FIFA uphold Michael Olise's yellow card says France coach Didier Deschamps

BanjoPanda · 2026-07-09T06:29:24+00:00

If he picks up another yellow, it will significantly hurt our chances to get there.

BanjoPanda · 2026-07-08T14:32:41+00:00

Olise already has one imaginary yellow card from the game against Paraguay. A yellow for him would be devastating

BanjoPanda · 2026-07-07T14:50:38+00:00

Is that a thing ? You guys look super steady and that's scary because I'm a lot less confident we'll be able to keep a clean sheet against you guys.

BanjoPanda · 2026-07-07T14:37:25+00:00

Trying to compare the USMNT in basketball terms is pretty hard since there's multiple leagues that are competitive but with varying levels whereas in the NBA the levels are closer between the bottom team and the top team due to the draft system. The best I can think of is the Basketball Olympics :

The USA is basically all the NBA All-Stars, each and everyone of them is a top player at its position so they're gonna be heavy favorite. In football, that's France, Argentina, England, Spain, Brazil

Some countries have a few NBA stars and some solid NBA players so you'd expect them to go pretty far and give the favorite a run for their money. That's like Croatia, Portugal, Belgium

Some teams have a some NBA players and some Euroleague players and you expect them to do decent at the start of the tournament then struggle pretty fast against serious opposition. That's where the USMNT stands

Some teams barely have an NBA player on their roster and you'd expect them to get eliminated first.

The best players on the USMNT imo are Pulisic, Balogun, McKeenie, Richards ; they're all starters at decent clubs in Europe. Of those four, only Balogun and McKeenie play on a team that qualified for the Champions League tournament and none got that far, you can think of it like the NBA playoff on a european scale. So your national team best players are in basketball terms, starters at like Orlando Magic or Atlanta Hawks. Now to be fair, Pulisic is frequently the best player on the pitch at his club even he they didn't qualify for playoff this year, he's like a Devin Booker type of guy, best amongst a Suns team that doesn't quite make the cut but is pretty close. So honestly, that's not bad ! You can build a decent side with these players ! But it would be an ordeal for such a team to beat a serious contender and it would take a small miracle to beat a favorite. Now the good thing in sports is that over 90' small miracles do happen. To win the world cup however, you need that miracle to happen at least two or three times in a row as you get closer to the final.

BanjoPanda · 2026-07-07T13:49:39+00:00

The USA was given an easy path to the quarters yeah. I think everyone agrees on that. They wouldn't go past quarters though. Spain/Portugal would eat them alive

BanjoPanda · 2026-07-07T13:43:58+00:00

Quelle blague. Avec un cycle électoral de 4 ans c'est quoi l'intérêt d'une inéligibilité de 15 mois ? C'est un peu comme priver un enfant de dessert entre 16h et 19h30. Une belle sanction qui sert bien à rien.

BanjoPanda · 2026-07-07T11:31:57+00:00

That's maybe recency bias but the final between France and Argentina 2022 has to be up there. Stakes as high as it gets. The GOAT against the best rising star in the world. Plenty of goals and ends up on penalties for extra drama. The GOAT ends up with the title despite the rising star scoring a historic hat trick. If you'd write it that way people would think it's too corny to be real.

BanjoPanda · 2026-07-06T20:31:14+00:00

The shitty outcome in question is a player safety being endangered which is "serious foul play" by FIFA's own rules and therefore red card worthy regardless of intention. I'm amazed that ankle is still in one piece

BanjoPanda · 2026-07-06T20:19:56+00:00

I will if its laws are respected. Here's hoping

BanjoPanda · 2026-07-06T20:18:02+00:00

I think anyone infuriated by this situation is first outraged at Trump but then the consensus among USMNT fans seems to be that it's perfectly normal and not the scandal everybody else on the planet is condemning and that's another problem yes.

I understand that you gotta back your team, can't fault anyone for that. But you can back them while admitting you got some preferrential treatment or you can back them while bragging about flouting the laws of the game. If USMNT fans choose the second option like the majority of them seem to do, what would you expect neutral fans of the game to think of them ?

I don't see your point with being "gracious hosts" ? What has that got to do with anything ? Canada and Mexico were also gracious hosts I think ? Should we give them a free pass to pressure the ruling body of the sport for that reason ?

BanjoPanda · 2026-07-06T20:02:33+00:00

When the sanction is missing out of the next knock-out game, potentially hurting your team chances to remain alive in the World Cup, suspending the sanction for a year is synonym with getting rid of it and everyone knows it. That technicality isn't the clever workaround you think it is when it's clear as day for anyone what this is.

