At the 2026 World Cup, the United States Men's National Team opened its home World Cup in glory. Having last hosted the tournament in 1994, expectations for this year’s cup were high.
And the team didn’t disappoint. It won its first game against Paraguay with a 4-1 stunner. The second win came against Australia, where two goals helped the U.S. top its group, winning the most points it ever has (6) in a World Cup group stage.
A final game against Türkiye resulted in a 3-2 loss, but many wrote it off as a rotational squad, having kept only two players in the starting 11.
On July 1, the USA beat Bosnia and Herzegovina in a 2-0 game in the Round of 32 to win its first World Cup knockout game since 2002. In the 64th minute, USA’s striker, 25-year-old Folarin Balogun, received a red card after competing for the ball with Tarik Muharemović and accidentally stepping on the defender’s ankle. The referee’s decision was a blatant misuse of Video Assistant Referee when he looked at a still image of the tackle rather than the live video.
The Bosnian team had a one-man advantage after the red card, but a free kick conversion from Malik Tillman in the 82nd minute put the game away.
Heading into the Round of 16 match against Belgium, hopes were high. A sell-out crowd of 66,000 was expected, even with resale tickets ranging from $1,840 to $8,050.
The referee situation only increased the momentum. A red card many viewed as an unfair decision left the U.S. without its star goalscorer, and the opponents were a European nation with a much stronger history in football. The USA looked to be the disadvantaged underdog.
And Americans love being the underdogs. It’s a mainstay in American mythos, beginning with the ragtag farmers who took down the British Empire.
That whole momentum shifted when news broke on July 5 that Balogun’s suspension was reversed.
Initially, the decision brought me and many other fans pure excitement. It seemed justice had been restored. It soon became apparent, however, the reversal was an act of political corruption.
In the immediate moments after the USA’s game against Bosnia, President Donald Trump called FIFA President Gianni Infantino to request a review of the suspension. On the day of the reversal, Trump said he thought the call was terrible, even though he “didn’t know what the hell a red card was.” After touting his own athletic abilities, Trump claimed he didn’t tell Infantino what to do.
But the optics were clear.
The American president got involved, and suddenly the United States had an advantage.
I am not claiming Trump’s role itself contributed to the USMNT’s poor performance against Belgium — although recent comments by Balogun may indicate otherwise.
However, his involvement did ruin the experience of supporting the USA team. It shifted audience attention from the players’ stellar performances to the president.
When the World Cup began, I was reminded of how special it can be to have an event that brings together so many countries.
At center stage in the early days of this World Cup was unity among fans from every continent, race and religion.
Americans joined in the pageantry of diverse fanbases, from Norwegians rowing in Times Square to Scotland’s “Tartan Army” drinking Boston dry.
More important, though, was the chance for those around the world to see the true beauty of the U.S., a beauty mired by the tides of war.
The world’s exposure to America over the last few years has been dismal. Now, international visitors were met with what I would optimistically say is the true America, an America that is hospitable and friendly.
For the first time in years, the “first point of contact,” the visual representation of America, was not a president or a war, but the American people.
The greatest irony of Trump’s involvement is that his support of Balogun seems ill informed.
The USA’s talisman and best player has two Nigerian parents, and he is only an American citizen through the 14th Amendment’s citizenship clause, which states that “[a]ll persons born or naturalized in the United States … are citizens of the United States.”
In the summer of 2001, Balogun’s mother, Florence, took a vacation to New York to visit her sister while seven months pregnant. After the airline refused to let her travel home without a letter from her doctor, the Baloguns had to stay at her sister-in-law’s Brooklyn apartment, where the future World Cup star was soon born.
This is the “origin story” of the man Trump defends.
Meanwhile, Trump loathes birthright citizenship — the very means by which Balogun can play for the U.S. — and has claimed it’s “suicide for our country.”
On his first day back in office, Trump signed an executive order called “Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship.” This order contends birthright citizenship does not extend to those born in the United States when the mother was unlawfully present in the U.S., and the father was not a United States citizen or lawful permanent resident, or when that person’s mother was temporarily in the United States, such as on a Visa Waiver Program.
Just two days before Trump’s call with Infantino, where he got Balogun’s red card overturned, the Supreme Court of the United States struck down the executive order. The court’s opinion held that children born in the United States to parents unlawfully or temporarily present are citizens at birth because they are still “subject to the jurisdiction” of the country.
Trump wants birthright citizenship to cease to exist, but he used his position of power to reinstate a player who benefited from that very constitutional clause.
The USA seemed to get its karmic retribution when Belgium beat it 4-1. The team played the weakest football of its whole tournament.
But what I remember from that day won’t be the game at all. It’ll be all the feelings before it.
Suddenly, supporting the USMNT was synonymous with supporting Trump.
The team that had been performing so well was now viewed as the team of the regime. For those outside of the U.S., to beat the USMNT was to beat everything the American government and Trump stood for.
The wars in Iran and Palestine. ICE killing Americans in broad daylight. Consistent false claims of stolen elections. It all now had a team to represent it.
Even if America had won, the win would always have an asterisk. Winning would only have been possible because of corruption.
What began as one of the best World Cups the USMNT ever played had suddenly been ruined by the corrupt actions of a man who refused to sit back and let America’s newest passion be about something other than him.
Contact Timothy Dillehay at tdillehay@alligator.org. Follow him on X @timothydilleh.
Timothy Dillehay is a political science and history sophomore and a Spring 2026 Opinions Columnist for The Alligator. He writes on issues related to university administration and student government. In his free time, Timothy enjoys journaling, reading comics and classics, and reviewing films on his Letterboxd.
