Trump’s Red Card

What happened at the World Cup is more or less when I expected when I decided not to follow it.  I didn’t imagine Donald Trump interfering in a disputed and disputable referee call against the United States team’s best kicker, but I could certainly see something coming a mile away. Because where Trump is involved, disaster is inevitable.

You know the story by now, but for those who don’t . . .  Folarin Balogun (above) received a red card after colliding with a Bosnian player in the game the U.S. won against Bosnia and Herzegovina 2-0.  The red card prevented him from playing in the United States' game against Belgium, but the situation for which he was carded aroused controversy for being a bad call.  But just as Megyn Kelly drew attention away from a black commentator’s suggestion that Santa Claus, who is always depicted as white, be replaced with a Christmas penguin by insisting that Santa Claus is white and that black people should just get used to it, Trump rendered the original controversy irrelevant by creating a new and bigger one. He personally intervened to get Balogun’s suspension removed in time for the game against Belgium. 

Now, I’m not saying that Trump is a curse, but when he sticks his nose into other people's business, he has a tendency to discombobulate people trying to take care of said business.  All he did was discombobulate and psych out the United States men's soccer team, who had a lot riding on their next game.  The team has been so good that they actually became something that the women’s team has long been and the men’s team has never been  - a favorite.  This team actually had a chance to win the World Cup. But they went in with Balogun playing when he likely shouldn't have, the guilt weighing heavy on their minds, and they lost to Belgium, 4-1. 

I’d like to say that the Belgians, being old world, and all that, we’re good winners, but they in fact, taunted the U.S. men’s national team - who are used to being taunted - by dancing the way Trump dances. That is, they move their fists back-and-forth and stood in place. That wasn't cool, because Balogun's reinstatement wasn’t our team‘s fault, and there was nothing they could have to stop Trump from intervening on their behalf. 

Trump will probably invite them to the White House, though, if only to say to them, "I was only trying to help."

Fortunately, Balogun is much classier than the Belgians. He went to Belgium’s coach after the game and apologized for what had happened and for having played, despite the fact that he should not have. The coach for the Belgian team said that he appreciated and liked Balogun's gesture and said he was very classy. As you can probably tell, Balogun is the son of an immigrant.  His mother is from Britain and happened to be in the United States when he was born. Birthright citizenship!  Of course, he’s a first-generation American, because if his family had been here for several generations before that, he probably wouldn’t be so polite! He can thank his British mother for his manners. 

Manners, of course, are something Trump is completely unfamiliar with. He just made the United States even more hated than it already is by reminding people just how rude we can be we at least as rules the French, but they at least have culture. And the only time Americans experience French culture is when they indulge in a bit of Yoplait yogurt.

And so, the Cinderella team that was the United States men’s soccer team saw its coach turned into a pumpkin, thanks to Trump, their evil fairy godfather.  And so, things go back to the way they were, with the United States men’s soccer team a joke while the United States women’s soccer team will likely be champions in next year‘s women’s World Cup. I would like to say that there’s always 2030, and the good run our men’s soccer team had is a portent of things to come, but in fact, many people believe that this should have been their year and Trump killed it.  Besides, I, being a secessionist, believe that the United States men’s soccer team will not win the 2030 World Cup because I believe that there won't be a Besides, I, being a secessionist, believe that the United States men’s soccer team will not win the 2030 World Cup because I believe that there won’t be an American men’s soccer team.

Because I don't think there’s going to happen an America in 2030.  

I’m in England right now, and apart from two posts I wrote and scheduled before I left the States, I hadn't expected to write a post and publish it while I was away. I should have known better. With Trump, it was bound to happen.

Argentina On Top

The Argentine men's team won the World Cup soccer tournament this past week, becoming world champions for the first time in 36 years.  And their star player Lionel Messi - now widely celebrated as the greatest soccer player ever - is only 35 years old.

Messi plans to retire soon, so now he can go out on a high having finally won a World Cup in his career.  The final was pretty intense - Argentina led France by 2-0 for a good deal of the game, then France tied it within ten minutes.  Argentina scored a third goal late in the second half only for France to tie it again.  It finally came down to a penalty-kick shootout, and Argentina pulled out a victory thanks to Messi's prowess.

