Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #707: Balogun IN!!! Our pre-Belgium gameday show

Episode Date: July 6, 2026

Folarin Balogun gets an 11th-hour reprieve from FIFA's vaunted judicial system, he'll play against Belgium. Vince, Sanjay and Belz talk through that bombshell news, its impact on the game, and how we might stop Doku. Skip the ads! Subscribe to Scuffed on Patreon and get all episodes ad-free, plus bonus episodes. Patrons at $5 a month or more also get access to Clip Notes, a video of key moments on the field we discuss on the show: https://www.patreon.com/scuffedCheck out our store, where you can get Scuffed hats and sweatshirts and other stuff: scuffedpodcast.com/storeAlso, check out Boots on the Ground, our USWNT-focused spinoff podcast headed up by Tara and Vince. They are cooking over there, you can listen here: https://boots-on-the-ground.simplecast.comAnd check out our MERCH, baby. We have better stuff than you might think: https://www.scuffedpodcast.com/store  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to the Scuff podcast when we talk about U.S. soccer. Hey, everybody, it's Sunday night 24 hours from USA Belgium in Seattle. Round of 16 at the World Cup. Got Vince and Sanjay here. Big news today. The biggest, which is that balligan is now free to play after his unfortunate red card against Bosnia. Normally he would be suspended for the next game, but FIFA citing Article 27. Article 27 of the disciplinary code has rules that his one-match suspension can be itself suspended.

And now that has been done, and he's on probation for a year, but he gets to play against Belgium. Sanjay, what was the team's reaction to this? What a day. Good afternoon, everyone, from field, right? We can't call it Lumenfield. It's just field here, Seattle Stadium. You can call it Lumenfield here, brother. Yeah, I'm going to say, bro, after what we just did the FIFA?

going everything out the window all the stadiums take your curtains off you know what I'm saying the veil has been pierced brother yeah yeah this is our country you're right we do what we want before we even get to the team's reaction and and poach like this was just like a surreal like remember where you were when this happened kind of thing because like we get there a few of us are there pretty early um like stuff had been starting it it's usually like quarter of but today it started at 10 a.m. local time but some of us were there early and were just sitting chilling scrolling on her phone and I saw like a tweet from Dave Portnoy kind of foreshadowing this I think most people probably have seen this by now because he's caught up in

this discourse but I was like huh like knowing his his closeness with the administration its connections there I was like this might be something and then sure enough like Ethan Sears from the New York Post. Shout out of Ethan. Like he's in line. He's like, he said something out loud. And everyone, and at that point, it's just like, what the hell is happening? Everyone gets out of their phones.

Like, we're scrolling. We're talking. And like, sure enough, as more and more people are showing up for training, it's like clear that this is going to dominate the day. So, yeah, the players come over. We had Richards, Freeman, and Polisic today. Chris, it sounds like the. kind of found out the way

we did, Chris said it took about 10 minutes from them hearing to confirmation that it was real. They were on the bus and the quote from him is, you know, people have probably seen this by now. We were lit on the bus regardless. We had our speaker in the back listening to music and then one person said

something, another person said another thing and nobody wanted to confirm it. Right when we got here, we found out that it was true. Freeman admitted it's a little strange. I have no clue how it happened. We're just happy it happened. but talking to all those guys and Potch just now like it's not like there was like a big celebration

when they got the news that was the vibe that I got like it wasn't like oh shit like everyone's losing their minds like a like they're watching a game on their phones and a goal just happened kind of thing like it was not like that it might have been like that for the rest of America and certainly for us it was like you know

a jolt because we all knew what the story was going to be today but yeah I think it just speaks to how like genuinely we've talked about a lot but how genuinely relaxed and focused these guys are like they were totally ready to play without him poch said you know he was asked about what training was like after they got the news and he sort of downplayed it he was like you know he said it was very natural here available or not available and he's talking about balligan they're just going about their business so you like to see that right because obviously Obviously, Balligan's putting his name up in lights, arguably the best player on the team right now. But this is far from a one-man team. Potch wanted to emphasize that. And, yeah, I mean, here we go.

Polisic said also that it didn't really, like, the way they prepared, this news didn't really change anything. They hadn't been told the lineup yet. Potsch even threw in the presser. He's like, you know, he could start for the bench tomorrow. Like, he's obviously not going to, he's going to start the game. Um, yeah, it's not like this, this affected them too much. Wait, Potch said that as like a clear joke. He said that as a clear joke.

Yeah, yeah, he said, because he was getting like a lot of questions about it, as you can imagine. I would say like pretty much every question, like Doug McIntyre and Ron Talmadge asked questions about the game tomorrow. Um, but pretty much everything else in English at least and even one or two things in Spanish were about this. So Potch, you know, in that answer where he was making it clear, I think it was that same answer where he was, it's you know how they were everything was natural with or without him um he was the guys like like you're acting like the vibe i got was like you know this isn't the be all end all kind of thing um the team doesn't revolve around him um it doesn't he's obviously a super important player we'll get to that but yeah this is a crazy day and um we can talk about um yeah i mean pach also said during

the presser like he was not involved in the process u.s soccer said on record they were engaged in the process with the FIFA disciplinary committee. Right. Engaged. About Trump, too. Yeah, yeah, we'll get to that. I mean, Trump said he didn't see the social posts. Sorry, Potch said he didn't see the social post from Trump.

