EU lawmakers call for investigation of FIFA boss over Trump contact before US-Belgium match

Matt Freese and the United States received a big dose of reality on Monday night.

So far much of the domestic US response has focused on an interesting but essentially irrelevant part of this, albeit one with a natural appeal to the polarised heart of the nation.

After a red-card foul during the World Cup, the soccer star Folarin Balogun was handed an automatic one-match suspension, ruling him out of the U.S. team’s game against Belgium on Monday — until President Trump intervened, after which FIFA suspended the ban.

The U.S. went on to suffer a 4-1 loss to Belgium, ending its 2026 World Cup run.