The USA have seen their home World Cup come to a miserable end as an aggrieved Belgium dumped them out in the last-16, with Folarin Balogun‘s controversial involvement fruitless.
After US president Donald Trump called Fifa boss Gianni Infantino and managed to have Balogun’s red-card ban suspended, the Monaco striker led the line for the USA in their crucial knockouts clash in Seattle.
But the hosts found themselves on the back foot right from the off and deservedly found themselves trailing at half-time, with Charles De Ketelaere scoring either side of Malik Tillman’s deflected free-kick.
Things then capitulated further after the restart, with goalkeeper Matt Freese guilty of a calamitous error while trying to play out from the back to gift Belgium a third before Romelu Lukaku added salt to the American wounds in injury time. Belgium will now face Spain in the quarter-finals.
Follow all the action from the World Cup last-16 game below:
Fifa hit back at Uefa
Fifa has dismissed criticism from Uefa after being accused of “crossing a red line” in its handling of Folarin Balogun’s red card and suspending the one-game ban to enable the USA striker to play in the World Cup last 16 tie against Belgium.
Blatter accuses Fifa of bowing to political pressure
Sepp Blatter, Fifa’s former president, was scathing in his criticism.
On his X account, he stated: “Red cards are not overturned by political phone calls. They are overturned by rules, evidence and independent bodies.”
Bad karma strikes for USA as co-hosts crash out of World Cup to defiant Belgium | The Independent
After all the controversy and commander-in-chief-led skullduggery, here came the great American fall from grace. Following the whackiest of all lead-ups to a World Cup knockout match, one statement outdoing the next, an aggrieved Belgium outfit firmly made their statement on the pitch to knock the United States out of the World Cup on Monday evening.
That’s what you call bad karma, Mr President.
And it felt fitting that Fifa president Gianni Infantino, who took Trump’s call to arms, was present in his VIP seat to bear witness. The extraordinary debacle surrounding the removal of Folarin Balogun’s one-game ban, rendering him available for this match, had cast a dark cloud over the sporting integrity of this World Cup. It was an unprecedented type of political interference, meddling with on-field decisions on a global stage. Sometimes, though, sport has its own way of providing poetic justice. And in the Seattle heat, it was a dish best served cold.
