As an American who has cheered his whole life for the American team and has hoped they would eventually get good enough to win the World Cup, this would make me so sad. However, as an adult who hates how corrupt FIFA is and how disgusting Trump is, I actually do want to see it. I want this World Cup to have the biggest, brightest, most obnoxious asterisk next to it. I want everyone to know how awful this one was. In previous World Cups, the refs have bent over backward to screw over the US, because most of the world hates the US. Now I want the whole world to blow up FIFA and start fresh for having the temerity to force the US to win.

You are confusing reckless with careless. A red is either because of violent/intentional play or because of reckless play. Reckless is throwing your whole body at the play knowing there is a chance you seriously hurt someone. Careless is moving naturally without knowledge that your movement might hurt someone. In this play, Balogun is moving to the side through the air and needs to put his foot down somewhere. The other player is also moving through the air to the side but slightly from behind. His foot kicks Balogun’s foot, changing its trajectory, then his foot moves to the new location where Balogun’s foot is going to land.

Just because his foot lands on an ankle does not make it go to a red. The other player put his foot in the path of Balogun’s. That moves it from reckless down to careless.

Except a red needs to either have intent behind it or have very reckless play behind it. This was just one player being in the air while another player moves his leg into the space where the first player would be landing. That isn’t reckless. You can call it careless for leaving the ground and not having a clear space to land, but reckless needs to have more behind it.

Yes, a Red is about lunging at an opponent with excessive force in challenging for the ball. That is not what happened. He was moving sideways through the air and needed to put his foot down somewhere. His opponent was also moving sideways through the air and put his foot down in front of where Balogun was going to. If you watch the video, you can even see that the other player kicked Balogun’s foot FIRST, which changed the trajectory of Balogun’s leg, then put his leg in front of Balogun’s foot.

Sure, call it a yellow for careless play in being in the air without full control. But this was not reckless or violent.

Exactly what you said. FIFA removed Ronaldo’s 2 game suspension for no stated reason before the tournament, so this is not just Trump fixing it for the US. This is FIFA having no integrity from the beginning.

The red was very harsh. The VAR protocol was broken in giving the red. Belgium has been playing like shit.

And as incredibly sad as it has made me to miss the first World Cup in my country since I’ve been an adult, I’m boycotting it because I am not OK with looking away from their shittiness.

Most experts say it was very harsh and probably should not have been a Red.

The thing is, FIFA put in rules that the Red could not be overturned. They removed the appeal process. What FIFA should have done was say there was a VAR protocol error (there actually was), which invalidates the procedure to give the Red. They didn’t take that easy out. Instead they make it completely obvious that this was corruption and not a mistake.

Exactly. This is just like a billionaire CEO intervening to help an employee win a court case if that employee is important enough to the success of the company. That same CEO would happily throw that person under the bus if the profits would go up by doing so.

Trump would happily have this young man skinned alive if it would mean “his team” wins the next game.

I mean, Arsenal is owned by an American. But to your point, Balogun grew up in London and only happened to be born in the US due to airlines not allowing his mom to fly back to their home in London that late into her pregnancy. He has never lived in nor played in the US outside of international games.

I will excitedly open up a nice Belgian beer, regardless of the results of the match. It’s just a solid decision.

Might I suggest an ABT 12 or Pavel Kwak?

Unclear what Donny specifically tried to do, other than generally getting the player available for the next game. They didn’t overturn the Red or say there was a VAR protocol error, both of which would have been legitimate excuses that FIFA chose not to use.

Me: “I wonder what kind of people these are who think the Catholic church is too liberal.”

Them: Neo-Nazis

Me: “Yeah, that tracks.”

Also, this line made me laugh for how true it is: “We consider every punishment and censure brought to bear against this step will have no validity.”

The match was in Seattle. FIFA knew shit would go down if they told Seattleites to NOT fly rainbow flags. Portlanders would have driven (well, more likely rode their impractically designed bikes) up to Seattle to help protest.

China is doing the same thing the US did for decades, which is giving out loans to developing countries to pay US/Chinese companies to build infrastructure that they may not fully need, and then using the spiraling debt repayment as leverage to exert pressure for those countries to give US/China favorable trade deals.

Yes, those countries get immediate benefits, but it is unclear whether the long-term results are positive or negative.

No. Iran can’t win it for two reasons. First is that they aren’t as good as any of the top teams. They are a good team, don’t get me wrong, but nowhere near even the top 20. The second is that FIFA is corrupt as fuck and wouldn’t let Iran even sniff a semi-final match.

I know this is probably considered cruelty to animals, but a part of me thinks, “wouldn’t the ferrets fucking love this?”

Please describe any way that this story helps the US. This is saying Iranians are unhappy that a deal universally described as terrible for the US is still not good enough for Iran.

It’s all over the map. Tons of in-fighting between people pissed off that we aren’t continuing to kill brown people (“terrorism is in their DNA” is a direct quote), pissed off that we spent all that money and time and got nothing of value in return, pissed off that it makes Trump look bad, pissed off that the media is not portraying all the “wins” from this war, pissed off that the Republicans once again gave into Democrats’ demands (seriously), and pissed off that they are being brigaded by fake conservatives since this was a huge win for Trump.

I’m pretty sure the deal requires Israel to stop bombing Lebanon. Which is interesting, since it forces Conservatives here to choose between their two favorite things: killing brown people and making money.