The U.S. men’s soccer team set another viewership record in its loss to Belgium, despite the lopsided 4-1 defeat.
A combined total of 45.986 million viewers watched on Fox (33.006 million) and Telemundo (12.9 million), whether via traditional television or online streaming.
It is the biggest audience for a television event since Super Bowl LX, and not too far off this year’s NFL conference championship games. The AFC matchup drew 48.6 million viewers, and the NFC drew 46.1 million.
Fox also said its audience alone was the biggest for any non-NFL broadcast since Game 7 of the 2016 World Series, when the Chicago Cubs ended their infamous championship drought. That mark was previously held by this year’s college football national championship game, which drew 30.1 million viewers across a range of ESPN channels.
Fans watching the U.S.-Belgium gane at a viewing party in Kansas City, Mo.
Fox noted that Philadelphia was the network’s No. 5 local ratings market for U.S.-Belgium, with a 14.22 rating and a 38 share. That means around 38% of all households watching television at that time tuned in to the game.
It wasn’t lost on U.S. fans that the blowout score turned some casual viewers sour. But the World Cup overall has continued to be a big deal, and that seems unlikely to change.
England’s dramatic 3-2 win over Mexico on Sunday night drew an audience worth a Sunday night NFL game: 44.952 million viewers combined between Fox (21.752 million) and Telemundo (23.1 million, a network record for soccer).
Earlier Sunday, Norway’s upset of Brazil in the Meadowlands drew 28.373 million viewers combined.
Fans watching Norway-Brazil at the official World Cup fan festival in Dallas.
According to publicly-available data so far, 12 games this summer attracted audiences of over 20 million viewers across the two networks, including four in the round of 16: U.S.-Belgium, Mexico-England, Brazil-Norway, and Paraguay-France in Philadelphia on July 4 (22.924 million).
Data compiled by The Inquirer show that the top five soccer audiences in U.S. history, and seven of the top 10, have all come during this World Cup.
We’ll see if the numbers grow again in the quarterfinals, which include a Saturday doubleheader of England vs. Norway and Argentina vs. Switzerland (5 and 9 p.m., Fox29 and Telemundo 62).
If all the favorites prevail, the semifinals would be France-Spain and England-Argentina. The first of those would match two of the sport’s biggest superstars, Kylian Mbappé and Lamine Yamal; the second would pit Jude Bellingham and Harry Kane against Lionel Messi in a renewal of one of soccer’s most famous rivalries.
U.S. star Christian Pulisic fractured his right leg during the Americans’ World Cup loss to Belgium and will be sidelined for several weeks, a person familiar with the injury said Thursday.
The person spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the diagnosis, first reported by the Athletic, had not yet been announced by the U.S. Soccer Federation.
Pulisic has a bone bruise and a microfracture of his tibia and fibula, the person said. He is expected to be able to resume training before AC Milan’s Serie A opener at Torino on Aug. 23, the person added.
Christian Pulisic (second from right) on the bench after leaving the U.S.-Belgium game.
Pulisic hit a leg of Belgium captain Youri Tielemans while attempting a shot in the 52nd minute of Monday’s 4-1 round of 16 loss in Seattle. He remained in the game but was hobbling, and Sebastian Berhalter replaced him in the 59th minute.
The Hershey native failed to score in the World Cup, missed one of the Americans’ five matches because of a calf injury, and left two other games early. He has 33 goals in 90 international appearances.
Pulisic, who turns 28 in September, is entering his fourth season with Milan.
SEATTLE — Even many who think Folarin Balogun’s red card was justified don’t blame him for the global fallout over the last few days.
It isn’t his fault that he’ll be forever known as the player President Donald Trump lobbied FIFA president Gianni Infantino to get back on the field.
“When that decision’s overturned, of course it’s going to be controversial,” he said, “So for me, it’s something that didn’t really surprise me too much. But as a player, my job is just to go out there and focus on my job.”
Folarin Balogun reacts after Belgium’s third goal, which blew the game open.
“I can only be honest, you know. I don’t think we had a good game today collectively,” he said. “We played well in the other games. We were very intense; we were able to generate energy with the crowd. And today, we didn’t give the crowd a lot to cheer for. That’s the most disappointing thing — that’s the part that hurts the most for me, personally.”
And he acted with grace again when he went to speak with Belgium manager Rudi Garcia, whom he has known for a while, after the final whistle.
“This is a game, there’s winners and losers, and similar to when I was given the red card, you have to handle it in the right way,” he said. “So, us losing today again, of course there’s huge disappointment. But for me, I wanted to just say congratulations to Belgium and Rudi Garcia and wish them good luck for the rest of the tournament.”
Belgium manager Rudi Garcia (right) consoling Folarin Balogun in their conversation after the game.
Garcia returned the favor in his postgame news conference.
“This wasn’t his fault,” he said. “He isn’t the one to blame, that’s what I told him. I appreciated that he came to see me.”
How much did the scandal motivate Belgium? Any team could draw easy motivation from saying Trump and FIFA stacked the deck, so let’s go beat the U.S.
“No, we just wanted to win the game on the field,” veteran goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois said. “It was a bit bizarre, it wasn’t the fault of the U.S. team or Balogun. … Whether he played or not, it was important for us to win.”
