Note: This story first appeared in The Beautiful Game by CNN Sports, our daily newsletter on all things World Cup. To subscribe, click here.
Usually, we like to look forward in this newsletter, but the events of the last 48 or so hours really require us to look back at what might be one of the worst periods for American soccer in its history.
In the hours from the moment that FIFA announced Folarin Balogun would be eligible to play against Belgium to the final whistle ending a 4-1 thrashing at the hands of the Belgians, the US went from a fun story facing an uphill battle to much of the globe celebrating American humiliation on the biggest stage.
Many neutrals will say it’s justice done (or, in the parlance of American sports fans, “ball don’t lie”). American fans will rue the fact that such a feel-good story ended in embarrassment on and off the field as a US president who loves the spotlight seized it at an inopportune time and then a promising team crashed out in the worst way possible.
Here’s how it all went wrong:
