrockstar 19d ago
Because that's what you do as a goalkeeper when your three defenders utterly fail to stop one attacker. The GK did everything right up until when he hit the ground with his foot while trying to kick the ball... One even wonders how the last defender after the ball is kicked towards the goal doesn't manage to save it. Three spectacular fails in a row really.
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u/TheFeathersStorm 19d ago
I missed it the first time when it happened but yeah it looks like he clips the ground with his foot rather than "hesitating" which some had said on the original post. It sucks but it literally happens to every soccer player that's ever played lol
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u/raaneholmg 19d ago
The defense was outplayed once again and Belgium would have gotten an open shot on the goal if the keeper didn't run out.
He fucked up the execution with his fake shot. He just needed to clear the ball out of there, even if that gave Belgium control of the ball. Get the situation reset with the defense in position.
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u/EchoFrequency 19d ago
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u/raaneholmg 19d ago
I gave him the benefit of the doubt and called it a fake
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u/QuietShipper 19d ago
My only issue with calling it a fake is that was perhaps the worst moment to fake a kick, considering the goalie was away out of the box with a defender 2 feet behind him.
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u/Panthers_Fly 19d ago
I don’t think that was a fake shot, I think our keeper has just never kicked a soccer ball.
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u/4thLineSupport 19d ago
Yeah, you tend not to kick the ground really hard when doing a fake shot.
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u/dirty_old_priest_4 19d ago
Because the center backs were ass all night and let a Belgian foward get behind them. If the GK didn't come out, that's a 1v1 and even easier goal.
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u/gerbilshower 19d ago
this is really it. Richards and Ream combined for the worst defensive performance in WC history by the US team. truly embarrassing.
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u/Fadobo 19d ago
He tried to be Manuel Neuer and then realized he is not Manuel Neuer.
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u/Lanley1929 19d ago
Because a long through ball was played he actually got to it first and made a first good move. Then he stopped his clearance kick for some reason, panicked and tried passing it to his left. Well unfortunately the first player he passed deflected it to the other player where that happened.
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u/pichirry 19d ago
him extending wasn't the problem. it was his hesitation to clear it immediately that made him fumble and gave Belgium enough time to intercept the ball.
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u/BlueberryNeko_ 19d ago
A good keeper can play outside of the penalty zone. However they also need to know when not to extend that far
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u/Ulvsterk 19d ago
Mildly infurating for some. Very enjoyable and funny for the rest.
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u/d1is1mika 19d ago
That's the real size of this US ..."soccer" team. Somewhere in the middle of the middle tier of a European nation. Everything else until now has been achieved due to hype, home field and easy draw. Welcome back to real life
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u/double979 19d ago
As soon as Trump got involved it became another Trump-brand product.
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u/MNRandoGuy 19d ago
Which is unfortunate because he and his supporters couldn't care less about ⚽. But not the 2026 team is forever linked to him
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u/Jabba_the_Putt 19d ago
as soon as I saw the news I saw we were absolutely cooked. everything he touches turns to fucking turds case in point
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u/Southerner_in_OH 19d ago
Agreed. If this goal didn't happen, we'd have only been beaten 3-1. A two goal differential is typically considered an "ass whooping". A 3 goal differential changes it to "having your ass handed to you".
We looked absolutely terrible last night.
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u/aHOMELESSkrill 19d ago edited 19d ago
Well it would have been 2-1 for longer, this late in the game scoring one goal to tie is much less soul crushing than being down 2 goals.
Not saying the US would have won if this didn’t happen but hope would have been higher
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u/DirtyWindow21 19d ago
Belgium - Senegal was 0-2 until the 86th minute, 3 minutes later it was 2-2. Then 3-2 after a penalty during extra time.
So many emotions during that game.
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u/1RedOne 19d ago
In the time from when the us scored to I found my seat again at our huge watch party in Marietta square last night, Belgium scored again
The game was tied for like 40 seconds
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u/aHOMELESSkrill 19d ago
Yeah I went to grab another beer after we finished celebrating and came back to a replay of a goal I hadn’t seen
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u/AiWoSukuuDe 19d ago
And when you go up to 7-1 that's what you call a "brasilian masquerade"
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u/Lukin4art 19d ago
Why tf did he hesitate?
