Belgium Humiliates the USA - World Cup Review
Belgium overcame the controversial reinstatement of the United States' Folarin Balogun to destroy the US National Team in their own backyard. Elsewhere, Spain and Portugal battled it out for a place in the quarter-finals.
Video Transcript
All right, guys, we had a couple of round of 16 ties last night in the World Cup.
Let's review both Portugal against Spain and the United States against Belgium here on thefootballchronicle.com.
We'll start with the game that was played first out of these two, the Iberian derby between Portugal and Spain.
And just like most previous encounters between these two sides, it was a really close affair for the majority of the game.
The first half wasn't really much to write home about.
It was very cagey to be charitable to the action, and in truth, this game was pretty boring for the most part, it must be said.
The closest either side came to scoring in the opening 45 minutes was when a deflected shot was fired onto the crossbar by Portugal.
Portugal probably not the side that was on top in the first half, Spain probably just about edging it, but still they came closest.
And if it wasn't for a deflection, an interception from a Spanish defender, I think it probably would've been a goal.
But it was deflected, so it didn't go in.
In the second half, it was much the same really, Spain probably being the side on top, Portugal getting closest to finding a good opportunity to score, but not really doing it at that point.
There were a number of different chances, first half for Rafael Leo as well.
I forgot to mention that.
He very much skewed a shot wide when he probably should've done better from that position.
He's been quite clinical in recent games, but not this time around.
However, someone who was clinical was Mikel Merino.
I mean, for me, this guy isn't even a striker, but he's kinda reborn in that position doing so for Arsenal on occasion, and also for the Spanish national team as well.
He just found himself in not that much space in truth, and he just lashed it home into the bottom left-hand corner.
It was a superb placed shot in the 91st minute.
Portugal did everything they could to try and get an equalizer, but it was too late.
They came very close.
It was Bernardo Silva who I think came closest for Portugal, him coming off the bench in the latter stages, but it was not to be.
Spain go through, a deserved victory overall, but of course it could've easily gone another way.
If Portugal scored, then I think Spain would've found it very difficult to get an equalizer.
But as it is, Spain are into the last eight.
And then we got a real controversial one between the United States and Belgium.
Nothing to do with the action on the pitch, of course all to do with the action off the pitch.
Balogun, of course his red card being rescinded.
And whether you think that was the correct decision or not in terms of whether he should've got sent off or not in the previous game against Bosnia, for the President of the United States of America, Donald Trump, to get personally involved in this and get it overturned, I mean, he's not even trying to hide from the corruption at this point.
Even Vladimir Putin didn't do that in 2018.
He didn't ring up Gianni Infantino and was just like, "Gianni, I want you to unsuspend our player."
I don't even know if they had a, you know, a player sent off in that tournament in 2018.
But even Putin didn't do that, and he's a full-blown dictator.
Trump, he wants to be a dictator, doesn't he?
He really wants to be, and he's doing his best to be embarrassing stuff like that.
So perhaps it was karma in the end that Belgium end up spanking the USA by four goals to one.
I didn't think this would happen, but I'm glad it did, put it that way.
De Ketelaere got the opening goal of the game for Belgium, just sort of a deflected cross that went into the box, and he put it into the net.
Tillman with a fantastic free kick to equalize just after half an hour.
But then De Ketelaere again gets another goal literally a few minutes after that straight up the other end.
And then an absolutely embarrassing incident for the USA goalkeeper.
What's his name again?
Freese, yeah.
Freese was, well, he froze pretty much.
He didn't know what to do at that point.
He basically just went walkies.
He went to try and get the ball, try and clear it up, but he just scuffed it.
He just hit the ground when he was going for a clearance, and Belgium take full advantage.
And it was a good finish.
Tim Ream's trying to stop the tapping, but he couldn't.
He couldn't at that point.
It was a really well-placed shot by Vanaken.
And as the USA were chasing the game, the big man, Romelu Lukaku, came off the bench and got a customary goal, a very typical Lukaku goal.
He just powered past the defense, just shrugged them all off.
He's just like, "Nah, I'm coming through here," and he very much did get the winner.
Well, not the winner, but the final goal of this game.
Belgium, you know, I've said they're bottle jobs.
I said they're not very good.
I said they're not gonna do well in this World Cup.
I'm eating my words.
I'm eating my words, and they don't taste particularly nice.
They taste a bit bitter, to be honest.
But but you know, they're peaking at the right time.
You know, they smashed New Zealand 5-1.
They beat Senegal, who are not a bad side at all.
They will say they're the African champions.
The rest of Africa will disagree with that.
And also they've smashed one of the co-hosts, the United States.
All three co-hosts going out in the round of 16.
You know, that's kinda where you expected them to be without really, like, the exception of probably Canada, who you probably wouldn't have expected to go as far into the tournament as they did, but fair play to them.
So those two sides that advanced from those two games will go and play each other in the quarterfinals, Spain against Belgium.
We've got France against Morocco, England against Norway.
The other quarterfinal will be decided tonight as well.
We got Switzerland against Colombia and Argentina and Egypt in the remaining round of 16 fixtures.
If you wanna see more like this, guys, of course like, share, comment, subscribe.
I'm still feeling worse for wear.
Turns, turns out I wasn't a little bit hungover.
I wasn't tired in general yesterday.
I've just got a cold.
I just picked up a cold over the weekend from my son, and it's absolutely lovely.
Got a lovely sore throat, which is great for my line of work, let me tell you.
So if I sound a bit off, that is why.
I am a bit off, to be honest .
But yeah, see you soon, guys.
We'll bring you these updates come rain, shine, come wellness or not wellness as it were like today.
See you soon.
Have a good one.
