SEATTLE — With pink cleats in his left hand, Folarin Balogun took a long, solitary trudge out of this World Cup. It took him two minutes to walk from the center circle to the tunnel, away from the firestorm. With all he had to process, it must have felt like two lifetimes.He lowered his head, but he paused every few steps to look up and clap his right hand against his left thumb to acknowledge the thinning crowd at Seattle Stadium. He continued the routine until he was out of sight, a man fluctuating between sorrow and gratitude.Said Balogun: “The feeling of disappointment is very difficult to put into words, I think, for me.”And later: “I know it hasn’t ended the way we wanted it to, but I think you guys have all seen in the process we’ve definitely united a nation.”Three weeks ago, in a tournament debut made for Hollywood, he called his two-goal performance “a real dream.” The U.S. men’s national team throttled Paraguay 4-1 that night. He was an instant American sports star, an elixir for one of the country’s most combative issues: birthright citizenship. Balogun is the kind of American that President Donald Trump has tried to expel, but when the striker shined in our colors, there was no conflict about claiming him. There was no denying his impact in helping this historically overshadowed soccer program galvanize hope and add home-cooked passion to the nation’s hosting responsibilities.It was an uplifting story while it lasted.Then the most powerful man in the world picked up a phone.And reality upended the dream.On Monday, the USMNT saw its promising start end in symmetrical disappointment, a 4-1 defeat this time. A seasoned Belgium team, still equipped with holdovers from a golden generation, outclassed the Americans, flummoxing them into listlessness and forcing them to consider whether Trump’s meddling had cost them more than it gave.Folarin Balogun shoots and misses against Belgium’s Maxim De Cuyper (5) and Brandon Mechele (4). Balogun was unable to make a big impact in a 4-1 defeat (Carl Recine / Getty Images)Five days earlier, Balogun had received a red card and automatic suspension during a victory over Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was a harsh penalty for an incidental boot to an opponent’s ankle, and it reeked of video-assisted overreach. So Trump called and leaned on FIFA president Gianni Infantino. By Sunday, FIFA had made an automatic suspension that occurred during the World Cup disappear, something that hadn’t happened in 64 years.It wasn’t overturned; that would have required admitting an error. The suspension was put on suspension, through the magic of a clause buried in the organization’s disciplinary code. Initially, FIFA announced the decision in such a skeletal manner that the world knew it was hiding a body. On match day, Trump stood before reporters at the White House, and after trying to deflect his role, he talked until it was clear that he applied pressure. And maybe he was righting a wrong. But he did so wrongfully. Do the math, and it adds up to another moral dilemma that took the sunshine out of a good thing.Thanks for the assist, Mr. President.It was no favor at all. His intervention enraged the competition and turned many American fans into hypocrites. It didn’t matter to most of us that we would’ve also exploded with righteous indignation if Belgium had been in this position and had a star’s suspension nullified after a nudge from Prime Minister Bart De Wever. How many times have we condemned judging corruption in Olympic boxing or figure skating or gymnastics? Do we ever ignore corrupt doping adjudication and abstain from hard questions about integrity?Yet there was no room for awareness, not with a chance to advance to a World Cup quarterfinal for only the third time. We just wanted to close our eyes and cheer loudly. But in hindsight, were some of those screams intended to drown out the ethical quandary?Trump wasn’t the savior that Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) proclaimed him to be when he said to the president Monday, “On behalf of all Americans, thank you for getting rid of that ridiculous red card.” Nor were the other U.S. officials who spent multiple days threatening bulldog legal tactics. Yes, history shows us that FIFA is corrupt and susceptible to manipulation. However, that shouldn’t be an excuse for world leaders to circumvent a system and recreate fair play in their own image. FIFA can keep downplaying the importance of Trump’s call to Infantino, but the president likes wielding power too much to do the same.The president didn’t rescue Balogun. He didn’t give the U.S. greater odds to win. He didn’t fix the tournament by correcting a mistake. He repossessed the World Cup. He made Balogun, whose class and character represented the entire squad, the face of a fix. He helped create the snooty American attitude that gave Belgium a motivational boost.“In recent days, we have been shown a lack of respect here in the U.S.,” Belgium goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois said afterward. “It was said that they could beat us easily, but I think today we proved that we are a good team. We played a great match.”The match unfolded in a series of cruelties. Charles De Ketelaere scored in the ninth minute, off a ball the U.S. should have cleared. Malik Tillman’s deflected free kick briefly evened the score, but 61 seconds after the restart, De Ketelaere ripped the wound again. U.S. goalkeeper Matt Freese gifted the third goal with a stupefying mistake, and several Red Devils gathered in a circle, clenched their fists and jerked their arms back in forth, appearing to troll Tump with his signature dance move. In stoppage time, Romelu Lukaku scored and blew kisses to the Belgium section in the crowd of 66,925.“I think today we didn’t show our real quality,” U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino said. “We were never connected with the manner of the game.”A few seconds before that final embarrassment, Pochettino had substituted Haji Wright for Balogun. The crowd could muster only soft applause at that point. A real dream had devolved into a real pain. After all that controversy, Balogun had little impact because the entire team looked like a disheveled mess.Perhaps the Red Devils would’ve won without the drama. They were sharper, deeper, hungrier. But the U.S. arrived carrying something heavier than the pressure to make the quarterfinal, and it showed.A day earlier, a large part of the American fandom celebrated the reversal as a win. When Trump revealed his role, it was dismissed as an art-of-the-deal footnote and justified as simply the president fighting for us. It was jingoism cloaked in a replica jersey: America got its way because America is great, and there’s nothing wrong with using strength to bend rules that appear unjust. The rest of the world saw it differently, and all of a sudden, the World Cup was back in the trepidatious place it started, facing a battle between globalism and America’s nasty strand of nationalism.USA's dreams come to an end in the round of 16Tom Bogert and Lia GriffinIn America, we spent a few weeks as a soccer nation and a few days as a team everyone else on earth hoped would lose.The beginning was worth it. The ending was unbearable.“Overturn this,” Belgium tweeted after the match on its official social media account.Balogun deserved better than to be a vessel for controversy. He deserved better when he was suspended. He deserved better when he was at the center of a messy reinstatement. He was a victim, not a villain. And to the end, he never lost himself.After the defeat, Balogun approached Belgium coach Rudi Garcia and spoke with him for several minutes. It was a quiet moment of sportsmanship, a polite moment despite Garcia’s public stance against him getting to play.“I really liked that,” Garcia said of the conversation. “It’s not his fault. He’s not the one to blame. And that’s what I told him. I really appreciate the intention that he came to see me. I appreciate this player.”Soon after, Balogun took that slow walk to the locker room. He was alone, finally. He didn’t get a say in this fiasco, didn’t ask for a solid. He just got the bill.And the country cheered and accepted uncomfortable justice before checking the price. It was steep. The hypocrisy cost us more than the disappointment.