New friends

I think it’s safe to say many of us, a mere three weeks ago or so, couldn’t have named a single soccer player if our lives depended on it.

I know that, if pressed to come up with any name, the first in my mind would be Pelé — which of course horribly dates me — and second would be David Beckham, which dates me only slightly less.  With considerably more effort, I could come up with the big names of the current soccer era: Neymar, Messi, Mbappé and Cristiano Ronaldo. Upon doing a little reading, I came across other names I recognized but certainly couldn’t have pulled out of my brain without the additional prompting.

Now, as World Cup competition is winding down, this former non-fan, who openly admitted to nearly 100-percent ignorance of the sport the rest of the world covets, is a convert. I’m so proud of so many of these players you would swear I had given birth to them. I know their tournament stats, I know about their parents and siblings, I know how many daily calories they consume, I’ve learned about their home countries and I know all about their recovery routines and game day rituals.

My new son, Erling Braut Neal Haaland. Photo credit: Getty Images

Though he is listed as one of the world’s top players, I had never heard of Erling Haaland of Norway until this tourney. I have now adopted him (don’t tell his parents) and I can’t get enough information about him. He seems to be quite generous with the time he spends with media members, seems to have a great sense of humor and is absolutely filled with national pride.

The online content featuring him is eclectic, amusing and informative. There are videos of children mimicking his head-forward stance/walk. There’s an interview about his typical day, when he talks about his daily walk, his workout routine, the cooking he does for himself (he explains that he’s been on his own for a long time and if he didn’t cook or clean, who would do it?). There are stories about his father, Alf-Inge “Alfie” Haaland, who played on Norway’s national team from 1994-2001, and on various professional teams through 2013. I learned that Erling Haaland added “Braut,” his mother’s surname, to his World Cup jersey so both sides of his family are recognized.

I’ve also been tracking tourney scoring and know that, as of the writing of this post, Kylian Mbappé and Lionel Messi are tied for the tourney’s Golden Boot award, with eight goals each. I’ve learned that, should a goal tie exist at the end of play, the award is further determined by assists and then fewest minutes played. Mbappé is the reigning Golden Boot holder, having scored eight times in the 2022 Cup.

During the writing of this column, France eliminated Morocco in the first quarter-final game. France moves on to the semi-finals and six teams remain to duke it out in the quarters: Argentina, Belgium, England, Norway, Spain and Switzerland. 

I’ve been cheering for Norway all along for a variety of reasons, Haaland and the now famous crowd rowing display chief among them. With the U.S out, I’m officially a Viking from here on. I’ve also been cheering for England, so the Norway/England quarter-final will be a heartbreaker either way.

At the risk of being repetitive, I bring this all up to show how important events like World Cup are, even if you hate sports. Big international sporting tournaments open up the world in ways few other happenings can. Many of us believe our nation has never been at a lower point in its history, has never been so widely disrespected on the global stage and, quite frankly, many of us are depressed. We go to bed terrified and we wake up terrified, wondering what new hell our nation’s leaders have created over night.

We are being told on a daily basis how horrible we are and how horrible the rest of the world is. Everyone is mean and nasty, journalists are the enemy of the people, all Democrats are communists, media outlets (except Fox) are spouting fake news — you get the picture.

But the World Cup has reminded us of the world as it actually exists — filled with hard-working, loving, caring, enthusiastic, patriotic people who, in spite of lingual, cultural, religious and political differences, are more alike than different.

Many foreign visitors have raved about their visits to North America and have admitted that their nations lied to them. The America they witnessed was not the America their leaders told them about. I honestly think more effective diplomacy takes place in subway cars, stadium seats and on bar stools than in situation rooms and palaces.

Thinking about it, it saddens and angers me that just a handful of people can so stain the image of an entire nation. But I’m grateful that a sporting event can begin to clean up that stain simply by having real people share a meal, sit side-by-side on a bus, learn each other’s chants and trade memorabilia.

The World Cup has made the world a better place. Even if only for five weeks.

Unpatriotic?

This might put my citizenship card at risk but I’m going to say it regardless: I’m not terribly upset about last night’s World Cup loss.

Much can be said about the validity of the red card shown U.S. player Folarin Balogun during last week’s match against Bosnia-Herzogovina. The US won that game, but played a man down for nearly 30 minutes after Balogun was thrown out for what was determined to be a serious foul on another player.