He was clear to say that. He said, I didn't see, I didn't see. I was so busy. I was training. I'd wager to say there's a lot of people who haven't seen it because you'd have to be on truth social. Yeah, yeah. I don't think it's a stretch to say, like, he didn't see it.

Yeah. I'm just saying the listeners probably haven't seen it. So let's just say what it was. Donald J. Trump on Truth Social says thank you to FIFA for doing what was right and reversing a great injustice, exclamation point. Signed President Donald J. Trump. This is tweeted out by the White House with the USA, USA, USA chant in words, quote, quote, tweeting the ESPN tweet, quote tweeting the ESPN tweet that Balligan is available to play. So that's the, that's this post you're talking about, right? Yeah, yeah, and there's obviously been

Pach wasn't really asked about this I don't think but there's been reporting that there was a call, right? First it was there was contact from the White House then I believe it was there's a call from from Trump about this maybe who knows what the calls were

and when they happened I saw Ben Jacobs who you've spent some time with he reported yeah he was literally just here yeah okay yeah he reported that there was a call where Trump's displeasure at the red card was communicated to Infantino.

So, I mean, I don't know, maybe there's been reporting that there actually was a call from Trump to Infantino. Has there? I'm not sure, honestly. I'm in the thick of this. I haven't had time to step back and comb through. I mean, whatever, whatever exactly happened, I think, you know, we know the conversation that has to happen now. This is from It doesn't have to

But we'll get into it But this is from Clay Travis Sources President Trump Commerce Secretary Howard Ludnick And White House Task Force head Andrew Giuliani

Put together a team of elite lawyers From outside the government To challenge the flow Balagin red card Specifically they challenge The use of slow motion Instant replay I saw that to me

And I'm like Shout out Andrew Giuliani Beaguant But I saw that and I was like, well, in what court are they making this appeal? Like where? They just send it like a letter to FIFA or say, we don't like this. We're going to find some way to. Because I just don't know that that is part of the process, right?

I mean, usually I think things, international matters like this would go to the court of arbitration for sport. Like the international thing where Manchester City, remember that pit, that video of Manchester City? Cast, cast as people call it. 90 dudes of briefcases walking into the... I mean, look, this just shows me one thing. And, you know, we've been seeing this example after example after examples since the World Cup started. You know, there's a lot that can be said about this country. There's a lot that can't be said about its leadership.

There's a lot you can say about this decision and how I went along. But when it comes down to it, bro, America's America. And if you get some high-powered lawyers, if you get some high-powered lawyers and you get one person who's a wild card that you know, that you know if you're Johnny and Fetino. And Johnny Fetino knows this because he's tried to kiss his man's feet at every turn, hoping that in return he can get some decorum and some discipline for Mr. Donald Day. J. Trump and Mr. Donald J. Trump turned it right around after he got that piece of war and started a war.

You know what I'm saying? Like, he knows, Infantino has been put on notice that, hey, you know, I'm, like, like, I'm that guy. I'm that guy that's going to carry this out if you, if you want to go there. If FIFA, if you have these bylaws, you better buy by these bylaws or else we're going to put these high power lawyers together. And you don't want, you won't go through that. You don't want to go through that, especially as we, as a country, America, are up right now. You know what I'm saying? As the, as the World Cup that's going on right now has delivered on this promise to be the greatest spectacle, the greatest sporting event the world has ever seen, it's been delivered. And so, therefore, I think most leverage, most leverage is in our court. And, uh, and, uh, and

You know, we decided to wield it. Yeah. I mean, it could be. I mean, it could be just that simple. Well, yeah, my whole point, though, as far as, like, you know, saying what court could it go through or whatever? It might not even need one. Because I just need a strongly worded letter from the high-powered lawyers. Well, to your point about Cass, Vince, yeah, Belgium obviously voiced their displeasure.

And Cass is supposedly possibility possibility later on. this keeps going down this legal route. But yeah, last thing before Bells, I'll give it to you. Pach, I thought, deflected pretty well during this presser. He was adamant that the U.S. has been punished enough already, having to play a man down for 35 minutes or whatever against Bosnia. And he said, I think this part was in Spanish, but he had said we're not victims or we're not villains either here.

And I agree with that. Like, all in all, the red card, in my thoughts, opinion. I mean, we talked about it the other day. Like, it was kind of bullshit. But now it's just about questions about process and transparency and optics. So go ahead, Bell. Well, I interrupted you earlier when you were going to say what Potch said when he was asked if he had seen what Trump had said. And what he says, I didn't see. I didn't see. I was so busy. I was with your colleagues, showering, eating so quick a burrito. I didn't have time to see social media. So that was kind of, I guess I assume kind of funny too.