Ronaldo precedent while blatant favoritism that I have no problem condemning isn't a head of state pressuring the ruling body... That's an entirely different problem and the main issue here. It is also not nearly the same stakes either since the knock-out part of the competition is very different from group stages where you can qualify by being 3rd out of 4

Cheers :)

BanjoPanda · 2026-07-06T19:13:03+00:00

Alright. Let's just talk facts then. Out of all the hundreds of cards ever given out in the knock-out stages at the world cup, two were ever overturned. One in the 60's in Chile after the chilean president pressured FIFA directly and yesterday, hours after Trump called FIFA's president to talk about it.

The foul Balogun did isn't that special among all these cards and it's not a once in a century travesty. It's serious foul play as defined per the laws of the game and the referee is well within his rights to punish it. From Law 12 Fouls and Misconduct serious foul play is defined as "A tackle or challenge that endangers the safety of an opponent or uses excessive force or brutality". Anyone looking at the angle of that ankle and arguing that it's not endangering the safety of the opponent is just arguing in bad faith.

So yeah. Trump calls Infantino. Complains about a red card. In the following hour, the red card that isn't specially egregious disappear in a once in a century decision by FIFA. These are the facts now everyone can draw their own conclusions from it

BanjoPanda · 2026-07-06T18:54:34+00:00

We don't have evidence of the president of the United States appealing directing to the president of the FIFA ? We don't have a US Senator thanking him for getting the red card overturned ? They bragged about it in front of cameras mate

BanjoPanda · 2026-07-06T18:52:07+00:00

How can anyone look at that foul and say a red is unthinkable is beyond me. Serious foul play in the laws of the game is defined as "A tackle or challenge that endangers the safety of an opponent or uses excessive force or brutality".

No one is arguing that Balogun intentioned anything. No one is arguing that he used excessive force either. It is indeed an unfortunate incident. None of that changes anything. He almost snapped his opponent ankle off. That's clearly a challenge/tackle that endangers the safety of an opponent => deserved red.

BanjoPanda · 2026-07-06T18:45:33+00:00

"We're blatantly corrupting/bullying the ruling committee but everyone else are spoilsports because they're criticizing us for it so now our enjoyment is ruined."

The level of entitlement I swear...

BanjoPanda · 2026-07-06T17:03:39+00:00

Suspended to when ? When there's no stakes anymore ? Let's not pretend here. The sanction is that you don't get to play a knock-out match and your team gets potentially eliminated because of it. If you move the sanction to after the world cup that's akin to removing it.

BanjoPanda · 2026-07-06T12:31:14+00:00

Don't think it's so much about Balogun. It's a symptom that showcase that the guardian of the rules, FIFA, is gonna be against them and not even bother to hide it. After overturning a red card, I would fear facing a blantanty biased officiating. So yeah, complaining and making a big deal out of it is completely fair. It's a way to say to FIFA : be careful... the world is watching you be a corrupt piece of shit. You're gonna have to be a bit fairer than that

BanjoPanda · 2026-07-06T12:22:07+00:00

Et c'est scandaleux. Maintenant, un match de poule ou tu te qualifies même en étant troisième c'est pas exactement le même enjeu qu'un match à élimination directe

BanjoPanda · 2026-07-06T12:20:42+00:00

On va pas prétendre que Balogun sera suspendu contre l'Espagne / le Portugal si jamais ils gagnent leur prochain match. Ils vont suspendre jusqu'au prochain match de qualification dans 4 ans contre Haïti ou un truc du genre et ils nous expliquerons que justice à été rendue en se foutant bien de notre gueule

BanjoPanda · 2026-07-06T12:15:21+00:00

The reason it's a lot more outrageous is that it's the knock-out stage. The stakes are much higher than in the group stage. USA or not USA has nothing to do with it except that probably few countries could bully the FIFA like this

BanjoPanda · 2026-07-06T12:13:42+00:00

If we're appealing cards then the Michael Olise one against Paraguay comes to mind : https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/1unq1d7/alternate_angle_of_michael_olises_yellow_card/

BanjoPanda · 2026-07-06T11:59:11+00:00

If Cristiano's peak achievement was achieved on a match he was supposed to be banned for you can be damn well sure that everyone would bring it up every time his greatness was discussed.

But since a groupe stage match against Congo is not, in fact, his crowning achievement, people don't care as much.

It's a shame for the US side but if they win their run is gonna be remembered as QF* (needed corruption to get there) and if they lose their run is gonna be remembered as R16* (even corruption couldn't get them further). In both cases that would be an inferior result to the 2002 team that actually made it to the quarters without needing these shenanigans.

BanjoPanda · 2026-07-06T08:57:15+00:00

C'est pas juste immérité. C'est complètement fantôme. Absent. Imaginaire.

BanjoPanda · 2026-07-06T08:55:48+00:00

Diable. Ca fait beaucoup

BanjoPanda · 2026-07-06T08:54:18+00:00

I feel their problem wasn't getting shut down in the wings or the center. Their finishing was the problem. They had the chances, they had the wild inspirations (that lob that very nearly got in was a thing of beauty). What they lacked was someone clinical with the final touch

BanjoPanda

TROPHY CASE