It was a thrilling game and an entering tournament, The United States played well enough to actually raise hopes for improvement by 2026 when the U.S., Canada and Mexico host the World Cup.   Croatia and Morocco turned out to be  tough teams to be reckoned with.  And the Netherlands, having played in Cup finals but having never having won - they're the Buffalo Bills of international soccer - didn't even make the semifinals this year.  But who cares about the Dutch?  I've said it before on this blog, and I'll say it again: Apart from founding New York City, giving the world Rembrandt and Van Gogh, cultivating tulips, building levees and dikes that don't collapse, perfecting wind energy, and reclaiming land from the sea, what have the Dutch really done for Western civilization? 😃

Political Football

The U.S. men's soccer ream faces Iran in tomorrow's Group B game.  If the Americans lose or play Iran to a draw, they're eliminated and go home with their fellow companion in misery, the Canadian team (which got blown out of the water by Croatia).

Iranian state media, however, have called for the U.S. to be eliminated immediately.

US Soccer removed the symbol of the Islamic Republic from the Iranian national flag in the graphic showing the Group B standings of both teams along with England and Wales (who also play teach other tomorrow - Brit against Brit, only in the World Cup, folks!).  US Soccer did so temporarily for 24 hours to show solidarity with Iranian women and anti-government Iranian men protesting against the hijab rule and to express anger over the brutal crackdown against said protestors.  Iran calls it an insult to the flag and has called for the expulsion of the Americans as punishment.

Because the Iranians show such great respect for the flags of other nations.

The U.S. men's team scored a lot of points for their defiance against Iran and supporting Iranian women.  Even sports journalist Christine Brennan, who never says anything about the men's team (probably because they lose a lot) voiced her approval for their actions.  But, alas, the American men are likely to score more points off the field than on it.  Iran is favored to win, and even if Iranian players don't concur with the anti-American hostility of their government (and by all accounts, they don't), their inevitable victory will expel the Americans for their leaders.  It will be like 1998 all over again, when the Iranians eliminated the U.S. Team from the World Cup in France, with the Americans coming in dead last, and the Iranian leadership poured salt in our wounds. 

Oh yeah, after that, the U.S. women's team came to the rescue of American honor a year later and won the Women's World Cup decisively. They've won it thrice since then, making the U.S. women's team the most successful women's soccer team in the world even as, among men's teams, the U.S. is among the least. 

This pattern is;likely to continue indefinitely.  The women will keep winning until, like Donald Trump likes to say, they'll be sick and tired of winning.  (Not that Trump would care about women's soccer, because it involved two things he completely disrespects - women and soccer.) The men? Aah, they're as likely to win the World Cup as Bernie Sanders is likely to become President.  The men's team, famous for sucking, cannot simply reverse decades of sucking and suddenly rise to a level of consistent competence.

But it could be worse. 

Our boys could be as bad as the Canadian men's team, which just got eliminated from only its second World Cup ever. 

For The Cup

I haven't been commenting ion the World Cup soccer tournament on my blog this year, but that doesn't mean I haven't been watching it. (A lot of Americans haven't, because we're not in it, just as a lot of Americans don't bother worrying about climate change because we're not in the Paris Agreement; after all, that's a hoax, isn't it?) I've been keeping my comments on the World Cup to my Facebook page up to now.

But what a tournament! Defending champion Germany made a miraculous comeback in Group F play, only to flunk out of F against South Korea and fail to make the round of sixteen. Spain made it into the round of sixteen only to be upset by host country Russia (who in turn were eliminated by Croatia) and Brazil, the perennial World Cup favorite and the New York Yankees of international soccer, got knocked out of Cup contention by Belgium.  Belgium!

Croatia goes against England today in the match to determine who will face France, who eliminated Belgium, in the Cup final on Sunday, and though England looks like the favorite, another upset in this Cup tournament of upsets can't be ruled out. It's going to be an exciting semifinal and it's going to be an exciting final, whoever France faces.

As for American World Cup hopes in the future, at least future World Cup hopes that only involve soccer players with Y chromosomes . . . well, who's ready for football? I mean the NFL variety, of course, because American football - fútbol Americano - is the only sort of football Americans care about, even if no one else on the planet (except in Canada) does. And NFL football is a lot like our current environmental policy. It is stupid. It is, if I may say, crazy. And it doesn't make sense.