Casual sports observers often wonder why the sport of Soccer has never been successful in the United States. This story is a big picture example of exactly why.
The country of Belgium is filing an appeal with FIFA World Cup organizers to stop the United States from playing the game of soccer with their best players. You just cannot make this stuff up, folks.
Only in the sport of EU soccer can a bureaucratic agency file a parliamentary objection with the intent to force the official bureaucratic agents of the soccer administration, FIFA, to block a team from fielding their best players – because the business of the bureaucracy is more important than sportsmanship.
SEATTLE (AP) — The Belgian soccer federation is demanding explanation from FIFA about a decision to let U.S forward Folarin Balogun play at the World Cup despite getting a red card in his previous game.
Belgium takes on the United States later Monday for a spot in the quarterfinals.
The Belgian federation said it has still not received either “FIFA’s decision or any explanation regarding this matter. In these circumstances, it has no choice but to challenge the player’s eligibility for the upcoming match.” {LINK}
Here comes the really funny part. All the soccer nations continue to be befuddled why soccer has never made progress within the American sport psyche. Think about it.
Soccer is a ‘sport system’ bureaucratically designed to fail when contrast to a brutally honest American perspective on sport.
Soccer succeeding in America is the inverse to Liberty succeeding worldwide.
Soccer is the United Nations of sports.
If soccer ever to succeeds in America, the United States is lost forever!
Love this line. Soccer is boring. If soccer ever to succeeds in America, the United States is lost forever!
“No Scotland, No Party”.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/IttxqFMBa4Q
I am happy that they overturned the suspension, and will root for team USA, but the only reason why soccer is as popular as it is, is because it doesn’t require much to have a game – a ball, a net, and an empty field. It is a poor man’s game, perfectly suited for countries filled with poor men.
But as a spectator sport it leaves much to be desired. 99.9% wasted effort, only 2-3% actual action, hardly any scoring, and a snooze fest as soon as one team gets up a point or two….well at least until the last minute when the goalie leaves the net to up the chance of a score from 0.01% to 0.1%.
Add a shot clock, remove the offside rule and then it might be interesting. Now its a lot like watching golf or (sorry) baseball which I find extremely boring to watch
My recommendation – make the net bigger, or put a size limit on the goalies like they do on jockeys.
Baseball is the greatest sport in the world, Charles.
I used to think the same. I was a football and basketball player growing up.
My son played those sports with me from toddler up and one day he said he wanted to try baseball. Ok with me but I was surprised because we had never even played catch in the yard.
I learned to love the game learning it as my son played and kept moving up.
The more I learned the more I liked the game.
It is a GREAT teacher of dealing with failure and being persistent in improving!
Sports successful in the U.S. demands more coordination….we use our hands.
Add an overabundance of weird rules. I’m in my mid=70s, an avid sports enthusiast/player/occasional coach for about 90% of my life, and I still don’t understand some things. Plus that single referee on the biggest athletic field in the world has to rely too much on his own judgement, when it is impossible to watch that huge feel and 22 players all the time, especially when multiple viewing angles are often needed on the spot to call foul or no foul. And that single referee on the field too often seems not every bright, especially when he looks at replays. (And the TV announcers, this year at least, have often seemed just as dimwitted as some of the referees.)
Just like that decision to red-flag Balogun, it was obvious from the start that it was purely unintentional, so it was no surprise when a committee overruled the red flag. Which is one small thing that I appreciate, that soccer allows that.
Same with that red flag last night against England, it was obvious the guy was falling and, just as I remember doing more than once in the heat of play, he lost his judgement as he went 100% horizontal while still moving into the other player. That was an accident too. Yellow flag worst case, best case just play on.
But I can easily imagine that TDS will help tip the scale toward Belgium, and Balogun will be watching the rest of the team play tonight.
Like all major televised events you can tell how boring a sport is by their use of messaging. When you watch soccer they will show you in commercial format how fans are supposed to act. They will highlight that after a goal you, as a fan, need to go batcrap wild and act like a total fool as if this was the most important event in the history of your life. You will see that behavior emulated in the crowd by people who have obviously never watched soccer previously. They are the idiots going insane over a goal. This contrasts against the more diehard fans who will be cheering, clapping and shouting but not like insane banshees.
Personally I watch soccer via the 15 minute highlights on Youtube. I can then scan forward to more important points, see the outcome and move on with my life. no need to stay glued to a 2 hour festival of passing and drama.