Not all of his teammates were so polite.
Belgium’s Romelu Lukaku gave the universal gesture to talk less after scoring his team’s fourth goal.
“There’s always a justice somewhere in life,” midfielder Nicolas Raskin said. “And the fact that something happened like that, you can call it what you want, but we don’t think that was fair. And I think today, it just brought us a little bit of luck that we needed to win the game.”
One of the Red Devils’ biggest stars, midfielder Youri Tielemans, had stronger words about why his team “had a fire in us” throughout the game.
“Of course we aren’t going to hide it,” he told Belgian TV network RTBF. “We had a meeting about it when we got the news, and afterward, we said we have no excuse. Whether he plays or not, it’s up to us to show that we should talk on the field, and that’s what we did today. So I’m very happy, and very proud of the team.”
When Romelu Lukaku scored his team’s fourth goal to cap the 4-1 win, he gave the universal “talk less” gesture to the crowd. The team then got together for a celebration that midfielder Axel Witsel acknowledged was a version of “the Trump dance.” Then they did it again in the postgame locker room.
Over the last decade, I’ve grown used to waking up before dawn and writing about a soul-crushing defeat from the night before. Usually it’s on a Wednesday, but somehow Donald Trump is always involved. Monday’s 4-1 demolition of the U.S. men’s national soccer team by Belgium pretty much confirmed that I won’t live to see Americans win the World Cup in my lifetime, so it’s time for acceptance. But these last three weeks have been a blast, and the party isn’t over. Sometimes the tritest words are also the truest: Maybe the real World Cup was the friends we made along the way.
Future generations will remember America’s 250th for its state of denial
Visitors experiencing excessive heat sit on the ground at the National Mall in Washington during Independence Day events honoring the nation’s 250th anniversary on Saturday.
The long-awaited arrival of the 250th birthday of the United States inspired a lot of talk about everything that’s changed since July 4, 1776, especially as “the man on a hobby horse” sinks to the founders’ worst fears about democracy and demagoguery.
But historians of the future may dwell on another huge difference between the day the ink started drying on the American Declaration of Independence and July 4, 2026.
Thomas Jefferson — his work as chief author of the nation’s founding document wrapped up — bought a new thermometer that morning and recorded the temperature in Philadelphia three times in his diaries that day, including a temperate 1 p.m. reading of 76 degrees.
Jefferson’s thermometer might not have been up to the task of keeping up with Philadelphia’s climate 250 years later. On Saturday’s Semiquincentennial, temperatures maxed out at 101 degrees — the third straight day that the mercury reached that mark, which had never happened since records began in 1870. But with the fetid, humid air, it felt more like 110 degrees for anyone brave enough to celebrate America’s birthday outside.
Philly should have seen this train coming. I mean, literally. Two days earlier, officials just outside of Reading, nearly two hours northwest of America’s founding city, plowed ahead with a welcoming party for Union Pacific’s Big Boy No. 4014, the world’s largest operating steam locomotive — even as the railway relic ran an hour late, with some thermometers posting 106 degrees.
The result was what local officials called “a mass casualty event” — no one died, but rescue teams were summoned from neighboring counties to help revive more than 100 people suffering from heat exhaustion, in desperate need of water or an IV. Some 35 of the would-be train spotters were rushed to the hospital.
“It was a little bit chaotic,” an EMS director told the local TV station in Reading. “I don’t think anyone anticipated the weather or the volume of crowds.”
The scientific group World Weather Attribution, which tracks the impact of human-made global warming, said last week’s heat dome over the Eastern Seaboard was indeed a rare event, yet — without the contribution of burning fossil fuels to a warming planet — it “would have been so extreme as to be virtually impossible.”
Heat waves aren’t new. I was just 7 but still remember the July Fourth week of 1966 — exactly six decades ago — when it also topped 100 degrees. It’s one of the few things I remember from that grade-school time because it was so incredibly rare. Today, “once-in-a-century” heat waves are routine all over the planet. In June and looming again this week, Western Europe — where few homes are air-conditioned — has sweltered under temperatures that climate scientists weren’t expecting until around 2050.
This suffocating July Fourth could have been — to steal a phrase from the multiplex marquee — America’s “disclosure day,” exposing the truth of a threat to humankind that’s been hiding in plain sight. Instead, it was our “denial day,” led by our planet’s denier-in-chief, Donald Trump, whose 250th birthday card to America only read: “Don’t look up.”
The denial was immediate, as the president insisted — ignoring the experts who warned that the triple-digit temperatures and intense, gathering thunderstorms might spark a much bigger “mass casualty event” in Washington, D.C. — on going ahead with his bombastic and self-serving speech and a fireworks show that lasted well into the early morning hours of July 5.
Our modern-day seersucker-wearing mayor of Jaws might as well have told the broiled holiday weekend throng, “But, as you see, it’s a beautiful day, the beaches are open, and people are having a wonderful time” — as ominous John Williams music swelled in the background.
The denial was also metaphorical to the max — and not just when those predicted storms arrived and panicked MAGA Trump supporters were forced to take refuge at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the history and culture their movement is so eager to erase.