USNMT player Folarin Balogun. Photo credit: Jamie Squires/Getty Images

At first glance, it looked like just a typical, fast-paced tackle/collision of two players but then there was a slow-motion review of the play with the video assisted review (VAR) system. After the review, referee Raphael Claus determined that Balogun had raked his cleat down Tarik Muharemovic’s leg and foot, declared a serious foul and flashed a red card at the US team’s top scorer.

The red card not only removes a player from the game in question but also suspends him from the immediate following game, no matter when that happens.

Now, here’s what you need to understand and where things get dicey, if not political and sleazy. FIFA, soccer’s world governing body, takes its issuing of red cards seriously and has built quite a defensive system around protecting them. It is highly unusual for a red card to be overturned on appeal, with proof that the ref issued the card to the wrong player being the most successful defense on appeal.

“It is extremely difficult to overturn cards involving the referee’s subjective judgment — such as speed, force, or whether a tackle was a dangerous foul,” according to Fox Sports. “If an appeal is based entirely on contesting whether a challenge deserved a red or yellow, it is rarely successful.”

Because he thinks he is the king of the world, Donald Trump decided to step in and call his buddy, FIFA president Gianni Infantino. Keep in mind that Infantino is the guy who shamelessly created the meaningless “FIFA Peace Prize” and presented it to the baby who constantly begs for awards, accolades and praise.

Trump, who has trouble staying awake during pretty much anything (such as high-level meetings and summits, sporting events and even fireworks displays), said he looked at the play in question and determined no foul had occurred. Because, you know, he’s such an expert.

“I asked for a review because I didn’t think it was a foul,” Trump said, adding, “I didn’t know what the hell a red card was” before offering his expert interpretation.

Again, many sport experts, pundits and commentators questioned the original issuing of the red card and weighed in with the opinion that the tackle did not look deliberate or malicious and was just the result of intense play. But a red card was issued as the result of a largely unappealable subjective call by the referee and life should have moved on accordingly.

But Infantino obviously supported Trump’s effort and on Sunday, FIFA’s disciplinary board announced the suspension of Balogun’s one-game suspension, while keeping the issuing of the red card in place.

The soccer world exploded over what it called an unprecedented move.

The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) said the decision was “unprecedented, incomprehensible and unjustifiable.” The disciplinary reversal “crossed a red line,” UEFA said in its statement.

The Royal Belgian Football Association said it was “astonished” over the decision. Belgium was the team next on the US’s World Cup dance card and had a vested interest in the outcome.

Belgium coach Rudi Garcia made his feelings known: “I didn’t know that in the offices of FIFA, the fifth of July was the first of April in Europe.” 

“Red cards are not overturned by political phone calls,” former FIFA head Sepp Blatter wrote on X. “They are overturned on rules, evidence and independent bodies. If a U.S. president intervenes with the FIFA president — and a player is suddenly cleared before a World Cup knockout game — the question is unavoidable: Quo vadis, FIFA?”

It is the first time since 1962 that a World Cup red card has not resulted in a suspension, according to aljazeera.com. And that’s only because a red card at that time did not lead to an automatic one-game suspension.

So Balogun played in the game against Belgium but was pretty much silenced. Malik Tillman scored the lone goal in the 4-1 loss that sent the Americans packing.

I’m so sick of the Trump stench that I could scream. The man has his fingers in everything, from tearing down historical buildings to denying food to starving children. He always has to be at the center of things; always has to be firmly highlighted in the spotlight of life. He’s the expert on everything, knows more about anything than anyone else and is always the “only one” who can get anything done.

We will never know the extent of the corruption, bribery and grift that makes these things happen, and I will never understand — nor forgive — the collective bowing down and looking the other way as he bulldozes his way across the world.

But I am ashamed for our nation, ashamed for our national men’s soccer team, ashamed at FIFA’s rolling over and ashamed that sport in general has been stained by the Trump mafioso style of business. It was not Trump’s place to make that phone call and it certainly was not Infantino’s place to entertain it.

The only thing left to clean up this administrative and political mess would be a Belgian victory on the field of play, against the star player wrongly allowed to play.

The Americans had to be on the losing end of the score and the 4-1 drubbing left no doubt as to how athletes would handle a bureaucratic ruling.

Ro!