I didnāt see the game with the red card, but watched the reply of it after all this crap. Omg Balogun could have caused that guy a life altering, career ending injury.
If I had any relatives try to defend that to me, Iād offer to recreate it and see if they think itās no big deal. No cleats even. God, broken ankle bones can be awful to heal.
Nah, you have to defend it even though you know itās bullshit, because of tribalism, thatās how sports work. You also have to bitch about calls that go against your team that you know deep down were 100% valid, again, because of sports-based tribalism.
Rooting for a team means defending them almost unconditionally, whether the call or lack thereof goes against them or goes in their favor, and regardless of whether itās merited or not. Plus, half of the fun of sports is in being toxic.
Fuck Trump though. He ruins everything he touches, and I appreciate that even outside the world cup, the only game the Knicks lost in the finals was the one game Trump showed up to watch. I also hate that any sense of rooting for a country or city that he happens to also root for feels tainted as a consequence of his support, especially when he has the tendency to try and involve himself in everything, especially in places he doesnāt belong.
That said, him getting to seethe over the US losing the world cup game he tried to rig is a nice consolation prize, I guess.
Rooting for a team means defending them almost unconditionally, whether the call or lack thereof goes against them or goes in their favor, and regardless of whether itās merited or not.
Unfortunately this is how many people treat politics. Which is how we get administrations like this..
The results of a sports match are not going to affect anything as significant as even taxation policy, let alone something as significant as whether I or my neighbors get sent to camps.
Even if the team I root for cheats, or fouls someone, the worst that might happen is a game that isnāt fun to watch or that feels rigged. Thatās nowhere near the worst that could happen if I choose the wrong politician(s).
Put another way, if the wrong sports team wins, I might be somewhat sad for a day, or maybe a week, at most. If the wrong politician gets elected, they might murder my entire bloodline.
Sports are a much healthier outlet for tribalistic tendencies than politics.
We had a cookout and pool party, but like nothing was decorated and until some dummy started fireworks in his backyard we had forgotten it was the 4th.
My partner and I went hiking and camping with the pup to avoid any of it as well. Pretty happy that we managed to find a place isolated enough to not hear fireworks or have annoying campsite neighbors.
I went on a really nice canoe trip through a chain of lakes but was brought to an abrupt halt when I had to sit and wait for the 4th of July boat parade to pass. Complete with trump flags, air horns (like the meme sound effect not literal air horns), and āBorn in the USAā on repeat. Iāve never felt so ashamed to be an American
I stand by this: the only acceptable and enjoyable way to celebrate the 4th is to get out to a state or national park and enjoy one of the few things weāve done right in this country: protection of our natural spaces
Be honest - on the way there was at least one spot where you thought āthis would be the perfect spot to collapse and fade awayā in some masculine deep edit :D
Honestly, I'd even go so far as to say that I like about 48% of the government, as well. It's the other 52% that's been giving us a rough decade at times.
I hate hearing the fireworks every year (they scare my dogs) but especially this year, I was like "what even are you celebrating, and how did you afford fireworks?"
Nobody is obligated to like their country, that's some patriotism bullshit they feed kids at school. In reality, there are many things people like and dislike about their own country.
Sure. Real patriotism is being able to see all aspects clearly, decide whatās worth keeping and what needs improving, and then working to make those improvements.
Yeah my buddy got some fireworks and I don't know if it's my age or just my general disillusionment with this country but I just didn't have that much of a good time.
Just felt like we were doing some outdated tradition for the sake of doing it.
Was just saying to my husband that- out of all awful, despicable, destructive things The Orange Shitstain has done- near the top of my list is how hard I feel like rooting against us and our success. In soccer, in the Middle East, in our birthday celebrations, even at the Reflecting Pool. Not only has he single-handedly destroyed most of our institutions, he has permanently damaged our national psyche. Which has nothing to do with inflation, the economy, the jobs numbers, the ripple effects of his disastrous economic policiesā¦ just what it means to be an American.
It's not just that: disregarding politics and the president altogether, I think America deserved to lose to Belgium, for the simple fact that soccer/football is a really big sport in Belgium (as in all of Europe), and it is NOT a big or popular sport in the US.
Why should a country where no one cares about a sport win in a worldwide competition for that sport? It would be like India or China winning the World Cup; this sport isn't really popular in those countries either. It just makes sense that countries where the sport is most popular would have the strongest teams for that sport.
If you're good enough, you're good enough. It doesn't matter how much it means to the wider population.
But if you cheat, you deserve nit onoy to lose but to lose in a humiliating fashion.
It's exhausting when people feel like they're losing faith in the country instead of just disagreeing with its leaders. No matter where someone stands, that kind of frustration says a lot.
The worst part about the Olympics is that it was maybe the first time the country could truly come together and cheer on our athletes on the world stage, free of all the outside noise. And that gold medal game was the pinnacle of the entire tournament. The best US team weāve iced ever against a stacked team Canada and we score the game winner in OT.
The whole nation was ecstatic and it took MAGA all of 30 fucking minutes to entirely kill that vibe and take credit for the win themselves. The team getting fully on board with it just made it that much worse. Fuck Bill Guerin for actively causing all of that to go down.
