Trump did it again. He put his POTUS 47 curse on Team USA as he did in that one game in Madison Square Garden in the NBA Finals…except at this point in the World Cup it’s lose one game and you’re done.
Team USA is done following Belgium’s pretty much wire to wire dominance in a Sweet 16 game played in Seattle.
No…I’m not blaming Trump. This is on the player’s of Team USA. They never came out of the gate. They never engaged in any aspect of the game. This is on them, or we could just say Belgium is a much better team than Team USA and Balogun’s presence in this game one way or the other had zero impact on the outcome.
Balogun never got one clean shot on goal in this game. The same would be said for his running mate Pulisic who did never got a clean shot on goal either. Team USA had two shots on goal maybe and never scored a live ball goal in ninety minutes of play.
Conversely…Team USA gave Belgium four goals. Literally gave Team Belgium four goals either through bad defense in the box, bad goaltending, or turning the ball over in the box area.
This was brutal and unfortunate that Team USA’s World Cup came to an end in this manner considering all the excitement and goodwill hosting the World Cup has created around the world.
The viewership on Fox has been incredible in this World Cup in America. I hope for the sake of soccer the ratings stay healthy even with Team USA’s exit from the tournament.
I’m still in because I’ve loved watching even the games not involving Team USA. I think what this game showed is that USA soccer hasn’t really improved to the point where a team can make a serious championship run any deeper than the Sweet 16. Unlike Team USA in ice hockey…the soccer program hasn’t found that magic sauce just yet.
So now I need to decide who my new favorite team is in the Elite 8. Morocco, France, Norway, England, Spain, and Belgium are in. Two more Sweet 16 games need to be played… Argentina vs. Egypt and Columbia vs. Switzerland.
I’m probably leaning towards either Norway, Belgium, or Switzerland. None of these countries do anything I can think of which annoys me and I just need to decide of the three who I’m rooting for to hoist the Cup.
I’m gonna miss the Take Me Home Country Roads thing though. I liked that vibe it gave off. It seemed like for a three to four week period or so everyone in our country had a common goal. Even I agreed with Donald Trump on something, and that’s the beautiful thing about sport in that it brings us together.
Mike J