In New York Harbor, U.S. Coast Guard vessels forced the storied environmental sloop Clearwater — which took part in the historic Bicentennial tall ships parade back in 1976 — to leave the July 4 Parade of Ships because of two anodyne political banners taped to its sails: “Save the Clean Water Act” and “Indigenous Rights, Racial Justice, Climate Solutions.” Don’t look up, not even at a tall ship.
Hours later, during the fireworks show, the Brooklyn Bridge caught fire, which had nothing to do with climate change, yet felt like a coded message from the overheated planet nonetheless.
But maybe we shouldn’t wade too deeply into the metaphors when the worst denial is the all-too-real policy stuff. Every day, some nightmare headline about killer floods or disappearing glaciers is met with some nonsensical action from the U.S. government based on Earth 2, where none of this is happening.
As the climate-change-intensified heat dome settled in over the Eastern United States, Trump issued pardons for nine people — and you really can’t make this stuff up — who’d been convicted of felony violations of the Clean Air Act by selling or installing devices for diesel trucks that defeated their emissions controls, because polluting our spacious skies is no longer a crime in Trump’s America.
America continues to get a whopping 82% of its energy from polluting fossil fuels, and that’s unlikely to drop over the next 30 months, regardless of how many Trump voters can cheat death on looming “mass casualty events.” But POTUS 47 warned voters he planned to set the world on fire if he returned to the White House.
What’s harder to understand, frankly, is why the people who should be fighting Trump on climate change are running away from the front lines. Yes, I’m talking about Democratic Party leaders who’ve tossed climate action down the memory hole in the 2026 campaign — either terrified that any mention of climate will undercut their single-minded focus on affordability, or distract from fighting Trump’s brand of autocracy.
And ditto for newsroom leaders who seem to have decided that environmental journalists are the first people to lay off, not to mention the other world chieftains who ought to be challenging Trump’s destructive policies, but are meeting the moment with a shrug. Even Canada’s center-left prime minister, Mark Carney, is now backing away from the aggressive climate action he once supported, claiming, “It’s too expensive.”
That’s a lot of malarkey, as the president who just four years ago passed the largest climate action bill in U.S. history might say. Clean energy continues to rise elsewhere in the world because the alternatives, like wind and solar, are ultimately cheaper and also a source of desperately needed job creation. The fossil-fuel-boosted heat wave of July 4, 2026, proved that inaction is a threat not only to our lives and our liberty but also to the pursuit of happiness. It’s hard to celebrate 250 years of American democracy when climate denial is exposing that system as so badly broken.
Yo, do this!
Did I mention the World Cup isn’t over? If you are a true fan of the Beautiful Game, you’ll brush off the quadrennial disappointment of the U.S. men’s team and get excited to watch one of the greatest generations of international soccer superstars we’ve ever seen. One of the more intriguing of the four quarterfinal matchups this weekend will occur when Harry Kane and his English squad face Erling Haaland and his Norwegian upstarts in the Miami heat. The match kicks off at 5 p.m. Saturday on Fox.
The new movie scene for the July Fourth holiday was a disappointment, so the heat wave was a perfect opportunity for revisiting the classics of the 1970s and ’80s with the generation that had not been born yet. We went back to the late Rob Reiner’s first great serious film, the coming-of-age saga Stand By Me. It’s hard not to feel nostalgia today for a time when 12-year-olds had to entertain themselves without iPhones and could disappear into the woods overnight, which felt less strange in 1986 when the movie was first released. It felt truly like a faint signal from a lost planet.
Ask me anything
Question: Talk about Mitch McConnell’s demise. — Wendy (@wensilver.bsky.social) via Bluesky
Answer: Well, Wendy, that’s not exactly a question, and while the New York Times is reporting that the Kentucky senator and former majority leader was unconscious and in cardiac arrest when paramedics found him on June 14, his staff insists McConnell is still alive. That hasn’t stopped conspiracy theories that McConnell is on life support until August, when his replacement, named by GOP lawmakers, could avoid a messy November election. I don’t know about that, and I agree that it’s very poor form to speak ill of the dead. So the fact that he’s still alive is an ideal moment to remind everyone that his hijacking of the U.S. Supreme Court and his cowardice during Donald Trump’s second impeachment both started America on the path toward tyranny. So get well soon, senator. You still have a lot to answer for.
What you’re saying about …
Last week’s question about whether you are happy or concerned about progressive Democrats doing well in the 2026 primaries brought a mix of interesting responses that aren’t easy to categorize. Most of you want Dems who will fight harder than the current crew. “I have been voting since 1968, always for Democrats, but seldom with enthusiasm,” wrote Stephen Boone. “Finally, in my old age, there are a few decent politicians. I want more AOCs! More Zohran Mamdanis! …” Others felt more cautious. Wrote Thomas Desmond: “I think the progressive candidates are fine in deep blue seats, but may not be a great idea in purple or light-red seats that could prove winnable this year.”
📮 This week’s question: It may be water under the bridge next week, but Donald Trump’s personal role in overturning the arguably wrongly given red card to U.S. star Folarin Balogun has sparked a heated debate. Was the red card an injustice to be reversed by any means necessary? Or did Trump’s involvement ruin the World Cup? Please email me your answer and put the exact phrase “Trump Balogun” in the subject line.