Regarding refereeing Soccer is exactly like Basketball… men acting like 3 year olds when a person taps their shoulder. Very annoying.
It’s a poor man’s sport?! I wish someone could square that with the amount of money I was told was necessary to spend on cleats, travel club fees, school team fees, fundraisers, two meniscus surgeries, 5 E.R. visits, shin guards and other equipment through three soccer playing children!
It was a poor man’s sport as kids many years ago in Scotland no cleats, a ball often deflated and misshapen.
Coats on the ground for goal posts.
great times..
It might be a bit less boring if that huge playing field was a good deal smaller, maybe no larger than the size of an American football field.
Watching soccer is little more than watching a bunch of guys running up and down and all over and around that huge field and not much of anything else happening. Makes boring an understatement.
ZZZZZZ
Would like to seecountries have to have players on their teams that are citizens of their country. I want Americans to win for America. I do not consider it a win if not by Proud-to-be-Americans. It is embarrassing and humiliating and demeaning to buy the win.
I think that’s why the winning streak that the Croatians had some years ago was such a sensation: because their team was all Croat players. If memory serves, FIFA responded by rearranging their game schedule to wear them down, resulting in their ultimately losing to France’s team of African mercenaries.
I will say this. After the last win, the American team, players, coaches, trainers, etc, gathered in the center of the field and were led in prayer by one of the coaches. It was very uplifting for me to see that happen on a world stage!
I think that speaks loudly for who these men are and not so much for the sports organization.
fifa could have just downgraded the red card and said the ref made a mistake..instead they suspended the suspension which only open themselves to more griping from Belgium. The play in question should never have been called a red card. It was a bad VAR.
The foul looked more like getting their feet tangled up and then having gravity and physics take over. Never would’ve been called in real football.
Yes, the BH player attacked from behind and threw his leg around in front of Balogun after he had committed to kick the ball. I think if anyone deserved a penalty it was the BH player for such dangerous play. Thank goodness he was the only one injured.
All the replays deceptively begin only after the leg is already thrown around in front of Balogun. The slow motion replay only shows the point of contact and not which player was being aggressive leading into it.
The VAR has been a farce this tournament. Croatia equalized in the dying seconds of the match against Portugal and it was disallowed because the sensor in the ball detected the ball touched the croats hair as he went for ball thus resetting the offside. His hair made the pass. Utter stupidity.
Exactly. Contrast this with the treatment of Lionel Messi who did the exact thing in his match but was not carded at all. Got to keep the marquee names on the pitch. South American refs looking to punish the Gringos.
The introduction of hydration breaks while controversial have made the last 20 minutes of every match fun to watch. Lots of open flowing attacking play. The Croatia / Portugal match was fantastic.
For the first time in my life, the United States mens team is fun to watch. I hope they win tonight and can pull off a major upset against Spain. That would setup a semi-finals match against France on Bastielle Day. A great day to rain on the French parade.
Like watching paint dry! Wow I am so excited! Is the tournament over yet.? Go Eurowennies!
No worse than baseball. My father used to love it….He could sit in his chair…fall asleep in the second inning, wake up in the 5th, and missed nothing.
Twins fan? lol
What did anyone expect from the European elites. They can’t even beat our Soccer team, so they make up their rules just like they always do in the Goobermint world that predominates in modern Europe. Gutless wonders that rule their fiefdoms like 19th Century plantation owners. When are Europeans going to come in from the fog.
….Or when are the Western European wankers going to just go away….
They cried “wahhhh wahhhh wahhhh”
Pound sannd.
The officiating of “Soccer” not football is just as corrupt as any sport.
A man receives a red card for accidentally hitting a player on the back of his leg yet players in other games have done the same thing without intervention whatsoever.
Soccer sucks and is boring and should go back to the 3rd world.
I never saw the purpose of or the excitement for the most boring waste of time imaginable. I guess it doesn’t take much to entertain some people in some countries.
There is not a professional team sport one can name where there is not flopping as well as other flagrant “acting” fouls.
Further there is not single sport world wide that does not have its share of bad calls, political calls and political decisions that impact the game.
There is not a single team sport league and association, world wide, that is not; highly political, have its social justice BS and include heaps of corruption. FIFA, NBA, NFL, NCAA all have the same BS on-going.
I have played at the club level, amateur and recreation level.
I have coached amateur Soccer on club and recreational levels. It was rewarding to work with the young people who were part of my teams. I never had a team where all of players and their parents did not return season to season.
