I think the flow chart is pretty simple. Did the White House make the call? Clearly yes. You can argue whether or not it impacted the decision but at that point it’s already gone. The call was made.

I got to be honest. This doesn’t seem funny to me anymore.

I will say, from a sports karma perspective Balogun getting rescinded here and being deemed eligible to play is very very bad. But I mostly do not believe in magic.

FIFA is the most uncomplicated, apolitical organization on earth. They want money. That is their north star. They will pretend to be very fascist or very woke if it makes them more money. They will kiss whoever's ass they need to kiss in order to make money.

Lol Balogun coming back is pure corruption. Let’s goooooooo

Damn Trossard to Besiktas is legitimately shocking to me. He couldn't stay in a big league?

The thing I keep coming back to is we didn’t just beat them. We didn’t just whip them. We stunted on them. Every time we had the ball we embarrassed at least one Paraguayan defender. Every single time

I kind of give Marsch a break for this. He’s trying to big up his boys who have had an unlucky tournament filled with injuries, and also knows he has to go take a job in MLS after this.

That’s fucking tough. Tough draw.

At the aquarium. Nobody is here. It’s crazy. Really nice. Wonder if there was some kind of global catastrophe occurred that I didn’t notice.

Really weird dichotomy to try to make here. They’re both lizard humans. What’s the point?

1. Pig poop balls 2. Hassan Piker 3. Lenny Kravitz 4. Frederick Douglass

I think if I win the lottery I’m going to get really into long distance solo sailing. Like really go all in. Then sail from California to Japan and feed myself to the volcano.

Saw a couple on a first date at this restaurant and the dude is a good looking guy in decent shape but he is hiding a fading hairline so badly with styling. This is why we need George Costanza back on tv. Men need to be reminded they can be men.

Going to be fun to play Cabo Verde in the final

Just saw some tourists in line at a bakery with bags from a different, nearby bakery. That is living.

Eat shit, nerd.

I’ve said this before but I find it really depressing when you watch a Spanish movie and instead of having a bunch of production company intros it just lists the different government agencies that provided funding. This country really just does not care about culture.

I am as big of a VAR skeptic as the rest of the world, but man, this is the World Cup. You can’t be deciding matches on clearly illegal goals just because you don’t want to ruin the vibe in the stands. It’s the World Cup!

Not only is it often infuriating, it’s also very boring a lot. Like, that’s one thing the haters get right. There are some real snoozers out there on the TV on a Saturday at 5 am pacific standard time. Not all of em but it happens.

That’s wild they’ve got sensors in the ball now.

Wowowowowow

Tough draw for Croatia in the end. Everybody likes to talk shit but Portugal is pretty good. They don’t really make sense as a team at all but they do have a lot of good players. I know this isn’t in depth analysis but so what

That is CLOSE. I know he’s not as good as he used to be at most things but he is very very good at timing runs.

Audience was BIG mad at the eggs joke here. www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqET...

Arteta killed this man. www.espn.co.uk/football/sto...

One cool thing about the internet is you can post something like this and all of the replies will just be people saying (correctly) that is just polyurethane spray foam.

Rooting against Croatia today because it drives me fucking crazy how Zach Lowe insists on saying “optionality” instead of just “options” and I want him and his wife to be unhappy.

Disagree. This is the most Hold Steady coded thing of all time. They had like 10 songs about this.

It's kind of cool that both these actors legit look like they are wearing masks.

No issues at all with anybody in the rest of the world rooting against us to be clear. I’d do the same. We’re the worst country in the world and our fans are obnoxious. Don’t really care though.

I keep seeing people posting the Balogun red saying it should be rescinded, and I got to be honest every time I see it it looks worse. You guys got to stop posting it but keep demanding it gets rescinded.

We need basically everything Pepi’s got against Belgium. I think he can do it.

Great game from Christian

Suck a fucking dick That keeper sucked on that shit

Fuck yes

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Ref is finally starting to call jersey pulls about 15 minutes too late.

This referee has been atrocious.

Are you serious

Realistically, how many teams have played better than us this tournament. Not many. A couple maybe.

How is this guy not reaching into his pocket? Bosnia should be on like 2 or 3 cards right now

How can you just take a guy out like that on a planned play? How is that something you can just do without getting carded.

Hell yes. He earned the fuck out of that. He had been battling all game.

Just stand up Balogun Jesus Christ.

Bosnia definitely not unhappy right now

Folarin Balogun had the single best game i have ever seen an American striker have against Paraguay and then has kind of just turned back into Folarin Balogun, which is still not bad obviously but it’s not what it was against Paraguay.

Our attack is so good

I actually prefer Rocky Mountain High to Country Roads.

I think, in a rules based society with fair competition, penalties should be penalties even if you find it annoying. In the real world though, the world we all want to live in however, that should not be the case. Calls should be decided based on my whim.