But just to the points to what Vince was saying, I think there are other, let's just go through it a little bit because I think it is actually kind of interesting. And I feel, I will say, personally, conflicted about it. There are other examples of people being suspended and then having their suspension suspended, like Cristiano Ronaldo, even Jacob Schaffelberg from Canada, two examples there. The difference is neither of them got a red card in this tournament. That's what's different about Ballo. So that's part of it. There's precedent, but it's not exactly like this. And then I can also entertain the argument that VAR wasn't handled by the book on the red card

and that that might embarrass the disciplinary committee or make them feel like they should intervene here. And there is the possibility that this disciplinary committee felt genuinely embarrassed that the messy boot to calf didn't even merit a whistle, but Balligan, who is borderline indispensable for the host nation, is going to miss the next game for doing more or less the same thing. But the key thing is, so I entertain both those things. The key thing here, though, is Article 27. The language cited in all of these suspensions,

including Ballas, is very, very, very sweeping. This disciplinary committee can do whatever it wants without having to explain itself. And that is the way the rules are written. Yeah, that's the hang up, right, is the explanation and the transparency part. Because I saw a tweet from Stephen Bank, who I think everyone in the American soccer community, most people might have seen his work at some point on Twitter. He's a great follow for all this legal stuff and business stuff.

He basically said, correct me from wrong, because I put in the notes, but he basically said, yeah, it's not that it's like illegal, right? Right. It's that it's not clear, but like technically speaking, it's not allowed. The lawyers at the Belgian Federation obviously not high power because they brought up, their statement brings up a bunch of stuff that claims to be inconsistent with what, with this decision on Article 27. But the thing is the way Article 27 is written,

they can do anything. It just, it can undo anything, you know? Yep. It's all possible. I think the bottom line here is that you should be able to just appeal a red card. Like, that should be the moral of the story, in my opinion, beyond whatever, you know, political maneuverings and how things are structured. Like, this is a simple mechanism that should be in place. Yeah.

The fact that the legal argument is so airtight, thanks to the way Article 27 is written. and just makes, just sort of does sort of push the question onto like, well, why did they do this? And then it comes back, you know, several signs do point to the White House. So. Look, man, it is what it is. I don't know what you want. I don't know what you want me to say. You know what I'm saying?

Flo Bagan is back in the lineup for this national team against Belgium. That's what I want to see. I don't care the mechanism as to how we got here. I don't care. Like, look, the fact that some possible corruption has went my way, I'm going to celebrate it as if, you know what I'm saying, hey, look, look, bro, I don't, I've seen, I've seen a lot of people, like, you know, utter disgrace, Americans, by the way, you know, utter disgrace.

This is going to feel bittersweet, the tainted, bittersweet. First of all, there's no guarantee we're going to win the game in the first place. obviously. And then second of all, I just don't care. Like, I don't care, bro. I feel like the same thing is coming up as far as, you know, this reminds me of when I told somebody in a suite at a Louisville City game or something,

that I was going overseas, that I was going to Rome. And they were like, oh, so make sure you don't tell them you're American. Act like you're Canadian, blah, blah, blah. I'm just like, man. miss me with all that, bro. Miss me with the idea that I'm supposed to be ashamed

that I'm supposed to be ashamed of whatever happened in front of the world because of whatever arbitrary rules that FIFA, I mean, I mean,

they're not arbitrary, I mean, rules, you know, that FIFA has laid down before or whatever. I don't care, bro. I'm taking this win and I'm sleeping,

I'm sleeping like a baby tonight. And if anybody, if anybody has a problem with it. They can I don't know what they can do with it, but look, it's falling on deaf ears because number one, everything I mentioned before, we're so up.

We're so up right now, despite our leadership, despite everything that might be going on right now, you can't tell me nothing, bro. You got your, you got your countryman from wherever you are coming over to this place and just fawning over at Bucky's. You know, they're, they're, they're, they're, they're, they're, they're, they're, they're, they're, they're, they're

on and over Muncie, Indiana. They're fonding over, you know, the Waxahatchee River, et cetera, you know, War Eagle, Brian Denny Stadium, etc. So I don't have a... You haven't lived till you saw the Waxeahatchy at sunset. You know what I'm saying? Hey, this country

is large. This country is vast. We're powerful. We got more money than y'all. You know what I'm saying? And at this point, I'm ready to flex at all, bro. Bro, I've been... At this, one of the first things I noticed, I looked at bells. When I touched out in Europe, I was like, bro, the money's not spending over here. You did say that. The train from the airport to Rome.

