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United States vs. Belgium TONIGHT! Who will win the Round of 16 match, in Seattle! Is Folarin Balogun playing? It looks like he is- as FIFA has overturned Balogun's red card. What are your thoughts? Scheim: CHILL OUT!
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00:00Tonight, we have USA in the round of 16 match against Belgium in the World Cup at 8 o'clock
00:09kickoff.
00:09They're going to be playing in Seattle, and the big news over the weekend in regards to
00:14this game was that Florin Balligan had been given a red card after VAR review in the last
00:20USA game and would be suspended one match following the red card.
00:23Normally, that's normal procedure with a red card, suspended the following game, and then
00:27can return the game after.
00:28Well, FIFA has decided to overrule that suspension, and he will not have to serve a one-game suspension.
00:37We'll be able to play against Belgium tonight, which is huge for the U.S. because he is without
00:42question their best goal scorer.
00:44He has been fantastic in this tournament up to this point, and I can assure you he will
00:49be impactful in this game tonight.
00:51However, people are freaking the F out.
00:54The entire soccer world is pissed to the point where UEFA, the European Football Association,
01:02their governing body, issued a statement, and I'd just like to read you a couple quotes.
01:08When the certainty of rules is no longer guaranteed by its guardians, the integrity of the game
01:13is at stake and credibility of a competition is undermined.
01:17Equally, such decision creates a precedent in the ongoing tournament where similar situations
01:22will now require an equal treatment to the detriment of the competition.
01:26We express our disbelief at such an unprecedented, incomprehensible, and unjustifiable decision.
01:33Europe is imploding over this decision.
01:36People in Belgium were freaking out.
01:37Everyone around the world is losing their minds.
01:40And I would simply like to call to question, UEFA, did you see what happened entering the
01:46World Cup?
01:47Because if you were unaware, in qualifying, Cristiano Ronaldo, one of the most popular footballers
01:52in the entire world, and has been now for like 20 years, received a red card in qualifying.
01:57He was to serve a three-game suspension.
02:01However, FIFA overturned that, made it a one-game suspension, so he missed the final qualifying,
02:07and then would be eligible to play in group stage and simply be on probationary, in a probationary
02:12period.
02:13Double-secret probationary.
02:14Yeah.
02:14And so what FIFA did, was they made one of their biggest names and biggest superstars available
02:20in the World Cup, because they can do that.
02:23There's a clause in the FIFA rules where they can go in and overrule any red card they want.
02:27There is this clause, and you know, you can say FIFA is corrupt.
02:31They already set this precedent.
02:33They did it with Cristiano Ronaldo.
02:35But of course, the European Football Association has zero inclination to mention that to anybody.
02:41They simply think that the Florian Balligan situation is the one setting the precedent
02:45when that was already set.
02:46So, I would just like everybody outside of the United States to chill out.
02:52They allowed this guy to play.
02:54Even if the United States beats Belgium today, I'm sorry to say, I love this team.
02:58It's been a lot of fun.
03:00I love the World Cup.
03:01There is a next to zero, I would say there's still some chance, but it's pretty close to zero chance
03:06they're going to advance past Spain, who's probably going to kick Portugal's ass today.
03:11So, and then on top of that, they'd have to get through France.
03:15Like, I think what happened here is that they were playing a clip of Lionel Messi side-by-side
03:21with this Florian Balligan situation where Messi clearly had intents and created a much worse foul
03:27but wasn't even given a yellow card, whereas Florian Balligan was given a red card on VAR review
03:33when it wasn't even given a yellow card prior to that by the referee.
03:36Can I ask something that's from a dumb perspective?
03:39Like, I don't know that much about soccer, to be totally transparent.
03:43Do they use the VAR in the last stage that you talked about?
03:48Yeah, they use the VAR in every game at every time.
03:50No, no, no, with, uh, before the group stage started.
03:54Oh, in, like, qualifying?
03:55Yeah.
03:55Yeah, yeah.
03:55Every game.
03:56Every FIFA game.
03:57Yep, they use the VAR.
03:57Okay, so this is one of my issues with soccer, and honestly, it spreads across all sports.
04:02Reviews getting out of hand.
04:03But I think with soccer in particular right now, with the way that this has gone, so much is subjective
04:08to the point that I don't, again, I don't know a ton about soccer.
04:13How do we still not know how long the game is going to go?
04:16Can someone explain that to me?
04:18Well, so.
04:18I don't understand.
04:19I was talking to my husband about it over the weekend, where I was like, how much time
04:22is left?