Backstory on Trump ruining the World Cup like everything else
President Donald Trump holds up a red card during a meeting with FIFA president Gianni Infantino in the Oval Office of the White House in August 2018.
If the big-screen tragedy of the U.S. men’s soccer team’s same-as-it-ever-was Round of 16 exit from the 2026 World Cup on Monday night had a theme song, it should have been John Lennon’s “Instant Karma.” For its first four (mostly) exhilarating matches, the USMNT gave a nation that was desperate for both an escape from relentless bad news — but also a connection to a wider world — the good vibes it desired. It truly felt like the Americans could go further than ever before (in modern times) in the planet’s greatest sporting event. TV ratings soared. Watch parties were packed. A broken land was coming together.
To longtime soccer fans, the red card handed out last Wednesday to the U.S.’s top goal scorer, Folarin Balogun, for stepping (seemingly unintentionally) on the ankle of a Bosnian player during a 2-0 victory — a harsh punishment that meant not only his ejection from the pitch but a suspension for the upcoming Belgium match — was the essence of our love/hate relationship with soccer. It may be a beautiful game, but it’s the ugly calls that we debate for decades. For a non-soccer fan and malignant narcissist like Trump, for whom anything that goes against his desired outcome is proof of the world’s unfairness toward him, the looming loss of America’s star striker was an opportunity to act like the strutting strongman of a personalist dictatorship.
There were too many ironies to bear — especially the fact that Trump had just gone all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court to fight to strip U.S. citizenship from people like Balogun, who was born to British-Nigerian parents in 2001 during an American visit, and millions of other immigrants who aren’t as talented with their feet. But the other irony was that — like so many corrupt schemes, whether from the mafia or the Trump White House — the president’s soccer coup failed. It felt like Trump had attacked the positive zeitgeist around U.S. men’s soccer with a neutron bomb. Balogun rarely even touched the ball. We’ll never know how much of Belgium’s 4-1 rout of the mistake-prone U.S. was simply a European powerhouse outclassing the Americans, as has happened so many times before, and how much was Trump destroying the juju.
It did seem fitting that this sordid affair played out over the weekend of America’s 250th birthday, as it was more confirmation that Trump, in spite of what the hat says, actually has no clue what makes America great. If any one principle stood out from the founders’ 1776 and 1787 experiments, it is that the United States was to be based on fairness and following the rules, with no king imposing his will. The single greatest thing about America’s presidential elections was not who won, but the fact that the loser accepted the results, and there was a peaceful transfer of power — until Jan. 6, 2021. Likewise, nothing could ruin the often unbridled joy of the World Cup faster than a rigged competition.
I’m still looking forward to the next 12 days, to watching the pinpoint passing of Argentina’s Lionel Messi or the raw power of Norway’s Erling Haaland, and to seeing who can actually win the World Cup on the pitch, and not in a back room. We already know the tournament’s biggest loser: Donald Trump.
What I wrote on this date in 2014
Looking back on this Attytood blog post from 12 years ago today is a reminder of how debates can evolve over time. My short piece on July 7, 2014, was a riff on an op-ed that called newspapers’ online comment sections in those early internet years “a hate crime” that should be cordoned off because of the vitriol spewed at immigrants or others outside the traditional American hierarchies. Back then, I disagreed, taking the side of free speech absolutism. “These are people who shouldn’t be censored … just set straight,” I argued. “The one true powerful weapon against offensive free speech … is your free speech, and mine.” Time proved me wrong: The Inquirer now avoids comments on most articles, including my columns. It turned out that “the wisdom of the crowd” that newsroom reformers once hailed was fatally infected with racism, sexism, and other forms of hate.
Only one column last week, as I enjoyed the July Fourth holiday by spending time with family and watching countless hours of soccer. In that piece, I wrote about an American 250th birthday that should have been a meditation on what makes our nation great, and where we so desperately need to improve — but which Donald Trump used as an excuse to rob the cash register when no one was looking. The president’s staggering $2.2 billion-plus payday during his first full year back in office — accomplished with a mix of crypto flimflammery, informed stock trading, and dealings with foreign dictators — is a five-alarm fire for the rule of law.
One final thought about the 250th birthday of the United States as the moment recedes into the rearview mirror. It’s true that 2026 has been a lousy year, economically, for newsrooms, but you would never know that from reading The Inquirer’s remarkable coverage of such an eventful time. I’ve already praised our world-class World Cup coverage, but our overworked staff also went out and covered a July Fourth party that happened despite killer heat, biblical storms, and a plague of locusts (not really, but it felt that way). This included some real accountability journalism, such as the Trump regime’s efforts to twist the truth around George Washington and slavery, as well as questioning the cost of the big day for city taxpayers. It was also a reminder that Philadelphia has been a hotbed for journalism and the rugged practice of bringing the First Amendment to life since the early days of the republic. Help keep it going another 250 years by subscribing to The Inquirer.
By submitting your written, visual, and/or audio contributions, you agree to The Inquirer’s Terms of Use, including the grant of rights in Section 10.
SEATTLE — The hype around this World Cup didn’t just start when the last one ended four years ago. It took off as soon as the U.S. was picked as host, on the eve of the 2018 edition for which they failed to qualify.
