{"id":1245,"date":"2026-07-21T07:44:41","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T07:44:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/?p=1245"},"modified":"2026-07-21T07:44:41","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T07:44:41","slug":"america-got-the-world-cup-it-deserves-good-and-bad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/?p=1245","title":{"rendered":"America Got the World Cup It Deserves \u2014 Good and Bad"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"America<\/div>

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\n\tFor the past six weeks or so I\u2019ve been having a recurring fight with my friends. The dispute is over whether or not it\u2019s ethical to support the U.S. national team in the World Cup<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tTo the vast majority of people reading this article, this is an absurd question: of course you can and should support the United States Men\u2019s National Team, you weirdo. And look, I\u2019m with you. But despite the fact that my friends are pompous dorks who are no fun to watch the game with, the question they raise is valid: Are our national teams avatars of the administration in power, or of the people and promise of that country?<\/p>\n

\n\tIf you believe the former, then yeah, it\u2019s pretty fucking weird to support the USMNT. In doing so, by that thinking, you\u2019d be engaging in a sort of athletic nationalism on behalf of a country run by Donald Trump<\/a>, the most corrupt president in history, who forced the Iranian national team to flee across the border immediately after the final whistle of each of their games, whose federal police have shot numerous civilians dead in the street during a brutal immigration crackdown, who has started a war and supported a genocide while covering up his close personal friendship with the most notorious pedophile in modern history.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tI mean just look at him. On Sunday he waddled down onto the field to present Spain with their trophy, lingering on stage with the victorious team as they tried to celebrate. The presence of Mexican President Claudia Steinbaum and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney did little to dilute the image of Trump standing next to his crony Gianni Infantino, grinning at all the trappings of their power, hands caressing a trophy they\u2019d done nothing to earn, lingering well past his cue to leave Spain to their glory. This World Cup, literally, had Donald Trump\u2019s fingerprints all over it.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd yet, this was one of the most thrilling, beautiful World Cups in recent memory. That\u2019s America, baby \u2014 contradictions abound.<\/p>\n

\n\tOver the past five weeks of the greatest athletic competition on Earth, we\u2019ve seen games that will literally never leave my memory. The final, which I attended yesterday in New Jersey, was remarkably forgettable \u2014 a 0-0 draw until the 106th minute, with Spain dominating every second of play and yet unable to score, undone time and time again by their insistence on tricksy passing and the personal heroics of Argentina\u2019s goalkeeper Emi Martinez. The rest of the tournament, however, delivered. Cabo Verde, refusing to lose until the very last moments of the first knockout round, battling back again and again against both teams that would eventually play in the final. The sheer dominance of France\u2019s Kylian Mbappe in front of goal, scoring at will, rivaled only by the aging GOAT Leo Messi and the Norwegian warlord Erling Haaland. England\u2019s heroic stand at the Estadio Azteca in Mexico City, 45 minutes in the rain, a man down, holding out for the win and singing \u201cWonderwall\u201d with what felt like half the stadium when it ended. Off the pitch, too: the Algerian national team being welcomed with open arms<\/a> by Lawrence, Kansas; Scottish braves drinking Boston dry<\/a> and partying wildly with Haitian fans that overcame so much<\/a> just to be at the tournament. In Mexico, of course, the World Cup was everything, and its fans threw joyous South Koreans<\/a> pumped full of tequila<\/a> into the air, and celebrated in the streets<\/a> with opposing fans even after their hard-fought defeat to England.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n

\n\tFor the United States, what the 2026 World Cup was \u2014 what our team was, what our fans were, what our performance as hosts was \u2014 is a reflection of two things at once: what our nation is and what it can be.<\/p>\n

\n\tOur star striker, Folarin Balogun, was born here by accident, a citizen only because of a birthright system that our president is currently trying to erase. We have Ricardo and Giovanni and Freeman and Zendejas. We have another striker whose name is Haji, for goodness sake. I look at that team and I see the country America can be, one in which any soul born in or living within our arbitrary borders can become part of a great national project that seeks to improve the lives of everyone it can. And yet, I can also look at that team and see a reflection of what the country is, because there is an anchor around its neck. When Balogun was \u2014 albeit unjustly \u2014 suspended for a crucial match, Trump himself stepped in. Cronyism saved the day and got Balogun reinstated, but ruined the fragile harmony the team had enjoyed<\/a>. On the pitch against Belgium, they came apart. Temperamental star Christian Pulisic tried to go alone and then quit, aging defender Tim Ream\u2019s legs failed him when he needed them most, a young goalkeeper slipped and fell when he had no good options for support.<\/p>\n

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\t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n

\n\tWhat more can you say about a team, about our country? The team is an entity that is capable of more but still has so far to go, that is vulnerable to the same forces of avarice and selfishness and fear that plague our national identity writ large.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s possible to end the story there, to say good riddance to another failed year and fractured team. But I think that\u2019s a mistake. I think if you believe that you haven\u2019t really been watching. I think that\u2019s also why it pissed me off so much that some of my friends wouldn\u2019t root for the U.S. Yes, we have flaws, like every country involved in the tournament. Yes, our current team management and political government are filled with morons.\u00a0 But if you won\u2019t put on the shirt you\u2019re essentially opting out of our future. We can\u2019t wait around for a better world, a better team, a better president, before we deign to lend our support. Progress only comes from effort, from caring, from believing in something more.<\/p>\n

\n\tOne of my favorite images of the World Cup was a crowd shot of the opening match against Paraguay in Los Angeles: every race, color and creed of American there is, all covered in red white and blue. It\u2019s corny and trite, sure. But that\u2019s what it\u2019s all about. That\u2019s why we\u2019re here. You have to believe. The U.S. won that game 4-1. In four years, we\u2019ll be even better.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the past six weeks or so I\u2019ve been having a recurring fight with my friends. The dispute is over whether or not it\u2019s ethical to support the U.S. national team in the World Cup.\u00a0 To the vast majority of people reading this article, this is an absurd question: of course you can and should…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1246,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/trump-and-world-cup.jpg?w=1600&h=900&crop=1","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[24,1707,41,2474,2475,40],"class_list":["post-1245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-america","tag-bad","tag-cup","tag-deserves","tag-good","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}