You could just tell, like, look, look. And obviously, you know, we live in a society. I understand the impulse to be ashamed or whatever. If you live in a society, you have to do certain things for the common good. We're talking about sport, brother. We're talking about sports. and we're talking about this is an arbitrary decision

to give a red card or to not agree most every decision made on a soccer pitch from a refereeing standpoint for the most part except for maybe offside now with the semi-automated is arbitrary so therefore there's wiggle room within it

and that's what Article 27 covers and we exploited Article 27 and we also probably exploited Johnny and Fetino's feet washing and feet kissing to Donald Trump and also exploited the fact that protocol was not followed in the Bosnia match. Okay, yeah. This is the fair outcome that he's able to play.

I think the right car was bullshit, like I said, and I'm glad he's going to play. And I don't think people should feel, any American people should feel ashamed about it. There's going to be some outcry from Europeans and whoever. but the way this went down where things just, it felt like just kind of got made up and powerful people made a call. Like, it's, I agree. So technically now we've learned that like this isn't illegal.

So that's another reason why I don't care that much. But it does feel kind of weird. Like, like, there's no way. I'm not saying I'm a, I feel ashamed. as American. I definitely don't. I'm like, you should play. I'm not talking about shame. Feeling ashamed. Yeah. But, but it's like you're supposed to have rules that apply the same way to everyone. You're supposed to have law and order. And when you look at what's happening in the country, this administration obviously represents

a challenge to that or at least the bending of the rules and the bending of the law and order. That's not even controversial for me to say. I don't think I think, like, objectively, like, you know, what's happening in the courts and everything. Like, it's, it's interesting. So this is like, you know, world is colliding. And, yeah, it feels weird. Real quick, this is a blue sky skeet from Chuck Bone. This is from the Podge Press conference.

The question was, is it good for football or bad when politicians like Trump call Infantino directly asking FIFA to review decisions? Marisa Pachino says, no, we cannot mix that. That is a decision from FIFA with the evidence. evidence that happened before and that's it. You can find some situation that happened the same way. Yeah, he was asked, he was asked about it later about this, this whole Trump thing,

he had a few questions about it, and I think it was Tanawald who asked him, like, what does that mean that people are reacting this way? And he pivoted to like, he said it's like, you know, the power of sport, which I thought was, was, uh, he deflected well today. He handled it well.

Go ahead, Bells. Well, I just think one thing that occurs to me is, speaking you know, being up to have the White House tweeting about a guy being able to play for the U.S. men's national team tomorrow. It's kind of, that's an example of U.S. soccer being up, regardless of what led to that tweet. A guy who they think shouldn't be a citizen in the future, the future versions of him. Right, right, right, right, yeah. Full, full birthright citizenship guy over here.

Bells. I just want you guys all to know that. No, even that it's an interesting nuance thing, but the whole, right now it's just like ironic, you know?

Let's, okay, so, so we're not ashamed. It is, uh, Ballot is going to play. Potch joked that maybe he'll start Pepey,

but he's not gonna. I, I had honestly given myself over to the dream of a Ricardo Pepey brace tomorrow. Because I think it, I think it would have been possible. I think he could have, I think he could have risen to the occasion.

It would have been impossible in the same way that, you know, like a faux baller getting the red card overturned was possible, but before today, you know, saying the thing was. But but so how does it impact the game? Let's talk about, let's talk about how up we are. Real quick, I just want to say, I was hurting. I was hurting, bro.

Like, every night before I was going to sleep, I was like, damn. And when the red card was issued, I was standing there in the, I was standing there at the match like, damn, bro. Like, because, you know, in the match, when you're at the game, you don't really know what's going on sometimes, whatever, especially where I was sitting. I was like, what the hell's going?

Bro comes out, red card number 20. I'm like, ah, damn. That's crazy. And then like, I mean, my wife, bro, I would just catch her staring off into the distance. I'd look out and be like, what's going on? She's like, my dog, I'll miss the game tomorrow. She woke me up today and told me like I was, I was sleep because I do a lot of things. I work a lot of jobs.

I would, I was sleep today. And she came in the bed and said, Vince, wake up, wake up. Floak and play. Flok and play. I mean, she was hype. He was hype. I found out via text from somebody on the Discord. Brian Kinchelow, I'm going to shout him out from Atlanta.

He saw that I wasn't seeing anything in the discourse. He texted me as I was leaving church. Anyway, so how it impacts the game. Yeah, I think... Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, last thing on this. Last thing on this. Nah, not... One more thing, one more thing.

And it's not about Trump's flexing, you know, executive authority. It's about... Just want to shout out all the... All the college football genre content. Everyone who tweeted, posted something about, like, Texas Tech and lawyers and everything. Like, that was incredible. Go work, everyone. Yeah.

Now we can move on. So, you were saying he's probably been our... player at the tournament earlier, Sanjay. And I was kind of shaking my head a little bit, because I think it's Tillman and West come to mind so much. But I do think Balligan is probably our most important player. Like if we want to create chances and score goals, I think the way Pepey's been playing in this tournament and the ways Ballo's been playing in this tournament, the drop off there

is pretty big. and so that's all. Yeah, to be clear, to be clear, there's like five guys he can make a case for. I put Chris in that conversation too. Obviously, Tyler's been immense. Like, yeah, this really is like a team clicking, and, you know, it's because a lot of people. At the end of the day, you guys score some goals, though. You know, it's provided, you know, it's provided the goals.