I played soccer for over 30 years (yep in the 1960’s and 70’s we actually played soccer for fun before the leagues were even formed), all the way up to hanging on until I was over 50 to enjoy 1-season of recreational (indoor and outdoor) co-ed soccer with my 3 daughters. I even played in the lower division club leagues for the German town teams where i was stationed.
It’s fun, great exercise and worth the experience. Just like any sport you learn to play the sport and ignore the BS.
This article and many of the posters here is spouting BS about a topic which they know nothing about .. and turning a blind eye (as the biblical saying goes) to the same “plank in their own eyes”, which exist in the all the sainted sports inside the US.
Yes, the call made vs the Us was harsh but technically NOT WRONG, if the referee saw the foul he assessed was due to WRECKLESS and DANGEROUS Play … there does not have to be any intent to injure or even commit the foul on the part of the player carded. The analogy would be “stick fouls” called in Hockey … a player is responsible for the motion of his stick no matter if intent to foul or injure existed. In looking at the replays, the referee’s call would be based on that referee’s own interpenetration of the actions he saw, even the replay referee did not see enough evidence to overturn the call.
As for the actions of FIFA in overturning the card …. it happens allot in foreign leagues and even the US Leagues … and there are appeals built into the system for both sides of the issue. Geee just like appeals are made to the NFL, NHL and NBA disciplinary boardso ver referees calls.
Anyone who watched the game knew it was an accident. It should have been overturned. FIFA is pretty well known to be corrupt. That’s something we don’t tolerate in the US, even if the punishments sometimes seem weak.
Belgium had to use the excuse that they didn’t get an explanation, because they can’t argue that the call should stand. The video proves it shouldn’t. It’s more BS from a BS league.
Utter nonsense! Played at a good level with many pros ( I wasn’t one) and pros from Europe here in Canada in a beer league.
Coached too at National youth level.
There was no intent to injure, it wasn’t reckless, he wasn’t even looking at anything other than the ball, and simply landed on his ankle.
A Red Card is a massive decision and should never be issued unless absolutely necessary.
Guess what giving a red card man be used by officials to subtlety influence a match.
Cheers!
AGREE 100% totally against the American ethos.
I’m not a fan of the game, but if the rules (yellow/red card) are part of the fouling process of soccer, then it should apply to everyone. I must admit, I did not personally read about the incident, but it was explained to me by someone who grew up in a country where the game is a religion, and based on the schooling of the game and the yellow/red card policy, I don’t think it is fair that, even a president, should have the ability to interfere with the game rules, even if it wasn’t a fair call. We have unfair calls in every sports game all of the time here in the states. I can understand the anger by other teams where their players received a red card and were forced to sit the next game out. FIFA is a very corrupt organization, but rules are the rules. I am enjoying the YouTube videos of the foreigners enjoying themselves here in the states and discovering how wonderful and patriotic our citizens are. Most of them have mentioned that they were warned against coming here, how dirty, dangerous, and mean Americans are, and they’ve discovered none of that is true. The British, Irish, and Scottish fans are crying out for freedom and it has not gone un-noticed on them how wonderful our patriots are here in America.
I don’t have any context as to how this all started.
It seems an important detail to the story…
Here you go:
https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/49243703/usa-folarin-balogun-red-card-bosnia-herzegovina-world-cup-2026
He get entangled with a player from the other team and the ref decided it was intentional (it didn’t seem to be from video I saw) so issued the red card.
Also, another story I read the other day said this ref is from Brazil and has previously been accused of being a fixer (for betting purposes)… in other words he is a dirty ref.
Yes the players were tangled but the US Player ended up following through to stomp on the ankle of the other player with his cleats …. which can be seen as the outcome of a wreckless and dangerous challenge by the US Player, in the eye of the Referee issuing the card and the replay referees, who did NOT overturn his call, are correct. No nefarious intent on the part of the US player is required to issue the Red Card.
To be fair … the appeal by the US hopefully includes the mitigating factors of the US Player touching the ball first and the Bosnian Player initiating contact after the US Player touched the ball. These factors are often enough to reduce the card to a yellow, if not remove the card completely.
These types of situations are common in every Team Sport one can name that has an appeals process, including US Sports Leagues.
The “stomp” was not intentional, it was unavoidable contact due to their legs being tangled. Anyone who sees the footage can tell. Technically that had to give a red card because of the contact, but it was rightly overturned on review.
Nonsense! Accidentally coming togethers,are not a foul..did you play or officiate
Competitive soccer – opponents both want the ball (and not let the other opponent to have the ball).