04:22And he was like, well, we don't know yet.
04:25That's insane.
04:26I'm saying, not, no, not how much time we're going to have to watch this game, how much
04:29time is left in the game clock.
04:30Yeah, yeah.
04:30And he was like, we don't know yet.
04:32Yep.
04:33And I just go, I don't want this mansplained to me, so I'm going to walk away and make
04:38another drink.
04:38But there's so much that seems to be so subjective.
04:41When you talk about intent, that is the part to me that I think drives people insane.
04:46Because it's not really something that you can prove for the most part.
04:50It's the same thing in some fouls that you call in football, some fouls that you call in
04:54basketball.
04:55How do you prove that there was malicious intent?
04:58Well, especially when you're slowing everything down so much, it's like, okay, yeah, you're
05:03going to be able to find every little detail.
05:04But if you're watching it in live time, it looks, okay, it's just a foul.
05:08Like, it's nothing crazy.
05:09And so on top of people flipping out about this, I think the reason, one of the reasons
05:15it has exploded so much is because President Trump reached out to the FIFA president, I believe
05:20his name is Johnny Infantino, and asked for them to review the red card.
05:24And so they believe, people outside of the United States now believe that President Donald
05:29Trump is the reason that this red card was taken away, and not that FIFA just wants the
05:34host, the one of the only host countries left, actually the only host country left now, to
05:39have their best player on the field in a big game.
05:43I don't know.
05:44That's probably why they're doing it, is they're like, hmm, we're playing in the United
05:47States.
05:48Their best player is going to miss a game.
05:50On a kind of a BS red card, it shouldn't have been a red card in the first place anyways,
05:53let's revoke the red card, no suspension, he had to miss the rest of the game then, I
05:57think time served.
05:59You know, I think that's what they call it, the judicial system.
06:01Time served, he's fine, we're good.
06:03It's that simple.
06:04How much do you think the response outside of the U.S. is because, one, Trump is not popular
06:10outside of the U.S., so it's him making the phone call.
06:13Two, it looks like it's weight given towards the host country, as you said.
06:17And three, the U.S. is not traditionally this soccer powerhouse.
06:23So it's like, okay, you're giving the U.S. the benefit of this instead of any of these
06:29other countries who, and I don't know the individual situations that their players have had, but
06:33this is the country that you're rewarding?
06:35The one country with a massive sports infrastructure whose fans don't give a crap about soccer?
06:41They call it soccer instead of football?
06:43Yep.
06:43Yeah.
06:43And that's why.
06:44People are freaking out.
06:45The Europeans especially are losing their minds because all of those things that you
06:48just mentioned are going the U.S.'s way.
06:50But, like, even Zlatan Ibrahimovic, not a U.S. citizen, not an American, is from Sweden,
06:56has been doing fantastic football analysis with Thierry Henry.
06:59If you haven't watched any of it, they've been fantastic.
07:02He even said, he's like, it should have been a red card in the first place.
07:05We all said it.
07:07Everybody knew it.
07:08And yet the VAR decided it was a red card because they slow it down to an infinitesimal
07:14speed and decide, yep, there's intent here.
07:17It's a red card, even though it shouldn't have been.
07:18So it's kind of just remedying a situation.
07:21That's all.
07:21That's all it is.
07:22Text line says, Meggo asked her husband a question.
07:24Meggo doesn't want to be mansplained.
07:26That's fair.
07:27That is fair.
07:28I'm a very annoying person to be married to.
07:32I get it.
07:32It's fine.
07:33My wife asks me questions all the time and then goes, I don't want to be mansplained.
07:36But, Meggo, you mentioned how on the text line people were clamoring for more talk on
07:41the red card that was rescinded.
07:44For those of you who haven't been paying attention or don't really, hadn't cared up until this
07:48point, Team USA plays today against Belgium in the World Cup, eight o'clock kickoff.
07:53And originally, Florin Balogin, the leading scorer for Team USA, had gotten a red card in
07:58the previous game on VAR review.
08:01Wasn't given a card at all originally, but then upon slow-mo, VAR review was given a red
08:06card and should be suspended one game.
08:09However, FIFA has since come out and rescinded that suspension.
08:14He will not have to serve a one-game suspension.
08:16They basically chalk it up to time served, and he will be able to play against Belgium
08:21to the point where now European fans are infuriated.
08:24They are losing their minds.
08:27UEFA put out this whole statement about how it's incomprehensible and unjustifiable and
08:32all these big adjectives.
