Bully Craps on World Cup

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

I will admit on line one, page one of this essay to not actually knowing much about the sport of soccer, but I am an expert on schoolyard bullies so I feel qualified to speak on the World Cup "red card" debacle.

A week ago today during a match between the United States team and the team from Bosnia and Herzegovina, a US "striker" by the name of Folarin Balogun received what is known as a "red card" for stepping on the ankle of a player from the other team.  The "red card" was a penalty that brought with it a one-match ban - which, after the US won that game -  meant that Balogun was barred from participating in the next round game in which the US faced Belgium.  The call was controversial and made even more so by the fact that Balogun was a key US player on the team.

US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and presidential task force member Andrew Giulaini got together and decided the proper US response would be to get Donald Trump involved in a challenge to the referee's call.  Trump, who has about as much knowledge of soccer as the tired old typist posting this blog, got suitably enraged and telephoned the person in charge of the World Cup competition, FIFA President Gianni Infantino, a personal friend of Trump's who had given him a laughable "FIFA Peace Prize" award last year.  Trump bitched to Infantino and said he thought the decision should be reviewed - and, surprise, surprise, FIFA changed it's position on Sunday, revoked the "red card" on Balogun, and allowed him to play in yesterday's game against Belgium - which the US lost 4-1.

(FIFA, the International Football - Soccer - Association, had only changed a "red card" penalty one other time in the organization's 122-year history - and that had been more than sixty years ago.)

The United States, which has been a pariah on the world stage ever since Donald Trump crawled out of the Reflecting Pool ooze and became the face of America, had finally started to rebuild some goodwill with the rest of the planet by hosting the World Cup matches - along with Canada and Mexico.    But Trump killed that vibe in its tracks when he pulled off the statesman mask and let his petulant inner-child emerge in tantrum mode.

The United States lost its World Cup mojo the moment Donald Trump picked up the phone to apply pressure to Infantino and FIFA.   Our whiney President stamped out any developing feelings of goodwill, and, in the unlikely event that our great national soccer team had gone on to win the World Cup, the prize would have arrived footnoted and tarnished due to his heavy-handed involvement.

We were finally being accepted back into the world community, but Donald Trump had to crash the party and remind us and everyone else that EVERYTHING is actually about him.