“Overturn this,” was the triumphant tweet from the Belgium team after they thrashed Team USA 4-1. The final salt was rubbed in the wound minutes after, when the Belgian players did a Trump-style dance on the pitch while star of the red-card turmoil Falorin Balogun walked dejectedly back into the US team’s dressing room.
The US started off in the World Cup as the plucky underdogs, something that doesn’t happen often. There was a spate of optimistic op-eds and polls that showed Americans were more interested and engaged in the tournament than they had ever been. People started asking whether this was soccer’s big American moment. And then Donald Trump got involved.