Mr. Mr. Flobattle. I mean, come on, you can give, you can low-key give the first, it'll be, it'll be kind of nasty get the first Paraguay I went to him. But I'm going to give it to him, but neighborhood play. Neighborhood play for Fulbe Allegan on the first Paraguay goal. Obviously, he scored two actual ones in that match. Australia, first goal. That's flow all the way.

And then obviously the Bosnia goal. Right. And then all the chances he's created, the chances he creates for other people with his movement and his ability to hold it up. If he would have scored that one at the end of the half against Bosnia, where he's holding bro off. Yeah. I just got to mention, too,

he has the best smelling cologne I've ever smelled in my life. You got to get the... It's crazy. You got to get the ID. I need that. I think there was a clip of... Someone raised this...

I think it was Charlie Bowman. Like, there was a clip of Weston trying to figure out what it was or something somewhere online. But yeah, I've been around him enough now. And, like, it's funny the other day. We talked to him, like, that was... It smelled.

better than ever, so. Yeah. I was just like, did anyone else smell that? Like, it's... Look, man. He smells good. He scores goals. He's a... Class acts. Class act. Well-spoken.

You know, a role model for the kids of America. I mean, you talked about the birthright citizenship. Somebody who might be able to influence policy in this great nation. Come on, man. Come on, man. Come on, man.

We got to put some respect on Mr. Falarin, Jerry, Balagan's name. Yeah, I also got a shout out real quick, Waki's newsletter on Balligan's Stoicism in the midst of that injustice. It's, Waukee's on fire again, writing about the national team during the World Cup. So is this the biggest game?

So we know basically battle is going to start and we're going to have, have the same lineup that we had in last. We assume. Yeah. Yeah. I can't imagine it being any different. So I think we just leave it at that.

Is it the biggest game ever tomorrow? Yes. Definitely up there. For me, yeah. I was about to say up there, man. I mean, come on. It has to be, bro. We've captured the attention of the nation,

which is probably part of the reason why this happened. If this is a Qatar winner 22 World Cup, Rick Carr probably goes down with the whimper. You know what I'm saying? There's nobody's getting involved. Well, you know, Bell said, to the point you made in an earlier podcast about ineffective left-wing leadership,

we can have a debate if a Democrat would have made the same power play. Let's not. You know what I'm saying? I mean, you know, these are the type of people that just let a filibuster go on, let a Supreme Court seat getting taken from them. You know, we're talking about stakes way greater than a... Or even an old school, an old school establishment Republican. Like, can you imagine George H.W. Bush calling the head of FIFA to get a red card overturn?

No, definitely not. I mean, this man is, again, to be clear, I'm not trying to be political. We do not know that Trump called Infantino. Yeah, but whatever, there is clearly some... I think it's been... There is a push, right? Some way, somehow, from someone in their camp. And I just want to emphasize, like, this isn't...

We're not trying to rip. We're not trying to be political here. Like, this man flexes the executive authority in a way that we've never seen, and now it's benefiting the national team. So, I think... Maybe, yeah. Yeah, it's... Yeah, it's seeming to.

So I asked Doug, I've been asking a few people, just like informally polling people here, their thoughts on this game. And obviously a lot of people are comparing it to the last time they were in the round of 16 against Belgium. Doug McIntyre said, this feels different. They should win this game.

I think I agree with that. You know, this team ascending, while Belgium is kind of fading from their golden generation that didn't win anything. now you have those aging stars. So I also asked Henry Bushnell, both friends of the pod, Doug and Henry, I asked Henry the other day if he thinks to win the game. He said yes.

Then he paused. And he was like, I think they could get to the final. Like, I think they could go to the distance. Which, you know, and Henry's a very... He's a reasonable guy. Top writer, yeah, reasonable guy, smart guy. Like, not one to be, like, you know, making claims like that every day of the week. definitely not so

I think it's not just a team like people really see what's going on and believe that that anything is possible but tomorrow is the hump that they have to get over right this is the first team that's legit on paper

that they face so far on this tournament like we're all really excited about where they're at but they should be here so yeah that's why tomorrow's a bigger game and I think it's bigger because it's in Seattle to. Like, we already saw what Seattle had to offer in terms of home field advantage. And we know it's history, it's heritage. We had a great time with everyone from scuffed who was in town a few weeks ago. So, yeah, I think all in all, biggest game ever.

And a totally different one than the matchup in March that friendly. Brother, we got to win this game. Even last night, I just tweeted out as I was cleaning my father-in-law's office. That's the thing I'd be doing on the side, y'all. Y'all know this. But once a week. Anyway, so while I was doing this, I was just thinking about the game. As I'm driving to the all, I'm like, bro. I'm like, we got to get it.