By the time this summer arrived, there was enough evidence to believe these players could make the history they dreamed of, wanting to do things no U.S. men’s team had done before on soccer’s biggest stage.
So a bar was set for them. The program had just one knockout game win in its history. Winning two would mean a quarterfinal berth. It also presumably would mean toppling a giant somewhere along the way.
Once the draw was made last fall, the name of that giant was Belgium, the nation that sent the U.S. home in 2014. That made an easy measuring stick for this generation. If they were that much better, they’d do what their predecessors hadn’t.
The scene just after the national anthems in Seattle, when the packed crowd of U.S. fans hoped for a historic win.
For this game turned out to not be just about Balogun on the American side. The whole squad blew it on the biggest stage, and they knew it.
“This moment hurts more, stings more, than probably any other moment in my life,” Wayne-born goalkeeper Matt Freese said after a horror game, especially on Belgium’s third goal that blew the game open, when he was stripped of the ball after straying out of his 18-yard box.
“Yes, it stings,” midfielder Tyler Adams said. “This was a moment to have the opportunity to advance and really try and do something special, and we fell short.”
Asked why the team was so flat, he answered: “It’s a great question. I wish I had the answer right now. I don’t know.”
Christian Pulisic tried to lift the mood, but he took some tough questions after leaving a game injured for the second time in this tournament. Along with that, the team’s most important attacker didn’t play the entirety of any game, though at least in the Bosnia win he played 88 minutes.
Christian Pulisic played 224 minutes across four games in this World Cup.
“I didn’t quite have the moments I was hoping to, to try to help us to really push and get over this next step of beating a really good team,” he said. “So I’m disappointed with myself, of course, but I’m going to try to stay positive. I did a lot of good things, and the team did as well.”
Gio Reyna also was underwhelming. After earning enough of Pochettino’s affection to make the World Cup team, he played just 131 minutes over the five games, took two shots, created one chance, and scored a goal that was beautiful, but in a game that already was won.
“If we lose to Bosnia, it’s obviously a big disappointment, and then if we win today, it’s probably a very big achievement for the group,” he said. “So it felt like we kind of just almost did what was expected. … It’s hard to say, I guess, what’s needed to make the next steps to really push through.”
One thing would be the biggest stars delivering in the biggest moments. That has happened for Kylian Mbappé’s France, Lionel Messi’s Argentina, Jude Bellingham’s England, and Erling Haaland’s Norway.
But it did not happen for the United States.
Gio Reyna (left) walks off the field after the loss to Belgium.
Will it be worth splashing cash on another big name? Or, since he wasn’t clearly better in the biggest moments than his American predecessors, should there be a serious conversation about whether it’s necessary?
Mauricio Pochettino’s gesture of thanks to U.S. fans after the final whistle.
Former Los Angeles FC manager (and longtime stalwart U.S. player) Steve Cherundolo also is on the list. New Jersey native Pellegrino Matarazzo, who has made his coaching name at European clubs, is too, though he might want more time overseas before coming home. Former Union coach Jim Curtin would be on the list if he hadn’t just been hired by Austin FC.
But will the donors lean on U.S. Soccer to go for another famous name?
One of those donors, Scott Goodwin, has quite a few friends in the soccer world — and some at the White House, too: The New York Times reported that he called them to complain about Balogun’s red card.
B.J. Callaghan talking with the media when Nashville SC visited the Union earlier this year.
Two years ago, Goodwin called his soccer friends to complain about the U.S. team’s flop at the Copa América. They included two former U.S. players who remain well-known in soccer circles, MLS executive Alecko Eskandarian and broadcaster-turned-investor Kyle Martino.
Goodwin was so angry at the U.S. team’s performance that he said, as he recalled to the New York Post last month: “This is a chance to get an amazing coach.”
Then, as The Athletic put it just before the World Cup started, “To Goodwin, there were three names that fit the bill: Klopp, Pochettino and Manchester City’s Pep Guardiola.”
None of them were American. None had ever coached in the United States. Was there an implicit view there that no American could be good enough for the job?
Good questions for U.S. Soccer CEO JT Batson and chief operating officer Dan Helfrich: Do they think the difference between a big-name foreigner and a qualified American is worth another $6 million bet? And how much sway will the donors hold this time?
U.S. Soccer declined to make leadership available to the media on Tuesday. A spokesperson told The Inquirer that there might be an availability in the coming days.
And what about a second term for Pochettino, who’s now out of contract? The players grew attached to him, but that happens with almost any manager. He has talked with U.S. Soccer about another term, but there also have been plenty of hints that he’d like to go back to Europe.
“I think now, because we were talking with the federation, it’s about to rest a little bit, to think, to have conversation, and then see what the decision is from the federation and from us,” Pochettino said Monday night. “I think we’ve built a very good relationship, but now is not a moment to talk about that. … For sure, in the next weeks, we can start to talk — if the federation wants to talk.”
Late Tuesday morning, U.S. Soccer issued a statement about its side of those talks.
“We had positive conversations with Mauricio before the World Cup about the future,” the federation said. “We agreed we would continue those conversations following a chance to rest and reflect post-World Cup.”
It hinted at the future, but only barely.