It it o.k. to play with action, to go get the ball. (not ok to go after a person, instead of the ball.)
Yes, that means there can be physical contact – because the soccer ball is small relatively to the people playing the game.
It was a 1 to 1 game, getting towards the end of the game…
…again, both teams (players) want the ball…
(to score, the ball needs to get into the net, by a player(s) teaming together to achieve getting the ball into the net.)
Video replay:
I can understand kicking a player out for the rest of the game because of a serious foul. But banning him from playing in his next game, against a different team?
There is something petty, vindictive and bureaucratic about this. The same mindset as “You vill eat ze bugs.”
It goes with the game and has been part of the governing rules of the game, for 50+ years.
Same goes with 5-Yellow Cards earning a 1-match ban.
Gee just as Flagrant Fouls in the NCAA, NFL or NBA and Match Misconduct Penalties in the NHL earn at least a 1-game suspension or more if a review by the leagues declare a larger penalty is needed.
MLB just suspended 2 players for 7 games due to an incident against a different team.
The foul was an accident, because the other player tried to take out his legs.
I think that they were both playing to get the ball.
(and an awkward entanglement occurred. That happens a lot in soccer.)
Sometimes that results in injury,
and in pro soccer, that results in acting injured (whether injured or not)
Both had their ankles in tough situation – that neither controlled, considering the momentum of the players.
However, this is warranted for flagrant, intentional fouls, like when I was illegally tackled from behind and broke my arm in the fall. Obviously, this injury meant I was out for the game and possibly the next, so the player’s red card was justified and fit punishment.
Balogun’s ejection and suspension were an over call by the referee (as he played the ball first, injured defender second) so his suspension was rightly rescinded.
No way can it be judged as intentional. The player was 99% horizontal and still falling flat while still flying forward (toward the other player’s legs). I’ve been there, I know exactly what it’s like. His right foot skimmed across the top of the ball and ended up hitting the other player’s calf. It is far too much of a personal judgment call to rule it intentional.
Back to my argument that a soccer field is entirely too big for a single referee to successfully observe and “judge” 100% in his own mind. A single referee is too much like God on a sports field. Think about every other sport we play in the USA. Baseball, the umpire can check with base umpires about whether a batter “broke his wrist” in a swing, thus a strike or not. Basketball 3 refs running up and down that small court all game long. Football (our style), try to count how many stripe shirts on that field.
Ridiculous. But soccer is certainly a “poor man’s sport” so the mindset is they don’t want to pay for more than a single ref.
All things considered, the presence of the tournament here was the best thing that could have happened for our reputation….European elites hate us and the rank and file public discovered that their media has been lying to them for decades.
I suspect that Trump’s reputation over there has been burnished as well….the Orange Man’s pride for the USA is justified.
(Is the Bosnian player going to have to return his Oscar for his pearl clutching agony performance?)
If you do not like soccer for all of the various reasons stated here, do yourself a favor and watch an NCAA lacrosse game. Don’t watch the pro leagues. In the spring check out Virginia against Notre Dame or Maryland against John’s Hopkins. The game is everything soccer is not.
None of our 9 grandkids play soccer or even like it. Now that was not a choice or even soemthing I thought about until now. It is because, well, their parents are red, white and blue.
Belgium, aren’t they only good for waffles?
Great Waffles.
I tried to watch some of one game. That’s 20 minutes of my life wasted. The most boring thing ever. The crowd gets so bored they make up chants.
When I was in junior high, (before they started calling it middle school), our PE teacher introduced soccer to the class one day. After about 20 minutes, everybody started complaining that it was boring, and the PE teacher mercifully let us do something else, but with the qualification that if we didn’t shape up with taking care of our PE shirts and shorts, he would make us play soccer for the rest of the year.
Initially… I thought I had found something to replace the pompous-assed NFL. I enjoy watching the game though I absolutely do not understand what the “rules” are. I thought maybe they made them, the rules, up as they go. One guy gets knocked down – FOUL. Another guy gets knocked down in the same manner – crickets.
I can’t seem to figure out if they’re running a play. Have a plan to score or they just get lucky someone was there at the right time to kick the ball in the net. It appears to be more of the latter than the former.
Then – guy doesn’t even get touched and he falls down writhing in pain… He briefly opens one eye to see if anyone noticed – nope no one did. He gets up and continues play like absolutely nothing happened. There should, at a minimum, be a flagrant fake foul. Go to the video and if no one even touches you and you fall down cryin’ and screamin’. Get a pink(sissy) card and you have to remove both of your shin pads. Get two pink cards and you have to remove your jockey strap/cup! Yeah… that’d work.
