The post-mortems on the U.S. men’s national team’s exit from the 2026 FIFA World Cup are rolling in, and former U.S. women’s national team player Megan Rapinoe is offering her take.
And you’ll never believe where she’s placing the blame…
Nah, you guessed it, she’s blaming President Trump.
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One of the biggest stories going into Monday’s match against Belgium had to do with the red card and suspension of U.S. star Folarin Balogun.
Of course, pretty much everyone agreed it was a lousy call, and when the President phoned up FIFA, they allowed Balogun to play using the same rule that allowed Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo to play under similar circumstances.
But, obviously, because Trump was involved, the usual suspects were not happy about it, and Rapinoe argued on her podcast, “A Touch More: The Beautiful Game,” that the distraction doomed the team. By the way, the bookshelf behind her featured pretty much exactly what you’d expect.
“I think the distraction got to the team for sure in some type of way. Whether it was, you know, this red card situation, whether it was being in a public discourse with this president, all of the, you know, shenanigans and chaos that comes with the feelings on both sides of that. Whether you agree with it or not it’s, it’s just like it’s a lot to contend with,” Rapinoe said.
Well, that’s certainly a take.
Rapinoe — who knows a thing or two about off-field distractions — argued the problem was that the U.S. doesn’t have enough players willing to create off-field distractions by yammering about politics, as she has often done herself.
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“So, not only does this team not have like a core of older players who are used to that, but none of these players talk about anything ever, like for the most part,” she said. “I think in men’s football, just like in general, there’s not a lot of players who are choosing to use their platform or to, you know, broaden their scope of pressure and responsibility.”
So, there you go, fellas. It wasn’t that you ran into a tough Belgian team or that maybe it just wasn’t your day.
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You just need to be much more annoying and create distractions, so when there is a bit of an off-field distraction, you’re used to it.
Not sure if Rapinoe wants to get into coaching at some point, but this method may not land her too many gigs.