“We have a great deal of respect and gratitude for Mauricio, his staff and everyone part of the program,” it said. “We have shared excitement about our potential and also shared clarity about the amount of work at all levels still required to achieve our ambition.”
Mauricio Pochettino (center) addressing players and staff after the loss.
If you didn’t believe it before, you need to understand it now: Donald Trump never should have picked up that phone, never should have put in that call to one of his toadies, FIFA president Gianni Infantino, and never should have tried to exert his icky influence in a sport rife with corruption.
The 4-1 loss by the U.S. men’s national team to Belgium on Monday night at Lumen Field in Seattle was a fitting result. It was an embarrassing end to the World Cup for the home country. It was cosmic payback for a club that hoped to benefit from a president who wanted to strongarm Team USA into the quarterfinals and found out that sports can resist even an autocrat’s attempts to stack the deck.
Sometimes, once you show you’re willing to wallow in the mud, you can never wash the stain away. The justifications for the Trump administration’s overtures to FIFA to wipe out the one-game suspension for Folarin Balogun — and for FIFA’s acquiescence — were oh-so easy and obvious: This is FIFA.
U.S. forward Folarin Balogun (20) was the center of attention against Belgium in the World Cup’s round of 16 on Monday.
This is an organization with a history of scandal and corruption so long and detailed that Robert Caro could only begin to chronicle it. This kind of back-scratching and deal-making is nothing new at soccer’s highest level. This is how things work, and everyone knows it and holds their nose against the stench, and all the complaints from Belgium and the other countries left in the World Cup were nothing but rank hypocrisy.
If another national team were in the same situation that the USMNT found itself after Balogun was hit with that questionable (at best) red card last Wednesday against Bosnia and Herzegovina, its president or prime minister would have done the same thing Trump did, right? Any means necessary in an every-country-for-itself system, right?
Wrong. The corrective to dishonor and dishonesty isn’t to do more dishonorable things. Yet that was the remedy that Trump sought and put Team USA in the position of accepting. No, Balogun never deserved a red card and the subsequent suspension. Yes, it was a terrible call. But terrible calls happen at all levels of sports, because sports — at least until the gamblers and robots take them over completely — are officiated and overseen by human beings, and errors and mistakes are part of the game.
Stuff happens, and you deal with it as best as you can, and no one gets a do-over days later just because Donald Trump says so. His actions wouldn’t have been appropriate in youth soccer — imagine a parent of a punished player pressuring a league’s commissioner to lift a suspension and the commissioner giving in — let alone in the biggest sporting event on the globe.
What’s more, Trump and those who supported or tolerated his interference in The Balogun Affair apparently never stopped to consider that he might be damaging his own national team’s chances. In that 2-0 victory over Bosnia, Balogun’s teammates not only survived the final 26-plus minutes of the match without him but also scored shorthanded to extend their lead.
They had become underdogs. They had acquired the momentum that comes with being a team that had to fight adversity and had given a strong indication that it could overcome it.
But once FIFA reversed its decision, that entire narrative — that sense that the USMNT might use Balogun’s suspension as inspiration and triumph in the face of an unjust call — disappeared. Now, the USMNT wasn’t the tough, resilient bunch that could withstand the absence of its best player. Now it was so out of its depth without Balogun that it needed the shady political boss to cut a deal in the smoke-filled room to bail it out.
Belgium players react after their team scored one of four goals against the United States in Monday’s round-of-16 World Cup match.
Well, the Americans fit that pathetic profile Monday night. They allowed Belgium to take an early lead, then gave up the winning goal just 61 seconds after Malik Tillman tied the game at 1, then conspired to commit a crushing gaffe when goalkeeper Matt Freese played the ball outside the box, burped it up, and watched Hans Vanaken roll a shot past him for a two-goal Belgium edge.
They were outplayed, outmatched, and outclassed, their performance all the more humiliating for the strings that their president had pulled for them, for the message that he had sent about their chances.
Donald Trump told the world that these athletes needed a man willing to act like a mob boss to make things easier for them, that the USMNT wasn’t strong enough to take home victory on its own and without his help. It turned out he was right. He treated them like losers, and on Monday night, they met his expectations.
Storm clouds and a looming threat of rain did not stop fans of the U.S. men’s national team from packing FIFA World Cup watch parties across the area on Monday evening for America’s round of 16 match against Belgium in Seattle.
Fans clad in red, white, and blue packed the FIFA Fan Festival in Lemon Hill and Union Yards outside Subaru Park in Chester. The storms held off, but a deluge of Belgian goals led to a 4-1 loss for the U.S., disappointing much of both crowds.
The fan fest in Lemon Hill was sparsely populated after the first match of the day between Spain and Portugal, but by the time the U.S. men kicked off at 8 p.m., the crowd at the festival’s main stage stretched all the way back to the corporate activations set up in the middle of the festival.
That packed crowd was disappointed early, as forward Charles De Ketelaere gave Belgium a 1-0 lead with a strike in the ninth minute. To make matters worse for the U.S. supporters, the stage at Lemon Hill lit up red and yellow as the Belgians celebrated in Seattle.
They did red and yellow strobes at Fan Fest for Belgium’s first goal. The crowd seems less than amused
But the celebration didn’t last long, as De Ketelaere reclaimed the lead just two minutes later. It was all Belgium from there, as it added to its lead in the 57th minute, leaving both crowds in shock.