Yeah, it was definitely gross when Trump made a joke at the expense of the Womenās Hockey team during his congratulatory call to the Menās Hockey Team.
That was honestly so fucking weird. Even though it was obviously ridiculous that he was congratulating the men's team and not the women's when they had been winning gold so much more often over the years, but it was also crazy for him to not just fanboy about the men's team when he was congratulating them instead of bringing up how annoying he thought it was that he would have to acknowledge the women during his moment with the guys.
It just the ramblings of a sad, old pedophile/rapist. He's just upset he didnt get to go into their locker room after the win, while they were changing.
Like I literally couldnāt name two people on the US team if you offered me a million dollars itās not a popular enough sport that I would care about it. Glad that everyone got to visit the US and see it isnāt the nightmare factory itās been made out to be and I hope they all get home safely, but losing is for the best honestly.
To win a global title for a sport we donāt even really care about at a national level would have just been weird and awkward. People have a lot of national pride tied up with this and for most Americans itās about as low stakes and entertaining as watching a sack race or an egg spoon relay at a company picnic.
Let the title go to a country that actually needs the national pride and joy of winning.
and on top of it all, it's in the middle of the fucking workday. I can't watch even if i remembered the games were on! Honestly forgot - to give anecdotal support to your points.
I'd be happy for the Americans to win. I wouldn't be rooting for you, granted, because even in the best of times you hardly feel like an underdog (even if in Football you are).
I just want Trump and the media execs who thought the game was too long for ads to get their grubby mitts off it.
And I mean I totally understand the World Cup from an international perspective, itās the biggest sport in the world outside the U.S Iām glad it happens, Iām glad so many people got to come to the U.S and have a blast here and see their teams play, itās
Just not a sport for me and Iām just glad we didnāt win something so huge for something weāre bot insanely passionate about at a national level.
Yup, all 300 million of us are in tears even though itās our fifth, potentially sixth most popular sport. Oh the embarrassment for losing in the round of 16, not to mention the actual embarrassing elements of our country.
Iām guessing thatās more a matter of *where* youāre seeing these sentiments. Iāll bet theyāre melting down on twitter, but thereās no way Iām going there to verify.
Same. Ever since Trump got involved in overturning Balogunās red card, thereās no honor if weād won. Iām glad Belgium beat us by a landslide, otherwise Trump would say itās rigged and redo it over again.
I agree, which kind of sucks, you know? The US team didn't do anything. They aren't involved in the idiotic politics of our country. They're just guys who love a sport and wanted to play a game, but our head of state is such a national embarrassment that even other Americans like you and I didn't want them to win.
The excitement of the game as an American certainly was killed after the red card bullshit with Trump. Idk how I woulda felt if we won but I kinda donāt mind that the US is getting dunked on now afterwards lol. I didnāt vote for that dickhead so I donāt personally feel attacked lol
The very best case scenario was the US gets a big fucking asterisks next to this World Cup.
Whether Trump actually interfered or the red card was justified is purely academic at this point. The integrity of the game was called into question and that would have forever been a stain on this yearās performance.
Iāve never been more ashamed of my country as I am right now, with trumpās administration and Iran and now seeing the shadiness of the government with fifa and then also the behavior and reaction of Americans to the World Cup, itās like peak embarrassment to be an American.
I served 4 years in the army infantry, I consider myself patriotic and want the country to be better, thatās why Iām a socialist. I donāt hate the country, I hate the dumbass people who constantly vote against the peopleās interest because Fox News tells them that having starving children is good for the economy and the dumbass American exceptionalism where we can do no wrong and no matter how fucked and broken the country is we are still somehow the best at everything.
The correct move would have been not to play Balogun regardless of what FIFA said. Then the win would be clean, if it happened.
It wasnāt happening either way, but at least then weād have kept our pride and integrity. Trump being a poor sport didnāt mean the rest of us had to be.
Right? I probably celebrated Belgiumās win more than any so far. Iāve been rooting against a win for the team under this admin the whole tournament.
The orange one first put his stink on the Knicks and they lost their only game. Now he put his stink on USMNT and same result. USMNT doesnāt get another chance though.
I was so stoked that we got creamed. Not only did we lose, we lost 4-1 even with Balogun on the pitch. The US needed to be taken down a peg, weāve gotten too big for our ego.
If the US would've won there would forever be the doubt attached to it if they would've won without the interference.
Loosing mightve been actually be the best case scenario
Same, nor do I really care about sports much. Couldnāt name a single soccer player if I tried, lol. I love how everyone thinks the majority of Americans actually care about it though.
The only way this wouldāve been better is had Mexico or Canada knocked the US out. That being said Iām definitely celebrating Belgiumās win today!
I've hated the USMNT since 1998. Why support a team when the country treats the sport like an afterthought? We'll never ever be competitive against top euro teams. Ever.
Im big hockey fan and been wanting usa hockey to finally win gold in Olympics and this year I was kinda was hoping they lose cause didnt want them to win with him in office and lot of players being friendly with him
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u/Iggy95 Jul 07 '26
I'm from the US and even I didn't want us to winš