Watching these guy grab their – whatever. Grab their head…. I’m thinkin’ they need to put more pads on and a helmet. Then I think… wait a minute… we already have that.
Never mind… guess I’ll keep searching for an NFL or pro football replacement.
You’re wasting your time with this article. The NFL, NBA, NCAA etal crapped all over America, and sports fans just rolled over and stuck their butts up to show their love. This is a culture of sheep, not tigers.
It’s true that the gloablists used tax regulations, licensing, distribution contracts, media bias, capital funding, and more to turn those sports organizations woke. The idea was to break them. Like eveything else in the assualt upon America: identify what makes Ameirca great and then begin attacking each and every one systematically from within. American sports were no exception.
They survived. America survived. Now we have to fight back – make them great again.
Monty Python clip – Perfect !!!
LOOK! ….here comes a corner kick!…….Ooooh, please heart, be still!!
Even if Belgium loses, gut feeling tells me the USA is doomed to lose tonight. The referee will find a way. It’s too easy with one referee on that humongous field. Yeah he follows the ball, but these FIFA refs seem even less bright than the “traditional” American baseball umpire — “blind as a bat!”
Another ridiculous red flag last night against England, proof in point. Player flying through the air while falling completely horizontal, of course he’s gonna lose judgement of and control over what his feet are doing.
We are on our third generation of “soccer moms,” and soccer isn’t any more popular now than it was 20 years ago among most adults. This may change with the children of immigrants coming of age. Playing the game is a great way to get kids to be active, but it doesn’t make it fun to watch. And kids know anyone can play it, which makes the adult athletes seem a little less impressive.
Love that Monty Python clip. A gem of a find.
“…bureaucratically designed to fail when contrast to a…”
Your spell check/grammar check/ voice transcriber, whatever frequently fails to generate correct past tense verbs. I see the same function failure on other blogs.
POTUS, during his remarks Monday July 6, suggested the officials may not be on the up and up. So with the help of our AI friends, I got this:
The referee Raphael Claus is Brazilian with significant international experience. There is background noise from a Brazilian match-fixing/sports-betting inquiry, but the credible version is not “he was convicted” or “caught fixing matches.”
The Video Assistant Referee (VAR) who triggered the review was likely Juan Soto, Venezuelan, with Nicolás Gallo, Colombian, as assistant VAR. Soto is a Venezuelan football referee, born in 1977, and has been a FIFA international referee since 2005. He is also a civil engineer by profession.
Gallo has more visible prior VAR controversy. He was reportedly replaced/suspended from Copa América VAR duty in 2021 after his performance in a Uruguay–Paraguay World Cup qualifier, and he has been involved in other debated VAR incidents.
We know Claus, the on-field referee, did not originally call a foul (yellow or red) against Balogun in live play. But the VAR team automatically reviewed the incident and recommended an on-field review for possible serious foul. Claus then reviews the play using the sideline monitor.
The rule of thumb is:
Use slow motion to identify what happened. Use full speed to judge how bad it was. In Balogun’s case, the criticism is not simply “they used slow motion.” The criticism is that slow motion may have been used to turn visible contact into “serious foul play,” even though the real-speed action may have looked less forceful and less intentional.
The “strange part” is that VAR only reviews “sending-off” infractions, not yellow infractions. VAR cannot summon the referee to the screen merely to award a yellow card.
So we went from: ref did not call a yellow and allowed play to continue because it did not register as misconduct in real time—->VAR recommends on-field review for possible serious foul—>Ref uses slo-mo review and sees the most dangerous infraction.
summary:
A Venezuelan VAR, in a politically charged U.S. match, initiated the review that turned a live no-call into a straight red against an American player. Given the recent U.S. intervention in Venezuela, FIFA should never have put that official in that position. Even absent proof of corruption, the appearance of bias is obvious, and the VAR process made it worse by using replay to leap over the yellow-card middle ground.
I personally think it is crystal clear what happened. What is not so clear, but deserves deep scrutiny is how these particular officials were assigned to this game.
I think you’re missing the point of why Trump getting involved with overturning a red card is wrong. I’m an ex player and have played professionally in Europe and I have experienced many injustices in the game. Unfortunately this is part of the sport and I think you Americans know that considering there’s been a lot of controversy in the NFL and NBA.
