There's an old saying in the world of fútbol: "The World Cup truly begins when the bulls—t takes flight." Well, it's about 10 seconds old, considering I just made it up. But we're here in the midst of the World Cup, and man, is the b.s. flying around the Americans now. Question is, what are we going to do about it?
You know the story. Midway through the second half of the USMNT's knockout-round match over Bosnia and Herzegovina, the great Folarin Balogun — who had already put two shots in the net, one of which actually counted — collided with Tarik Muharemović during a natural, if aggressive, run of play.
Referee Raphael Claus initially decided to let the lads play, but a voice in his ear sent him to the VAR monitor, where slow-motion video showed Balogun stepping on Muharemović’s ankle. Intent, apparently, was not the issue, only the end result was. Thus a declaration came down from on high: red card for Balogun, meaning he was out for the rest of this match and all of the next.
This, to put it politely, did not land well with the American audience. From a pure gameplay standpoint, the red card seemed an absurd overreaction to what was, by all appearances, a standard, though violent, instant of impact on the pitch. When Claus didn't even deign to throw a yellow in the moment, that should have been the first indication that this foul, while undoubtedly painful, didn't rise to the level of a potential World Cup-altering red card.
Any fan base would have felt the same. But we Americans, though — we take this stuff to a whole new level, and we have ever since we declared our independence. (Happy 250th, by the way, America.)
You know the story. Midway through the second half of the USMNT's knockout-round match over Bosnia and Herzegovina, the great Folarin Balogun — who had already put two shots in the net, one of which actually counted — collided with Tarik Muharemović during a natural, if aggressive, run of play.
Referee Raphael Claus initially decided to let the lads play, but a voice in his ear sent him to the VAR monitor, where slow-motion video showed Balogun stepping on Muharemović’s ankle. Intent, apparently, was not the issue, only the end result was. Thus a declaration came down from on high: red card for Balogun, meaning he was out for the rest of this match and all of the next.
This, to put it politely, did not land well with the American audience. From a pure gameplay standpoint, the red card seemed an absurd overreaction to what was, by all appearances, a standard, though violent, instant of impact on the pitch. When Claus didn't even deign to throw a yellow in the moment, that should have been the first indication that this foul, while undoubtedly painful, didn't rise to the level of a potential World Cup-altering red card.
Any fan base would have felt the same. But we Americans, though — we take this stuff to a whole new level, and we have ever since we declared our independence. (Happy 250th, by the way, America.)
4 months ago
