When sports figures delve into politics, those who disagree with their views often tell them to “stick to sports.”
Someone should have told a politician who delved into sports to “stick to politics.”
It can hardly be doubted that the decision of President Trump to lobby FIFA for a largely unprecedented suspension of the one-game suspension arising from a red card motivated Belgium ahead of its 4-1 win over the U.S. in Monday night’s Round of 16 game in Seattle. Belgium’s aggressive and loud response to the out-of-the-blue (or green) reversal surely lit a fire for their players. The “overturn this” posted by the team’s Twitter account after the win confirmed what was already known — they were well aware of the Trump-FIFA collusion that prompted FIFA to activate a provision in the Disciplinary Code that creates broad discretion to basically do whatever FIFA wants to do, in any given situation involving the imposition of discipline.
Another clear message was sent after Belgium scored a salt-in-the-wound goal during extra time: Via Grant Young of the New York Post, the players mocked Trump’s trademark, two-fisted dance. (Here’s video of it.)
The zeal to press all available buttons and pull all available levers to restore the eligibility of U.S. striker Folarin Balogun for Monday’s game overlooked the practical impact of, one, doing it and, two, bragging about it afterward.
The U.S. team downplayed the impact of the conversion of the Balogun suspension into an international incident. “It didn’t affect our performance,” U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino said, via ESPN. “It’s not an excuse.”
“I think when it happened, it was just as much a surprise to us as it was to you,” midfielder Tyler Adams said. “I don’t think that noise or anything affected us by any means. If anything, it probably uplifted us in a sense.”
Whether they got a short-term boost from Balogun’s unexpected availability (they surely did), the strong reaction surely had an impact, too. They knew, as any fair-minded American did, that the intervention of the upper echelon of the federal government tainted the situation. It killed the vibe. It moved the chip from the U.S. shoulders to the Belgian ones.
Many tried to process the ordeal by saying that, because the red card was unjustified in the first place, it was OK to work to overturn the suspension. Still, it’s clear that the suspension of the suspension came only after the man who reportedly believes he’s the most powerful person in human history grabbed the arm of FIFA president Gianni Infantino and gave it a twist.
As the saying goes, two wrongs don’t make a right. And the second wrong propelled Belgium (which barely escaped Senegal in the Round of 32) to thump the U.S. team.
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