sports gods did their thing and brought the karma down on usmnt. it’s really all just an unfortunate series of events for them. It has me thinking about what ifs as well. what if they didn’t recall the red card - would they have played better? it is impossible to separate politics from football, even moreso when our country has a facist, racist narcissist running the country and blabbing his mouth that he overturned the call when he probably didn’t do shit. the news/media coverage on this overturned call was a lot and I have to wonder if this played into the players psychologically, in particularly Balogun. I wouldn’t blame them if it did because these athletes are only human and all they want to do is play the sport they love. I have shared that supporting the USA, my country, is never easy for me. However, I will always support most individual players, especially some on this 2026 roster because we have a lot more in common. these players represent the best of us as a country, immigrants and children of immigrants who shape our intertwined culture. Pochettino was a great manager for this team and brought out the best in them, arguably one of the best usmnt rosters this country has had. this game and the event leading up to this is just an asterisk, albeit an ugly one but it must be remembered that the orange dipshit fucker in office wanted to make this about him rather than the team who (tried) to bring this country together during divisive and violent times.