“It’s not an excuse, I think we were not good enough,” says head coach
Mauricio Pochettino is adamant the controversy surrounding Folarin Balogun’s overturned suspension played no part as USA crashed out of the World Cup after Belgium’s 4-1 victory in the last 16.
The decision to overturn Balogun’s red-card ban after appeals by the US Soccer federation and Donald Trump dominated pre-match talks, and after the defeat, Belgium and many football fans observed that the scoreline was justice for the decision.
Pochettino refused to accept that all the talk had affected his side ahead of the game.
“It didn’t impact our performance,” Pochettino said. “It’s not an excuse. I think we were not good enough. It wasn’t our day. We didn’t perform in the way that we’re supposed to perform or show our quality.
“All that was happening around it, it was around us, but I think it wasn’t a situation that affected us in the group.”
USA were completely dominated by Belgium, who replicated the co-hosts’ trick of scoring very early in games after Charles De Ketelaere scored within nine minutes, before putting his side ahead again after a fortunate deflection during a freekick allowed USA to level just after the half hour.
Other USA players also rejected the notion that their side had been affected by all the debate and controversy.
“It had no impact,” captain Tim Ream said. “Outside noise. We’ve done a good job with this group of allowing outside noise to be outside noise. It’s got nothing to do with us as players and getting ready for games. It’s one of those things that’s the world we live in.
“So, we were fully focused on us as a group and as a team and fully focused on the game and not really worrying about what was being said or debated in the outside world.”
Tyler Adams said: “I think when it happened, it was just as much a surprise to us as it was to you. I don’t think that noise or anything affected us by any means. If anything, it probably uplifted us in a sense.”
