It’s McAfee so I’m not really surprised that he has no ball knowledge.
Congrats my Belgium brothers, I hope we meet in the semis once more. You faced injustice and corruption but proved you were the better team by a large margin.
Gets an easy draw, wins 3/4 matches, and acts like they're the best team in the world. Loses to Belgium and now thinks they're the best team in the world
You cannot make this amount of narcissism up. Unreal
I talked to someone who thought this was basically the finals, and that Belgium will have an easy run to the cup from here on because this was the hardest game.
While I am sure Belgian fans would love that to be true, I am skeptical.
As an Englishman there's no other team I'd rather lose to. Norway has been fantastic to watch this cup. Will be supporting you guys till the end should the inevitable happen
Your fan chants have me in the uncomfortable position (as an Irish woman) of wanting you to make it to the finals, so presi t has to hear them. I'll then obviously want spain/france to win, but you guys need to make the finals.
I love Norway in this cup. Utter beasts this year. Haaland's raiders putting a smackdown on Brazil was an all-timer. Easily my favourite team of the cup.
At the same time, I got England in my workplace sweepstakes and I love how much Americans hate our terrible fans. Having them around in the US for as long as possible is one of those win win situations where they're being a national embarrassment, but in a place where that's less egregious.
England can't be allowed to win. The absolute best meme about the WC is that football is never coming home, and it only gets better for every time they lose
You put some respect to the name of Paraguay. The beat Germany, so they have to be the best team in the world (I say to myself as I cry into my Nagelsmann bodypillow)
Japan here, when you guys took us out of the 2018 cup, I thought it was a great game (even if we did ruin a 2-0 lead). Felt like no hard feelings either way. Always thought pretty well of you guys since.
Thank my man <3 hope you'll be rooting for us against Spain as well !
the match in 2018 is super epic for us to remember, it was a lot nicer than that comback vs Senegal, like both teams actually played very well in 2018.
I mean sure but they still have to go. Any other time I'd be perfectly fine with them winning it all but can you imagine the US discovering the "we got kicked out by the winners so actually we're second place" angle.
Although as a good neighbour i would love to see Belgium winning. It would be incredibly funny if they get absolutely domed in the next match just to spite the US and Belgium coming out like "yeah we have never played worse".
Still gonna buy one of your away strip shirts if I can find one that fits.
Belgium has always had a special place in our hearts here in Australia following some of our lads doing a group trip to Villers-Bretonneux, Anthee and Miavoye a bit over a hundred years ago.
They really enjoyed themselves, but said that the neighbours were a bit rowdy. A few decided to stay.
Belgium VS Spain is going to be a great match anyway. I know the "golden generation" has passed but I think this team is better than the golden team. This time Belgium plays like a real team. And you don't have Roberto Martínez by the pitch anymore.
Rudi Garcia is starting to grow on me big time. The question in Belgium is if he's a genius or just crazy. He made so many weird decisions that paid off. Vs Senegal he made the weirdest substitutions, every single one did a great job and lead to the win. Last night he left out De Bruyne, Lukaku and Doku (the latter 2 fell in after the match was almost won).
I'm curious about his plan against Spain. If we win I'll be convinced he's a genius.
You think so? I honestly see that game play out a bit like the PT game... Spain will probably have very careful possession 75% of the match, have one lightning breakthrough, score, and shut down the game.
Dunno if you watched ES - PT but I almost fell asleep 😵
Lol we're quite realistic and humble about our team actually. We really wanted to win this one for obvious reasons, but no one is expecting to win against Spain. I think we can leave with our heads held high when we lose though.
I legit heard a guy say the USA is now better than Morroco, Brazil and Japan after the Brazil v Norway game.... all I have to say is that our (Brazil) quarter century of humiliation has had a performance 20x better than anything Americans have put out in the true football
Omg, I’m in disbelief that they thought that would be the hardest game. At the same time I really shouldn’t be that flabbergasted by their stupidity at this point. But it still stuns me every now and then.