Fan Fest can’t believe what Matt Freese just did either:
Romelu Lukaku added a fourth to seal the win for Belgium in the 93rd minute, and as U.S. fans headed for the exits in Lemon Hill, a small group of Belgian supporters celebrated their country’s win at the center of the festival.
One of the few Belgians on hand for the match was Bertrand Colla, who traveled to Philadelphia from his home country to visit family and watch France’s win over Paraguay on Saturday at Philadelphia Stadium.
Bertrand Colla celebrates at FIFA Fan Festival after Belgium’s 4-1 win over the U.S.
While Belgium’s close win over Senegal in the round of 32 worried him, he had renewed confidence in his team after its 4-1 thrashing of the U.S.
“I didn’t expect it at all,” Colla said. “This game proves it all. We’re going to go there.”
U.S. fans, meanwhile, were let down after a second consecutive exit in the round of 16 by the U.S. men at the World Cup.
“It’s disappointing. They looked like they didn’t have it from the beginning,” U.S. fan J.P. Hochschwender said as he left Union Yards. “They looked slow. The defense looked a little disorganized, and, ultimately, [Belgium] just capitalized on the opportunities they got, but I had a bad feeling from the get-go.”
Ruben Mendoza holds a replica World Cup trophy while watching the USMNT face Belgium in a round of 16 game.
Lasting effects
Like the FIFA Fan Festival,the Union’s watch party in Chester was free to enter. Team chief revenue officer Charlie Slonaker hopes the event and the area’s World Cup-powered soccer fever will drive more Philadelphians to their MLS team once the tournament is over.
“Soccer is the world’s game, it’s a beautiful game, and there’s no bigger event than the World Cup,” Slonaker said. “We’re excited to hopefully capture that, capture that fan excitement and enthusiasm by [having them] come down to these soccer celebrations.
“We hope they fall in love with the game, as so many of us have, and over the long term, they ultimately want to come out to Subaru Park to watch Philadelphia Union games.”
The Union looked to take advantage of the World Cup’s draw quickly after North America was awarded the tournament in 2018. Once FIFA approved MLS franchises hosting watch parties, Slonaker’s team sprung into action to gather partners for events. On Monday, that included food trucks Mister Softee, Dos Hermanos Taqueria, and Humpty’s Dumplings as well as Michelob Ultra.
Outside of watching the game — one many U.S. fans will want to forget — the area offered plenty to do for a family-heavy crowd. Before and during the game, kids played soccer scrimmages alongside a plethora of lawn games. Unlike the festivities in Lemon Hill, which drew many young adults, the Union looked to engage the next generation of soccer fans.
Slonaker is not the only one hoping the buzz around soccer is here to stay in Philadelphia. Some of the Union’s longtime fans are hoping they will have reinforcements in the stands when the team’s season resumes at the end of the month.
“You see all the international fans mixing with the local fans, and it’s heartwarming,” said Shane Wittkop, a member of Union supporters group Doopin Delinquents. “I hope we have more Union supporters out of this.”
Soccer fans at Union Yards in Chester watch the USMNT face Belgium in the World Cup.
SEATTLE — The game the U.S. men’s soccer team dreamed of for so many years proved to be a nightmare.
Belgium blew the Americans off the field, 4-1, in the round of 16, as Charles de Ketelaere scored two goals and created the third. Malik Tillman scored the Americans’ game-tying goal in the first half, but it was all they could muster in a game in which they were outshot, 15-7, including 7-2 on target.
The Red Devils were on the front foot right away, with Timothy Castagne forcing Matt Freese into his biggest save of the tournament after just 45 seconds. At the other end, Belgium goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois repeatedly slowed play down when the ball came to him, drawing boos from the packed crowd in Seattle but otherwise quieting the venue.
The game plan paid off in the ninth minute. After a long passing sequence that pulled the U.S. defense apart, Alex Freeman was short with an attempted headed clearance, Weston McKennie failed to get the loose ball, and Nicolas Raskin slipped a short pass for an unmarked De Ketelare to tap in from close range.
When the midhalf hydration break arrived, Belgium had a 7-0 advantage in shots. But soon after play resumed, the Americans’ first attempt of the game went in the net in remarkable fashion.
Brandon Mechele pushed over Balogun about 22 yards from goal, Tillman stepped up for the free kick, and his shot at goal deflected off the head of a leaping Hans Vanaken. The crowd of 66,925 erupted with so much joy that the stadium stands shook.
MALIK TILLMAN FORCES THE EQUALIZER FOR THE @USMNT 🇺🇸
Belgium, however, was unmoved. Not even two minutes passed before De Ketelaere put the Red Devils back in front. Leandro Trossard beat Sergiño Dest off the dribble, sent in a cross, and De Ketelaere jumped between Antonee Robinson and Tim Ream — flat-out overpowering the latter — to head the ball in.
At halftime, it was 2-1, and the shots were 11-3. Pochettino made his first substitution at halftime, pulling Dest and sending in Gio Reyna. It made the U.S. more lively, but it did nothing to stop Belgium from scoring a catastrophic third goal.
