America's World Cup Loss Might Be Good for America

**Michael Smerconish** (0:00)
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**SPEAKER_2** (0:34)
Ditch the clowns on the left. And the jokers on the right.

**TC Cannon** (0:37)
And join Michael Smerconish right here, in the middle.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:40)
This is The Smerconish Podcast for Independent Minds.

**Michael Smerconish** (0:45)
So we lost, and I'm okay with it. I'm okay with it. I'm not happy about it, but I'm okay with it. I have a different reaction than you might have anticipated. If you've been listening to me in the last couple of days, the last couple of weeks actually, talking about so much World Cup action, I saw three matches. I had the privilege of seeing three matches. None of them featured Team USA. It's never been about Team USA for me. There's something larger at play here, and that continues. In fact, maybe that's even reinforced after the outcome last night. I'll get to my sentiments about last night's match, but first, let me tell you this. Yesterday, we had 40,011 votes at smerconish.com. 40,011. That is a Saturday kind of number. When I have the added heft of a CNN international audience, that is not a Monday number for us. That's about 10,000 votes higher than a Monday number. It just lets you know the level of passion about the question I was asking yesterday, namely, should President Trump have called FIFA to refute the suspension of Flo Balogun? 89.42% of those 40,000 folks, 9 out of 10, said no.
9 out of 10 said no. It's over for one. I think that score is a little misleading. It sounds like more of a route than it actually was. Team USA, although they didn't look sharp, they looked better in the second half initially than they did in the first. But they were in it midway through the second half, trailing two to one, but very much in it.
It seems like Pocotino, Pochettino had made some adjustments during the course of the half because they were really under fire in the first half of that match, but came out of the locker room with seemingly a renewed sense of energy. They had a real shot and then came to sucker punch. And I've gone back and I've looked at the tape and it started with what looked like an aimless pass, a lofted ball that was punted over the top of a back tracking American.
And then the Belgian player, the Ketliere, I think is the pronunciation, he gave chase. Goalkeeper Matt Freese comes out of the box to sweep it up. And at first he did well. He beat him to the ball, brought it down with his chest, and then he hesitated. Broke my heart to see Matt Freese hesitate.
Shot gets made, curls around the last defender. I forget which American it was. And all of a sudden it's like 3-1 after just 10 seconds of calamity. And you could just feel the enthusiasm drain from the American side as well as the fans. And then there was a late error that gifted Romelu Lukaku an opportunity for their fourth goal. I told you that one of our sons went to school with Matt Freese, so we really have a rooting interest in our house for his success and well-being. I give him credit. He stood at his locker. If you saw the interview that was aired later, or maybe I saw it in a news clip, and he said, this moment hurts more than probably any other moment in my life.
He'd been solid during the tournament, but that's the sometimes cruelty of this sport. It all changes on the dime. I got to say this as well, like 60 seconds into the match, Matt Freese made this extraordinary save, fully outstretched. I think it was the right, yeah, right hand as he went to his right side. And it was like, wow, a shot that otherwise would have been a goal. And I was so psyched for that, but didn't turn out the way that we would have liked. The other thing is that Flo Balogun, the person at the striker, the person at the center of the weekend and yesterday drama, I noticed that when he was introduced, US supporters gave him the loudest ovation of any player on the pitch. The Belgian fans booed some of the waved red cards. That was frankly the only moment that he electrified the crowd. He was a non-factor, no goals. I think a total of three shots, his best chance came late in the game. He did make a contribution in drawing a foul that led to the Tillman equalizer. But that was pretty much it. The Belgian captain admitted afterward that the team had held a meeting when they heard the news of Balogun's reinstatement and said, we told ourselves we needed to do our talking on the pitch. That's what we did today. In other words, the intervention meant to help Team USA provided motivation for the opponent, no surprise there. And they got the last word. I don't know if you saw this footage, but you have to if you haven't. But when Lukaku scored that fourth goal, did you see what the Belgian players did when they gathered together? It was very brief, but it was unmistakable. They danced and they didn't do any dance. They did, as I call it, from, there's, when Harry met Sally, yeah, that's when I learned it, from Billy Crystal, the white man's overbite, the Trump dance, if you will, what he does, they imitated Trump. I thought it was priceless. I thought it was hysterical. And then after the final whistle, the Belgian Federation's official account posted a photo with a two word caption, overturn this.