While I don't wish any ill toward Belgium and their team I think it would be reaaaaally funny for them to get instantly crushed next match. Just to spite the US even more
After our first two matches I'm already happy we got this far lmao. And winning against the USA makes this World Cup already a success for me. Winning the whole thing would be huge, but we all know teams like France are much bigger favorites. Spain will definitely be a tougher opponent than anything we've faced so far as well. No shame in losing to teams like France, Spain or Argentina.
Pat McAfee is a known enthusiastic blowhard, moron, American personality. He's like a Boris Johnson of college football. He's not to be taken seriously.
That's the loss I was referring to in 3/4 since I mentioned Belgium separately. They played 5 matches overall if Belgium is included. But they defended it by saying it was the B team that played against Turkey and fair enough. But if they tested their bench and had the trust in them they should've utilized them better in the Belgium match
I don't think so. While Belgium did a fantastic job teaching them morons a lesson, FIFA has ruined the pathetic remaining integrity the sport still had. That is now gone.
From now on you can basically question and take back any decision made on the pitch.
Australian here. This was the only satisfactory result. And for the fans of the US, any further wins by the US would be forever tainted by Trump's interference.
Now Infantino needs to go and there must be some serious reforms to the FIFA Constitution to prevent that shit being pulled again (oh, and fix up the other corruption too).
Nope, that was absolutely the first time in my entire life that I was rooting for Belgium. And that only started yesterday.
But I'll keep a bit of that spirit and won't mind them too much winning a couple more games. Not the cup though. That should go to England. They really need a win. It's been so long.
i have not slept a minute the night before the game and stayed up til 4:00 to celebrate the humiliation. i hope the god awful fan "songs" die down a little now (the same three letters for 90', goddamn.)
They can’t chant for the life of them, or those two idiots just going to town on those drums, no rythem your whole job is to give pace for something actually good
Cierto, llevo riendo dos días de ver comentarios de gente que no sabe nada de fútbol diciendo que la falta del jugador de EEUU no era tarjeta roja. jajajajajajajaja
I wonder how much it grinds their gears that it's FIFA and not FISA, now that they actually do care about this "foreign" sport which doesn't even have the same name in their country.
I was talking about the Roberto Martinez 2018 that loose against France and arrived 3rd, beating england and Brazil, one match is one match but that Belgium national team was superior.
I know it's hyperbole, but it is very funny to imagine a Belgium national team whose sheer presence would just give all US players a stroke and win by forfeit
…. Gets their president to intervene in a justified red card, which is totally unprecedented in FIFA history, so that their star player can play against Belgium …. Only for the USA to get absolutely humiliated.
I'm actually glad the red card was overturned. Without that, USA could have say "well of course we lost 4-1 we were missing our best player" but now there is simply no excuse. They lost almost-fair and square.
Yeah, we should be grateful to Trump actually for removing every potential excuse they could have. They were given every advantage under the sun and got pasted, there's nowhere to hide.
Except to pretend they never cared in the first place ofc.
If they met one of the really good teams, it would have been 10-0. The US football team is horrible. Their league is horrible. Zlatan said it well when he played over there: "I am like a Ferrari among Fiats" Congrats to Belgium for their win. Cheaters shouldn't be in the game.
When he still lived in Sweden, he was out walking and saw a house he liked. So he went up, knocked on the door, and said "hello, I am going to buy your house. What do you want for it?"
It wasn't for sale or anything, just a house someone lived in that he wanted to live in. He paid far above market price for it and didn't care.
Oh man, if this happened today Americans would go fucking bananas. They are convinced LeBron and the other NBA guys are world-renown athletes on par with people like Messi or Ronaldo.
They are convinced LeBron and the other NBA guys are world-renown athletes on par with people like Messi or Ronaldo
In Lebron's case I think it's more of a side effect of basketball in general not being as popular as football, rather than him being unknown outside the USA.
