So… after the ridiculous peace prize trump is now even forcing FIFA to manipulate the game in their favour.
If Europe had any balls we would just go home and start a new organisation to replace the corrupt FIFA. We should have never even accepted to play in trumpistan
As someone who has know knowledge of such things what so ever, do they have any chance at winning the cup?
They’re a mediocre team at best. Mediocre teams usually don’t make it to the quarter finals without an exceptionally lucky draw and almost never make it to the semis.
To put it into a chess comparison: to win you need a 2700+ elo and the US is maybe a 2200 elo. Decent, they can beat a higher ranked opponent on a good day for them and an off day for the opponent, but they can’t beat world class opponents in succession. The class difference is too high.
Now they are up against their first higher ranked opponent, Belgium, who should win it fairly easy on paper. In a pre-tournament friendly they comfortably beat the US 5-2, which is indicative of the difference in level between the two sides. Still, it’s a knockout game in the world cup, the US has home and FIFA advantage and Belgium has played below their standards all tournament, so they probably have a decent shot at winning the tie.
Who knows how fair their first matches or next matches have been. The one against Belgium can’t be considered fair anymore
We always joke about being better on paper in Belgium. The team always seems to underperform when it matters, even though many of the players are some of the best in the world.
Curious for the match though. I don’t usually follow it very actively, but the blatant corruption might have lit a fire to ensure the victory.
Historically benito mussolini managed to get 2 world cups for italy whenever they weren’t the real best. Even said that the chance is low, even buying refs there are very good teams remaining even beating Belgium they would face Spain one of the best trams and recent cup winner or Portugal that has Cristiano Ronaldo. From the other side of the bracket there is Norway which beaten Brazil with a tuned on Haaland and Argentina the last winner with Lionel Messi the all time best striker of the whole History now a fucking living legend. Mind you all this names come with great teams behind. Imagine If USA manages to beat Argentina in a final without cheating and/or injuring Messi that would be nothing short of a fucking miracle. Now going back to my initial statement if they do it mussolini style… against none other that Argentina…
oh boy…
No, they should not.
In the initial phase of the tournament, only Canada wasn’t the top seed in their group of 4(behind the Swiss)
The US barely topped their group and in doing so guaranteed that their round of 32 match was against the third seed in Canada’s group, Bosnia which isn’t in the top 60.
Canada’s round of 32 game was against either a similarly ranked South Korea(~28 as I recall), or against the near-60th ranked South Africa. So Canada wasn’t guaranteed to get out of R32, but always had a good shot. Canada was never going to get out of R16 short of an actual miracle, the matchup was Netherlands or Morocco.
For the US, their 2nd R16 match v Belgium will be their first game against a peer-or-better opponent of the tournament where statistically they can lose.
OTOH, R16 is normally where the knockout rounds start, so the USA just got a free pass to what’s normally the real beginning of the tournament.
I’m saying this as a fan of Canada who didn’t make the round of 16 at all, but still had a wildly successful run by Canadian standards: first ever world cup goal, first ever world cup win, first ever advancement from a knockout round (but only from the round of 32 which normally doesn’t exist).
The US has a decent chance of getting past Belgium, but whoever wins that match faces either Spain or Portugal, and that will probably be the end.
I get and agree with what you’re saying here but
Is disingenuous. They won their first two games convincingly, winning the group in only two games. The third game therefore meant nothing, so they didn’t play to win and still almost came away with a draw. They could have very likely won that game if the first string played, sweeping the group.
Thats extremely disengenous to the then 22nd ranked team, Turkiye. They were the 2nd best team in that group and legitimately beat the US.
??? The US rested a bunch of players that game because they didn’t need it.
Yes, they legitimately beat the US second/third stringers, I agree.
No.
Edit: yes with Trump’s help
I think this is what I was really asking.
How can Trump actually help? he can’t put balls in the goal.
Yes I get that he can bend FIFA to his will in so far as red cards, but surely that can only really help to an extent.
He can’t really help. I don’t even think he was necessarily the one who got Balogun’s suspension suspended. All he really managed to do was taint things so Balogun’s suspension suspension is super suspicious.
Lets put it this way, in the history of the world cup, only one other red card has not resulted in the suspension of the player, and that was in the 1960s before suspensions were handed out for red cards.
So it’s incredible. As in there is no credible justification for the decision.
I’m not saying the suspension of the suspension is reasonable. I just doubt that Trump had much to do with it. Infantino is corrupt enough as it is, and he probably thought FIFA would get more money if the US had a better chance of staying in the tournament longer. He also allowed Cristiano Ronaldo to fully participate in the tournament despite his ban, and I’m sure Trump had nothing to do with that. But, again, bigger ratings, more attention if Cristiano Ronaldo is playing vs. on the bench.
Referees can call penalty kicks, which are usually an almost guaranteed goal. They can also kick players out of the game, putting the non-american team at a player disadvantage.
Bribe the referee from the start. That can easily make or break the game.