FU: Morning after thoughts

by HCE, Tuesday, July 07, 2026, 06:04 (15 days ago)
edited by HCE, Tuesday, July 07, 2026, 08:31

The last few days have been horribly uncomfortable. Trump's grotesque intervention was bad enough, but watching all these awful people, from Ted Cruz to Riley Gaines to Dave Portnoy, jump gleefully on the USMNT bandwagon to push their their ugly politics, was jarring. For those of us who had been dreading a MAGA takeover of the World Cup, but still hoping that maybe, for once, the narrative would be about the football, or if politics need intrude, about the diversity of a team that could be our version of that great, diverse French side of 1998, this all sucked.

The above reminds me of that Community episode where Pierce "indecent proposals" Troy and Abed to take their handshake and it doesn't feel the same anymore, or maybe that episode where Pierce finds Jeff and Troy's secret trampoline and forces Troy to double-bounce him. Either way, Trump and his sycophants are clearly the Chevy Chase of this scenario.

As for the game itself, why bother? Everyone was terrible, with the possible exceptions of Tillman and Balogun. I refuse to believe that the surrounding bullshit didn't affect the team, whatever Poch and the players say. We looked dazed from kickoff, even before we started shipping goals via inexplicable mistakes. Obviously, Belgium were better, but the gap in talent is not so profound as it seemed.

The only one to come out of L'affaire Balogun well is Balogun himself, who was all class before, during, and after. He deserved much, much better.

I have no idea what to make of Poch right now, whose tenure produced three wonderful matches, one horrible one, and a bunch of meh, meaningless football along the way. I suppose I'd be good with an extension through 2028, but 2030 seems unearned and a long way off.

The best thing US Soccer can do is to cement a place for itself and its CONCACAF brethren in an expanded Copa America. We need a second tournament to build on the momentum of the past two weeks, to keep the casual fans tuned in, and the Gold Cup just won't do it. There have been rumors that we might get to host again in 2028, but I could hardly fault COMNEBOL for not wanting to do business with us.

I remain all in on this team, this sport, and this sport's future in America. I love this game, even if it clearly doesn't love me back.