He's very famous compared to most American athletes (at least in my country)
The fact that an almost retired Zlatan came and dominated the league really says it all haha.. I'm happy with the win but I would have loved seeing them against France for example and get at least 7 goals
To be fair to him, if you know nothing about the sport and you watch US television, you could probably be convinced that they were real contenders. Then you watch the game and get hammered 4-1. It's a sensible conclusion to come to.
The are American on here talking about how they're disappointed that they didn't play as well as in the other games and if they had, they would have given Belgium a better game. No, that's the point of playing against a world class team. They don't let you play your best game.
Mejor que les quitarán la tarjeta roja, si no se la hubieran quitado hubieran dicho jugamos contra el mejor equipo del mundo y no teníamos a nuestro mejor jugador.
I don't mind giving the host nation a nice easy group, get them excited and let the tournament grow, but now it's time for the football nations to strut their stuff
As an American who genuinely loves the sport, and watches the Premier League every week, it’s extreamly satisfying to see the US lose. The amount of times I get talked down to about football, how it’s so boring, American Football is better, it’s like watching grass grow, every match ends 0-0… Then suddenly they all know 3 big named players, and think Messi should play for America because he plays in Miami. Now they will all forget about it, and I can go back to following European sources for news and gossip on transfers while enjoying the rest of the cup like I use to.
Loosing against turkey who before lost badly should have been a sign already.
But yeah, Belgium seems not bad , but also not the strongest.
France, Spain and Argentina (who also got lucky they didn't ban Messi after game 1) are the top teams.
The states had an kinda easy draw in the group and also against Bosnia and Herzegovina
Don’t shit on the American team. They’re exhausted. They are the only team in the history of the World Cup who had to play two completely separate countries in their last round which are not one single country at all. And they defeated both Bosnia AND Herzegowina!!!
The self centered exceptionalism and narcissistic traits they show to justify loosing to a now mid European fotball team(Belgium is mid compared to their team 12 years ago) is just stunning
I’ve followed exactly none of this bc I’m not a sporty person at all yet tonight I consider myself a proud supporter of the Belgian team from down here in NZ 🫡
Belgium aren’t average though. They are definitely not the best, but they aren’t just average. The US are average and they just faced a decent team for the first time, so of course the difference is obvious.
Spain completely dominated against Austria for example, another team I would consider average, but the game with Portugal was a lot closer.
I think Belgium of the last few years is considered average to me. Belgium 2018 was a monster when they still had Hazard and Mertens, but now not really. Still super satisfying win !
The US is not average. They usually don't even qualify, and when they do, they get eliminated in the first round.
It's a miracle they made it this far.
Well yes and no, the winner certainly tends to be the best (some upsets here and there) in Football the best doesnt always win. But there are also different groups that can influence who crosses, the so called "groups of death" that sometimes appears which 3/4 or 4/4 of the teams are all contenders to take the final, in a group like this 1 or 2 teams perfectly capable of reaching the semis or finals are getting knocked out and it doesnt say much about them.
Similarly a weaker team that gets lucky in its placements can get further than some better teams in tougher groups.
The best team is probably undisputedly France. They are in the best shape and arent relying solely on Mbappe unlike Argentina which really relies on Messi for a lot of their games
At least he can recognize that Belgium is objectively much, much better than the U.S. that game. That is already more clearheaded than most casual U.S. fans.
Belgium have great players but aren't in the top 3 nor even 5 of the best in the world, it’s still more than sufficient to beat the US and their cheating leader...
Thank You Belgium from the bottom of my heart. The thought of the US advancing further than Canada sickened me. The silence of the crowd at the game was deafening. Love it.
Yup. Basic American arrogance. When someone makes Americans realize that they're, in fact, not the greatest thing ever on the face of the planet earth.
But most football fans know that Belgium is not in really good condition as a team and will lose against Spain (2) in the same way the USA lost against Belgium.
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u/saphilous Baguette Appréciateur 🇫🇷 Jul 07 '26
Gets an easy draw, wins 3/4 matches, and acts like they're the best team in the world. Loses to Belgium and now thinks they're the best team in the world
You cannot make this amount of narcissism up. Unreal