All former FIFA-certified referees raise your hands. 🙋 That's right I used to both play & ref soccer. Now I mostly just mock it. Until they mess w/ Team USA. This picture of the collision between Balogun & the B&H player looks awful, but it's complete garbage. Wrong angle to see what really happened. Balogun was closer to the ball and the B&H player came from his right AND behind initiating the contact. He caused his own suffering. The ref got it right initially as a no call. They were both playing the ball. Even in a sport known for pitifully lame flopping sometimes two dudes just crash into each other and do some actual damage. Doesn't mean there was a foul. The replay guy then saw an opportunity to take the Americans down a notch and the ref bought in and made an egregious red card ejection. If any call was made it should have been against the B&H player who came from behind and out of the sight line of Balogun. The outrage now is "How dare the Americans get this absurd attempt to weaken them overturned". Taking a player out of a once in a lifetime game and tournament should be an exceedingly high bar. This was not. The people pretending to care about the rules are really mad the Americans aren't getting screwed over. It's a common sentiment and all around the world hating Americans for being the Biggest, Baddest and Best is as much a national sport as Soccer Ball. I've lived overseas for six years and traveled to several dozen countries. Furriners love to hate on us. I'm not saying it's all underserved, I'm just saying it's not new and it's everywhere. I can't blame them, we're barely 250 years old and we have accomplished more than any country in history. We have invented more amazing things, freed more people from tyranny and lifted more people from poverty and that stings, especially for the Euros who think they own our history. They do, the part that we left and left behind. The part we are making now they can only watch and be chafed about. Because they can't even come close. So they were salivating at knocking a US star out of play on a BS call. Sorry Jacques Belgique, you're going to have to take on a full US squad. Good luck, I hope we make you cry some more in the game tonight.