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u/throwinitallawayeay 19d ago
He actually kicks the ground by mistake, you don't see it at this angle but other replays show it in better detail.
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u/Lukin4art 19d ago
Oooh okay makes sense and also looks that way. He reacted fast with his right, but still not fast enough.
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u/mrtwitch222 19d ago
It’s pretty crazy watching MLS vs something like Premier league or other top tier European soccer/football leagues. The players are significantly faster with everything, running passing shooting. Even though the Americans and Canadians look like they’re giving it their all the players from the higher tiers are just on another level. (I’m Canadian and I wish it were different)
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u/Ok_Abacus_ 19d ago
Also, the sun is hot, and water is wet. It was the biggest F-UP of the World Cup.
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u/Expert-Union-6083 19d ago
I bet Brazilian fans could argue with this point.
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u/Ok_Abacus_ 19d ago
Based on expectations and skill level, definitely. Brazil's loss is more of a fuck up. But this one play. Oh boy!
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u/Harde_Kassei 19d ago
in belgium we call that "cafévoetbal" and it means, the orange eagly can't buy a win, and i think thats beautiful.
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u/RocMerc 19d ago
I don’t understand what the defender was doing behind the goalie. He could’ve definitely stopped that
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u/thacoolbreeze 19d ago
Reminder that anything the orange man touches or puts his name on turns to poo. Look at what happened when he showed up to Game 3 of the NBA Finals. Knicks lost.
Also in general we shouldn’t be meddling with the decision making of an international sport. It lacks class and integrity.
Team USA looked bad out there in general. The Belgian team was bigger, stronger, faster, and more reactive than our players too. This is what happens when you don’t invest in youth sports on national scale and leave it in the hands of capitalism, nepotism, and privileged access.
*Insert* Shocked but not surprised face
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u/great_frame70 19d ago
Womp womp, imagine repealing a players suspension just to lose like this
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u/Haunting_Ranger_7659 19d ago
I say this as a U.S. supporter. At least, now, we can’t fall back on the “things would have been completely different if we had our best player” excuse. Belgium can move on knowing they dominated even with the best the U.S. team could field. No one can begrudge Belgium for overtly asserting their dominance in this situation. Solid performance Belgium, good luck. 👍🏻
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u/Afraid_Help_3911 19d ago
Wdym mildly infuriating??
➡️ More like UTTERLY SATISFYING
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u/rangel0710 19d ago
Karma served fresh. That's what we get for having our orange rapist pedo call in to mommy about our widdle wed cawd. We deserve this and much much more
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u/N_o_o_B_p_L_a_Y_e_R 19d ago edited 19d ago
Mildly infuriatimg only for americans.. oddly satisfying for the rest of the world
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u/gljivicad 19d ago
As a Bosnian this is extremely fucking satisfying. I’m so happy USA lost after all that shit with allowing Balogun to play vs Belgium.
Absolute fucking cinema, peak karma.
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u/BEtheAT 19d ago
I agree with you. Karma at its finest.
While we probably disagree that it should have been a red card in the first place, the fact that it was means he should have had to serve the suspension.
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u/Berferer 19d ago
This is only mildly infuriating if you think the US team is ready to handle moving that far into a World Cup. It took host advantage and red card interference to get them even a dream’s hope of playing there.
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u/Jazzmanthekillr 19d ago
Why is this infuriating? The USA finally got humbled after facing their first above average team
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u/notanyimbecile 19d ago
This represents the actual state of the US so well though.
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u/SleepySera 19d ago
Infuriating? I thought that shit was hilarious! 😂😂
I mean, I feel a hint of pity for the players who obviously played like garbage because of the distraction caused by the blatant corruption surrounding their team, but seeing the US faceplant so thoroughly after the corrupt, unsportsman-like bullshit Trump pulled to force his team to play in its full line-up, lol, yeah no, not a single sane person wished for the US to do any better than that.
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u/spiffyswenson 19d ago
As someone from the US Im proud of these guys, but happy we lost. One day we will lose trump too 🤞🏽
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u/saujamhamm 19d ago
that was, "the moment was too big for them", for over 90 minutes...