My team Croatia got knocked out of the tournament because of a very poor VAR decision and we have to accept the outcome even though we feel terribly robbed.
When the President of the host nation openly tells the world he contacted FIFA president Infantino and asked him to consider overturning a red card…and then the red card is overturned, it looks like a bribe, like politics, like something shady is going on while every other team that had a terrible call against them has to live with the result.
There is a desire to win.
No one wins all games, for eternity.
Both winning AND losing builds character: courage, fortitude, reverence (for even application of the rules), perseverance through adversities…
And sadly, yes, some of the best soccer, by both team, can result in a tiring, grueling 0-0 tie.
…
…and then taking turns on a 1 on 1, single kick vs goalie, shootout…
( which did not when there were 64 teams initially vying for the world cup )
Exactly because of this, the nature of Sundance’s umbrella opinion on this subject, last night I was rooting for Mexico, not England. With all its problems, Mexico is still “America” as in North America, and in one or two ways a better neighbor than Canada. Maybe it’s because I spent so much time in Texas and felt that social history so much. Even as far north as Fort Worth it’s pretty much undeniable. … Whereas England is Europe, Brexit or not.
My son was a 6’-3” high school bruiser and our coach used him to push the very limits of the red card against the opposing team’s top scorer. He played fair but tough, sticking to the player all game, lots of contact but never an intentional foul. Resulted in tons of flops, which scorers these days do, and a high school record for the number of yellow cards received without ever receiving a red card. Every time he offered his hand to the flopper and helped him up, patted him on the back, and thanked the ref. He neutralized many of our states top scorers. The yellow card/red card dance is part of the game.
There’s more to this story than meets the eye. U.S. striker Folarin Balogun received a red card in their previous match. According to World Cup rules, he was to sit out the following match. President Trump leaned on his friendship with FIFA President Gianni Infantino and Balogun’s suspension was deferred for a year. What Belgium and others are concerned about it that the rules are not being applied uniformly across all countries and that Infantino allowed Trump’s influence to bend the rules in the current competition.
I wouldn’t watch a Soccer match, if they were playing it in my backyard. . .
Soccer players are the greatest athletes in the world…too bad it is wasted on the game of Soccer.
it is often times stunning see some of the athletes, under duress, fatigued, be able nimbly dribble / bounce / pass a ball so accurately, timely – with their… feet.
Soccer is cross country with a ball.
Dear America and Sundance.
It would be hard to find a more pro America and especially President Trump admirer in Britain or (especially) Ireland than me,
but on this issue you are WRONG WRONG.
Like all sports football has its book of rules or laws.
If a player commits a foul which is deemed serious he gets a yellow card.
If he commits another foul warranting a second yellow card it becomes a red card and he is sent off.
He is banned from the next game – no ifs or buts.
His club can appeal the red card and an adjudication committee can rescind it.
As far as I know he automatically misses the next game irrespective.
Your contention that the existing rules of football brings the game into disrepute is false, and insulting.
The widespread belief in Europe is that my favourite President has put his finger on the scales.
I do hope however that America manages to get to the next round, without this player.
I admit that I watch English Premier League soccer on a regular basis. What I find most disturbing about the game is the total lack of integrity in players that tumble, crash and burn with as little as a tug on their shirt. The NHL had a similar problem in the 90’s. They instituted post game reviews and would issue citations for ‘Diving’. So, even if you were not penalized for ’embellishment’ during the game, you were still held accountable. First offense was a warning and being known as a diver. Second offense, one game suspension and it grows from there. It did not totally eliminate embellishing contact, but it cut out the fake tumble, crash and burns. Soccer referees have a lot of ground to cover and cannot see everything, which is why a post game review to flag the fakers is long overdue. Bring integrity back to the sport.
Good, then we should all petition to have FIFA retroactively apply the same standard to Messi, who did the same exact thing the American did, but VARS was not initiated. Messi went on to be the reason Argentina beat Cape Verde. Based on how Belgium thinks, Messi should have a retroactive red card, his goals in the game should be disallowed, Argentina should be eliminated, and Cape Verde should move on.
To share my English mates’ sentiments- Belgium is nothing but a country of wankers and c u next Tuesdays (and not the mate, kind).
Oh, soccer is fine. My boys played and I learned a little watching them. Move soccer indoors (as youth clubs do in winter) and it becomes ice hockey with a ball.
The red card in the last US game was a mistake. It took a call from President Trump to get it reversed; too bad, as that never looks good. But the result is worth it.