08:33And people are losing their minds because they think President Trump is the reason that this
08:37got done.
08:38When in reality, they reviewed it and determined that it wasn't, in fact, a red card.
08:42As every analyst has told you, it shouldn't have been a red card in the first place.
08:46Well, just the presentation of the timeline.
08:48Did the review of the review come before or after the president called FIFA?
08:56Because we know the president has a history with FIFA.
08:59They gave him an award.
09:00Yeah, they gave him, like, what was it?
09:01The Peace Award or something like that?
09:03It was an award they made up.
09:04Yeah.
09:04No.
09:05Every award is made up.
09:06So I believe originally that FIFA had said that he will serve the suspension, and then
09:13they reviewed it and determined that it didn't deserve a red card and so that he won't.
09:17So I think technically the timeline presents so that, like, the review came after the phone
09:23call.
09:24But ultimately, it comes down to this.
09:26They've been talking about it now for days.
09:29Every analyst that they have on Fox is like, yeah, it shouldn't have been a red card in the
09:32first place, and people are comparing it to a play Lionel Messi had had previously where
09:36he didn't get any card at all, and it felt like there was more intent behind that play
09:41than there was the Florin Balogin play.
09:43And on top of that, you're talking about a U.S. host city.
09:47Like, this is one of the host countries for the World Cup.
09:50Their best player was going to be out in a round of 16 game.
09:53They probably want him to play.
09:55They did something similar with Ronaldo.
09:57He got a red card in the qualifying qualifiers.
10:02So this is prior to group play.
10:03This is back in the qualifiers.
10:05He got a red card, was supposed to serve a three-game suspension that would have carried
10:08into group play.
10:09However, FIFA was like, nope, instead of three games, it's only one game.
10:13So he missed the final qualifying game and then was eligible to play for all of group
10:17stage.
10:17Here's my read on it.
10:18And I'm giving this as somebody who is not a huge soccer fan.
10:21So I'm not coming at this from an expert angle.
10:24It's just my opinion.
10:25If you watch the play and you feel that it should not have risen to the level of a red
10:31card, the precedent it sets then of being rescinded is making something right before
10:38the next game.
10:38Bingo.
10:39Like, you shouldn't have a problem with it if you're UEFA or whatever, if you feel that
10:44that was the wrong call in the first place.
10:47You shouldn't be worried about what happened behind the scenes or if this is corruption,
10:53coercion, if this is giving too much benefit to a one of the host countries or if it involves
10:59politicians.
11:00I honestly, if I think that the red card shouldn't have been there, I don't care about that stuff.
11:05What I care about is the precedent of turning it over to make it right.
11:09Yeah.
11:09To me, you can only have a gripe with this if you think that the intent was there and
11:15that he should have been served the red card and now he's being unfairly pardoned from that
11:20and he shouldn't be allowed to play this game because the intent was there and it was the
11:23red card was deserved.
11:24All the other stuff, the extracurricular stuff, it doesn't matter that much to me because you
11:29already know that FIFA is a totally corrupt organization.
11:33So that's nothing new.
11:34It's not like you're doing something that you're dirtying, something that's pure and
11:39good in the world of sports.
11:41Come on.
11:41And technically, by FIFA's laws and rules and regulations, they didn't do anything they
11:47can't do.
11:48Like it says in their bylines that they can review red cards.
11:50Yes, exactly.
11:51Unusual, but it says that they can do it.
11:53And honestly, I bet if this was like Kylian Mbappe of France or Erling Haaland of Norway that
12:00had gotten a bogus red card like this and FIFA overturned it, people would be like,
12:04good job, FIFA.
12:05We want the stars playing in the game.
12:07But because good job making the call that was a bad call.
12:10Right.
12:11But because people around the world hate Donald Trump and think he's the reason that it got
12:17done, even though FIFA goes through an entire review process, he is not the sole reason,
12:21if any at all, that this got done and got overturned.
12:24But they believe it is that it makes them unbelievably mad.
12:29And it's it's kind of funny because now, once again, it's the USA versus the world.
12:33And if it's just like hockey again, it's just it's all over again.
12:37And you know what?
12:38If they go out, I just hope they beat the bag out of Belgium tonight.
12:41Like I want them to absolutely crush Belgium.
12:44I want them to walk into the next round and I want them to like put up a good fight
12:47against
12:48Spain because I think Spain beats Portugal this afternoon at three o'clock.
12:50That's my guess.
12:51OK, well, it's a big game tonight.
12:53I know you're going to be all over.
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