After their stunning victory, Almost brought tears to my eyes it was such a beautiful shared American moment of joy like we have few and far between these days. Congratulations men’s team, you guys earned it.

The US coach, who is Argentine, was belting it out at the end.

..to see and hear this. He lives on in his beloved music.

For that to be a straight red in a game that had been so laissez-faire was BS. It was more reckless than serious foul play, yellow not red.

Bullshit call.

Having to defeat BOTH Bosnia and Herzegovina to advance.

Raised my kid right!

Malik Tillman is a breakout talent, the playmaker we lacked. I’d guess his value has gone up $20 million since the tourney started. Next up Belgium. We played them in March and lost 5-2 but we’re a different team now.

The Balogun red was soft. It will be appealed but I’m not hopeful. The ref played a huge role in creating the ugly shitshow.

Do not like the red for Balogun

— CJ Fogler (@cjzero.bsky.social) 2026-07-02T01:32:38.997Z

and not even getting a yellow. No offense to Messi, just very selective.

Two completely separate universes.

This was the most one-sided match so far in the round of 16. I likes ours chances.

As someone who rarely watches soccer I will regularly mock guys who go down like they got shot only to be back to normal in 2 minutes. Every guy that goes down immediately grabs their shin

The player must leave the pitch for one minute if a trainer comes onto the field.

I've been involved with soccer for forty years as player, coach, and ref. I've refereed various levels for 15 years.

That's a red card all day.

And, yes, of course, Messi's infraction should have been as well.

Looking at the language from Law 12, "A tackle or challenge that endangers the safety of an opponent or uses excessive force or brutality must be sanctioned as serious foul play."

Because of the way the ankle got twisted, you might be able to say that his safety was endangered, but there's no way that's excessive force. If Balogun lands two inches to the left, he's merely stepping on the guy's foot.

Yellow cards are for reckless behavior, which this more easily falls under. In my humble opinion, of course.

Nice to meet a fellow ref!

I love that so many other Americans seem to be getting into this WC, as well!

It’s not going to get any easier. Go USA!

I was a certified soccer referee for years, so I am slow to criticize officials (because so many fans don't know shit), but this was a bad call. Players got tangled up. Watching someone's ankle get stepped on is hard to watch in slow motion, but that doesn't change the fact that Balogun didn't approach the Bosnian player with any amount of seriousness and had no idea that he was about to land on his foot.

I've seen a couple times this World Cup where VAR is used to overanalyze judgement calls rather than correcting mistakes. Sometimes refs have first instincts for a reason.