Mechele hit a simple long ball out of the back, and Freese gambled by coming far off his line to try to play it. But he failed to, De Ketelaere picked his pocket from behind, and the ball rolled to Vanaken. All he had to do was put a shot on frame, and, though Ream tried to backtrack, he couldn’t block the ball.
After that, Pochettino withdrew Christian Pulisic, who had been clattered in a challenge that went uncalled a few minutes earlier, and sent in Sebastian Berhalter.
When the Hershey native sat down on the bench, he put his head in his jersey, disconsolate. But he hadn’t been that effective when on the field.
Christian Pulisic is visibly upset on the bench after being subbed off in the second half pic.twitter.com/2a0UHTCene
Pochettino sent Ricardo Pepi in for Tyler Adams in the 72nd, but the move didn’t produce many chances. The Americans only mustered three more shots the rest of the way.
It was significant that the U.S. men won a World Cup knockout game for the first time in 24 years. But this team, with players hyped as a golden generation of talent, had aimed higher — and so had Pochettino, paid $6 million per year by U.S. Soccer’s big donors from the private equity world.
In the end, what they produced wasn’t any better than their predecessors: a round of 16 loss to a familiar foe and an exit with a whimper instead of a bang.
The U.S. men’s soccer team’s World Cup round of 32 win over Bosnia and Herzegovina broke the record for the most-watched soccer game in American broadcast history.
Fox’s English broadcast drew an audience of 26.395 million viewers, and Telemundo’s broadcast in Spanish drew 9.8 million, between TV and streaming platforms. The combined total of 36,195,000 blows away the previous record of 27,314,274 that watched the 2014 men’s World Cup final between Argentina and Germany on ABC and Univision.
That record actually has been broken twice this summer. The Mexico-Ecuador round of 32 game, played a day before U.S.-Bosnia, drew an audience of 29.33 million: 24.429 million on Fox’s platforms and 9.1 million on Telemundo’s.
Mexico’s World Cup games have also been big draws for U.S. TV viewers.
Fox’s U.S.-Bosnia audience also set a new record for the biggest audience to watch a soccer game on a single network. That mark had been the 25.632 million who watched the 2015 women’s World Cup final between the U.S. and Japan, which was a prime time kickoff, since the tournament was in Canada.
According to the data published by the networks so far, 27 games in this World Cup have drawn combined audiences of over 10 million viewers. Eleven have drawn audiences over 15 million, and seven have drawn over 20 million — including all of the U.S.’s group games, and Mexico’s group-stage contest vs. South Korea and round of 16 win over England.
The data isn’t complete, as the networks haven’t released data for all of their broadcasts. Particularly, there are gaps in the simultaneous games at the end of the group stage and the round of 32.
Editor’s note: This article was updated to reflect a statement made by FIFA president Gianni Infantino
President Donald Trump on Monday took credit for getting FIFA to review a red card issued against the United States’ star forward Folarin Balogun at the World Cup but said he did not demand an outcome.
“All I did was ask for a review,” Trump said when asked about it during an unrelated Oval Office event. “I didn’t say, ‘You have to do this.’”
Trump confirmed that he called FIFA president Gianni Infantino and asked for a second look at the punishment against Balogun in the United States’ 2-0 win against Bosnia-Herzegovina last week. But he said FIFA made the final call to lift Balogun’s mandatory one-game ban for a foul tackle, allowing him to play in Monday’s round of 16 match with Belgium in Seattle.
Hours later, Infantino released a statement coming off of Trump’s remarks, which read, in part:
“Yes, I regularly discuss matters related to the FIFA World Cup with the President of the United States, and on this matter, I did receive a call from President Donald Trump, just as I receive calls from heads of state, government officials, football stakeholders, and business executives from around the world on many different issues.
“During our conversation, I explained that there was an ongoing legal process involving FIFA’s independent judicial bodies and that the case would be decided in due course by those competent bodies. That is how FIFA’s system works, and it is a principle I will always uphold. I read the decisions of the FIFA Disciplinary Committee when they are issued. Sometimes, I am surprised by them. Sometimes I agree with them, and sometimes I disagree.”
FIFA’s decision to suspend the one-game ban was celebrated by many in the United States but brought condemnation in the international sports world, where some called it an improper intrusion.
In remarks on Monday, Trump called the referee’s decision a “horrible” call. He added that it would have been a stain on the tournament if Balogun, the U.S.’s leading scorer at this year’s World Cup with three goals, was held out against Belgium and the U.S. lost. He praised FIFA for making what he described as a brilliant decision in suspending the punishment.
“I didn’t think it was a foul,” Trump said. “I thought it was two great athletes that crashed into each other and got entangled.”
The president, who said he understands sports “really well,” acknowledged that he did not initially know what a red card is or the consequences it brings. When he learned it would lead to a one-game suspension for Balogun, he said, he decided to step in. He also took issue with the use of video review to issue the red card, arguing that slowed-down reviews can make plays look aggressive.
Among those joining Trump for the Oval Office event was Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who thanked Trump for stepping in.
“On behalf of all Americans, thank you for getting rid of that ridiculous red card,” Cruz said. “It was spectacular. There was a reason the FIFA trophy sat here for as long as it did.”
Cruz appeared to be referring to a White House event last year at which Infantino visited and brought the World Cup trophy.
