As football was the winner, Gianni Infantino and Donald Trump were the losers. American exceptionalism took on a new turn as the United States were exceptionally bad against Belgium; some 48 hours after the USA’s birthday came the death of Mauricio Pochettino’s dream. Football is supposed to unite the world – a cliché parroted by the pundits on Fox’s jingoistic coverage in the US, who neglect to mention who is dividing it – and so it did: in cheering for Belgium.
The United States team’s World Cup, which had been encouraging and endearing, ended tarnished and tainted. The use of the bully pulpit to get Folarin Balogun’s suspension suspended – aided by the predictably craven sycophancy of Fifa – had no impact as Belgium careered to a 4-1 win. “Overturn this,” their FA said, in a particularly pointed social-media post.
