The American president has managed to despoil the American soccer team by infusing it with the excremental stench of his administration. In its penultimate game of the World Cup, the team’s best scorer was given a red card which, by FIFA rules, suspended him from the rest of the game and from the team’s next game. Trump, who “know[s] about these things,” called the FIFA president, a man who has previously sought to curry favor with Trump, and asked him to “review” the call—totally inappropriate from the get-go. If FIFA overturned the call, the suspended player could play against Belgium Monday night. Magically, and for the first time in World Cup play since 1962, a red card was overturned.
The American team coach did not ask the president to intervene. By his action, Trump contrived, with the complicity and cowardice of the FIFA president, to effectively put the team in the role of cheater and gain the enmity of every other soccer team in the world. No objective soccer fan (admittedly a rara avis) could possibly regard the team with anything other than contempt. Trump, by yet again sticking his nose where it does not belong, managed to deprive the team of an honorable win if it beat Belgium and cast it as pathetic cheater if it still did not win despite its advantage with the illegitimately overturned penalty. In fact, America did lose to Belgium 4-1.
The result is that a good American team which made the round of 16 for the first time in twenty-four years will most likely be remembered not for its good play in the 2026 World Cup but for the American president blackening its reputation. 7/7/26
John Rachal's Blog
How Mafia Don Cheated His Own Team
July 7, 2026 at 11:50 pm (Political Commentary)
The American president has managed to despoil the American soccer team by infusing it with the excremental stench of his administration. In its penultimate game of the World Cup, the team’s best scorer was given a red card which, by FIFA rules, suspended him from the rest of the game and from the team’s next game. Trump, who “know[s] about these things,” called the FIFA president, a man who has previously sought to curry favor with Trump, and asked him to “review” the call—totally inappropriate from the get-go. If FIFA overturned the call, the suspended player could play against Belgium Monday night. Magically, and for the first time in World Cup play since 1962, a red card was overturned.
The American team coach did not ask the president to intervene. By his action, Trump contrived, with the complicity and cowardice of the FIFA president, to effectively put the team in the role of cheater and gain the enmity of every other soccer team in the world. No objective soccer fan (admittedly a rara avis) could possibly regard the team with anything other than contempt. Trump, by yet again sticking his nose where it does not belong, managed to deprive the team of an honorable win if it beat Belgium and cast it as pathetic cheater if it still did not win despite its advantage with the illegitimately overturned penalty. In fact, America did lose to Belgium 4-1.
The result is that a good American team which made the round of 16 for the first time in twenty-four years will most likely be remembered not for its good play in the 2026 World Cup but for the American president blackening its reputation. 7/7/26
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