General Discussion

. . . Belgium, but I would still consider that to be very unlikely. They don't have the depth or quality in enough of the positions to come even close to winning the World Cup. Yes, Pulisic and Balogun are quite good, and Balogun is a serious threat: but the US does not have the quality to make it more than one more match into this World Cup. Unless the US works a lot more on early player development and soccer for men becomes much more popular, the USMNT will not ever come close to matching what the USWNT has accomplished. While I wish the USMNT would also have that success, it won't happen this iteration.

The best thing that can come of this whole situation is that FIFA is forced to take a hard look at its officiating and institute a transparent appeals process for calls that are not made properly: i.e., Balogun's red card was absolutely not deserved, and that can be seen easily from the front view that was televised--Balogun did not initiate a challenge and was doing nothing more than trying to keep himself between the ball the player who was 'fouled'. The player from BH ran through him to be in the position of being 'fouled'.

Anyway, FIFA needs to improve, but no one has to worry about the US winning the World Cup this summer. It seems like the US program is perpetually twenty years away from that being a possibility--except for the USWNT who are a soccer dynasty, but they still need to reclaim the title from Spain to go with their more recent Olympic gold medals!

All that being said, go USMNT!

Defeat Belgium and set the stage for further improvement of the men's side.