Like, you know, I'm not nervous about the game. I'm excited for it. But first of all, as y'all talked about in the recap pod, like, you know, we're in the place we've always gotten to. and we've always failed to get past 2002 excluded when we got to play the weak-ass boys down south

but to, like we have to get past this game to me. Yeah, we do. Like, yes, we might have garnered some new fans, some new attention on this team. I think if we bow out here, the tournament for all the objectives

that scuffs kind of has for wanting to see this country become a soccer nation, I think most of those have probably been fulfilled at this point. I think, I think just the fact that the country got four games and the ball that we played, I don't know how much that, but the fact that we won games and, like, et cetera. And the TV audiences have been commiserate with that. Like, all that's a success. But for me, it's like, bro, I mean, think about the 2022.

We don't even have an England performance on the resume as of yet. You know, we haven't gone toe to toe with a world power. in this World Cup as of yet. Yeah, that's true. And, you know, if we, I mean, if we know we can. We know we can. That's why we're like insisting. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, we know we can for sure. But I'm just saying, like, if we go out to it, if it's a five two again, I'm going to be hot. You know what I'm saying? If we lose, like, I don't really see the way, any way it's going to be a five to do at this point. If we lose and we show ourselves, well, I'll be okay. but I'm expecting to come in and win this game, man.

We at the crib, like, we in Seattle. It's time to get it done, brother. It's time to get a lot of appetizers. It's time to get to the entre. The entree with a quarterfinal in L.A. against Spain or Portugal. Belgium, you're not an entree anymore. You're a solid appetizer, but we got to eat tomorrow.

Yeah. It's just that, for me, the way, like the value of each minute that the team is on the field rises exponentially as you go further in the tournament. So like a big part of, for me, why we got to win tomorrow is so we can play in Los Angeles against Spain or Portugal. You're accelerating the growth of the sport, right? You're moving it up every day you're in.

Yeah, those first five minutes in a quarterfinal versus Spain and Portugal is going to inspire more people to care about the men's national team than like, I don't know, obviously any regular five minutes they play, but it's just like more than the Bosnia game, you know? Like if we're going toe-to-to-to-to with Laminia Mall in the quarterfinals of the World Cup? Yeah, exactly. Like, not just surviving, right? We're not just talking about, like, 2014 would have been a survival,

even if they won that game. If Wando scores that, like, they, you know, Tim Howard stood on his head. Belgium was clearly a better team playing real soccer. Right. We couldn't do that much. We think tomorrow, like, this team could come out swinging. Like, Tyler, you know, this is the best team that they've played, so they're going to be better in possession for sure.

You know, I asked Tyler about the stylistic class. You said, you know, about Belgium. It's a team that likes to play attacking football, that's for sure. For some of those teams, you leave yourself a little bit more vulnerable. But we're a team that likes to attack as well, so I think there will be a lot of transition moments and how you manage those moments is going to be really important. Baligan being available because of what he just said is enormous, right?

And it forces them to maybe be that much more conservative, which in turn gives us more possession. And also going back to the game in March, that was completely different, as Tim Riem had said, the team is completely different because of Tyler, Chris, Sergenio, and Freeman starting. We'll get to the assignment Freeman will probably have tomorrow. It also, Tillman's role is different now.

So, like, this is a totally different team. I know they have guys, too, they're going to start who weren't there in March, but, like, it's not just us being a biased, you know, U.S. focus podcast. Like, we are really the team that has been transformed since then. Yeah. I mean, we were, the way I'd say it is, like, before we played Paraguay, I mean, you guys might say those first two friends, those last two friendlies were really good, too.

But I just feel like they're friendlies. You never know. But there's, like, pre-Paraguay. post-paraguay two different teams. Anyway, let's talk about Doku or Vince, Celeste, you want to bring something up. And then we've got to get out of here because Mexico, England, starting in six minutes. Go ahead, Ben.

It's actually not. They pushed the time back an hour because of severe weather that Mexico tried to tell them was coming. And they was like, no, it's not coming. But we'll just deal with it when it gets here. But yeah, they pushed it back to 9 p.m. Eastern, officially. Okay.

The flow, Okay, the flow of it all. All right, the reason why I was thinking about him before I went to bed at night and et cetera, and the fact that I was kind of worried about a potential Rico Pepe replacement is just the fact of losing those runs in behind and losing, I mean, our counterattacking threat, which, I mean, I feel like I haven't officially made this take on the pod.

I did it on a different pod preview on the World Cup, but I've kind of thought this for a while. I officially let it rip. I believe Bailow to be one of the best counterattacking forwards in the world currently as it stands. You know, if you play against a team that plays soccer, you give them that space in behind to exploit. It's going to get exploited. And with the way that we play as a team, the way we find those runs that he makes consistently, I mean, from the start of it with Big Pat doing it up until now, it's been.

a premier feature of the way we have attacked on the Maricio Pachitino. I think we're just going to see an unleashed version of the dude. Obviously, he's been great up until now. But I think his most natural habitat we have yet to see, and that is him playing against a team that does want to play expansive attack and soccer or whatever and leaving that space and behind. And I can't wait. I can't wait.

And I was just upset about the fact that we weren't going to have like I was sitting there I was like man damn we could really use a big pat right now and I'm not even a big pat guy at all really but I was just like losing the ability to

to attack three dimensionally in the way that we have you know we can spread the teams out wide we can go in behind them we can go in between the lines and play intricate stuff there

like you know losing that dimension was really just weigh in on me And yes, I was, I had some hope in Rico. Like, I mean, Rico scores goals, you know what I'm saying? But I also was not sitting there like, oh, he did it against Senegal. Like, you know, that Senegal performance for me was kind of, I cannot, with all the Rico Pepe I've watched, just sit there like and expect him to link play

in the same way that he did against Senegal. For me, for me. I know those people that disagree with me, et cetera. And so just to have flow back, man, ah, huge. And then also, real quick, just on the flip side, we will see our kind of rest defense and our counterpress tried in a different way than we have with the starters in the match. Obviously, Turkey was something, well, was something different. Well, Turkey didn't really exploit our, I guess I kind of did exploit our rest defense too much. but yeah the fact that we are basically relying on four dudes

one of which being tim Riem to protect all these counters we didn't get to see Doku v. Freeman I don't if I remember correctly yeah I got to come on that man he definitely didn't start did he come on I don't know if he came up but but anyway most of the stuff I'm thinking about is was not was not Doku V Freeman so it was doku versus

way, right? With a different midfield that didn't help him enough. Johnny, it's a totally... Tanner Testman, et cetera. Like, yeah, I'm not worried about when our defense is set, I think we'll be fine. But in those counter opportunities,

when we lose the ball, can we prevent them from releasing Jeremy Dooku in the first place with that counterpress? And then secondly, if he does get released, how do we respond to those situations? I think we got the guys to do it, especially if Jeremy Dooku stays on the left,

and we continue to insulate Tim Ream from all dangerous attackers. But, you know, they will have Leandro Trussar this time, which helps improve their kind of their dynamism as an attacking core. Yeah, it's going to be interesting to see if they can pin. Obviously, they love to pin Christian, but if Desk gets pinned it all. because, you know, we've heard before on this run, like, about Dest new position and Desk being told he could go even higher. And we saw him last game when he's like, you know, when he's high a lot of the game, his attacking instincts are great, right? Like that little run, for example, that little run where he headed it to Ballo for that chance.

But yeah, going back to March, Freeman came on the 64th minute of that game and Dooku came off in the 70s. So, like, we didn't really see Freeman try and locking down. I meant to ask Freeman. I'm curious, maybe the sickos have a better idea of Freeman's toughest assignments ever as a defender. What did Tyler Adams say about stopping Dooku? Yeah, Tyler said not a lot of teams in the world can slow him down. He's a top-top player, and it's going to take more than just whoever's playing on the right side to be able to defend him on the left side.

I don't know where he's going to play, obviously, the ability to support around him, get numbers around the ball, slow him down as much as possible is going to be important. But I don't necessarily have an answer to that, and I don't think a lot of teams do. So, yeah, Chris also said with Freeman, he's a young fullback, but he's also willing to learn. I think tomorrow is a big game for him playing against one of the best wingers in the world. I'll try to give him as much guidance as possible, but he gives me confidence going out there. He can also do it by himself. Overall, it'll be a big challenge for him, but definitely a challenge that he can learn from.

he'll know that he has guys behind him that are ready to help as well. So, yeah, look, like, he's going to probably at some point do some damage. It's just about limiting that. But I'm not too concerned about the rest of what Belgium has to offer. Especially after they just played 120 minutes against Senegal. I think Senegal in some ways would have been tougher. Definitely would have been tougher physically. They would have been more taxing.

I think this is – we're catching Belgium at the right time, I think. but the margins are thin, as always. As always, brother. Yeah, I'm excited to see Freeman rise to this challenge, too. And go ahead, Vince. Real quick, Ben Jacobs. A U.S. official confirms to Emily L. Gooden. This is a New York Post, a White House correspondent,

that President Trump and Gianni Infantino spoke following Flo Bologna's red card. Quote, the president in Infantino did speak, and the president wanted to better understand the reason why a red card was given and why there was a suspension. The appeal process is run by an independent board. The U.S. government provided additional evidence that was used in the appeal process. Well, there you have it. Well, I guess the appeal process? Like, you know, appeal process, those last two words, it was.

Yeah, I don't, can you just file an independent appeal as a, can you? concerned citizen. Is that the way it was done? I don't know. Those are not official FIFA quotes, to be clear. That's just what she reported. Okay. What outlet does she work for?

New York Post. She's a White House correspondent. Okay. Well, yeah, not shocking. But there you have it. confirmation from the New York Post that Trump did in fact call Inventino or vice versa.

My man Filarin has provided us moment after moment on the pitch, off the pitch. I mean, you know, the whole recruitment saga, legendary as we all know, and then this as well, another legendary moment provided

by Mr. Fularen, Jerry, Balaugan. We got LeBron tweeting about him was just a start, right? Now we got all this stuff that happened today all this stuff happening today we got the silencer yeah yeah yeah i i just mean like like like the attention for him we got i saw it tom brady tweeted about him today too

like it's uh it's happening for this team um we love some mess bro we love some men like some sports related mess that everybody can kind of get behind like a like a rallying type of thing where yeah yeah yeah some bullshit against the world like this is this is all just um it's made for the casual it's perfect yeah yeah it really is the the yeah it's funny i was when i was walking to the stadium i just heard people there were people going on mariner's game and just like an older couple and just the husband explaining to presumably his wife the the basics of this this scenario and it's just like you know yeah like you just said like

people just want to riff right that's not thinking this is definitely that thing yeah And 4th of July yesterday, I had to explain to my grandparents and my, am I like, they were like, so he can't play tomorrow? He can't play Monday? Why can't he play Monday? Whatever. I went through a long explanation as to why, all this different types of things. What's a card?

What's a red card? I had to stand up and point to the TV. At a point to the TV during the France Paraguay match to, like I'm on a telestrator almost to explain what off sides is. Like, you know, his team's caught the nation, brother. And, you know, Summer's his birthday. The nation's birthday. It's something about something about soccer, bro.

Flo's birthday. Flo's birthday the day before. Incredible timing. There's something about soccer in the summer in America, bro. There is. There is. There really is. It's so different from Qatar.

Well, that's it from us. Let's go. Got to get that next game. Got to get to the quarterfinals. Who you guys got in the Mexico-England game? I think England's going to pull it out. I say that without much confidence. Yeah, I'm going to say the same thing.

But, yeah, I can't stomach this Mexico run going any longer, brother. Like Adam Bells, you talked about being a, you know, kind of a Conca Calfe Homer or whatever during the World Cup. Yeah, I am. I used to be that way before I actually started following the USMint. I would root for Mexico. for sure i remember like i mean when the u.s wasn't in in 2018 and and chucky lasano they were doing anything against germany or whatever germany game yeah yeah i was rooting for them yeah i was in it i was in it but um now i don't i don't want them to have any any uh anything good i mean i was

watching that match in an airport chilies in dallas a whole bunch of l tree fans around me i was waiting for ecuador to do something good but like you know as soon as that game started it was like, they were all over them. Bro, Ecuador looked ridiculous. Yeah, I mean, if Mexico wins tonight and the U.S. does not win tomorrow, this is kind of Mexico's World Cup, right? Yeah, yeah.

And they'll sell out games here. It doesn't matter that it's not Mexico anymore. Like, we know what they'll do here. Of course, of course. And it does seem like, you know, most of America's adopted them as their second team, too, from what I've seen, like, especially because the watch parties and everything, like, you know, people are really starting to see what the socket thing is about. Like really, especially, especially when Mexico plays, right?

Because, you know, just passion and the culture and everything, you know, it's just a little different. But, yeah, I need them to lose. I need them lose horrifically. So we can stop this because if it goes past here, there's just no limit on what they can do, I think. But do they got Aztec all the way through to the final? No, no, everything quarterfinal on is in the U.S. It's in the U.S. Okay, okay.

I believe. But they'll obviously still pack every stadium. Yeah, yeah, obviously. Obviously, for sure. Aztega something different, though. But, yeah. I need to say it. But they've looked good.

They've looked good, and I cannot take that away from them, especially those first 30 minutes against Ecuador or whatever. Dude, that was some fun soccer to watch. And that little, the 17-year-old, Gilberto? Yeah, yeah. Man. Vince, you see in Mexico get one black guy, right? And like where they are now.

Yeah, I seen people say that they was going to get them a Quignon Ne's shirt. You know, because, I mean, that's another subplot to this World Cup. Adidas dunking on Nike. I don't know how many kits Adidas has made, but they all seem to be available. Like the 94 kit. Yeah. That might take over the... our stripes kid as an official kit, bro,

just because, I mean, you could look at it right now. They still got stocking at it. They still have plenty of stock. I mean, I don't know. I don't know. It just seems. Nike screwed up. Only themselves to blame.

All right. Let's get out of here. Yep. Thanks, guys. Everybody have a great day tomorrow. I think Mexico is going to beat England tonight, but I also think we're going to beat Belgium. And you know who didn't be there upon it?

You know who didn't. All right. Let's call it. Let's call it before he gets carried away. It's crazy how I'm part of this podcast, but I think I'm the only person left who likes Jesse Marsh in the American soccer. Space, it feels that way sometimes. Shout out Red Bull.

I got no major beef with him with Marsh. Anyway, let's get out of here. The man running our Twitter certainly does. Thanks. Thanks everybody for listening. We'll see you.