USA pushes though. Are they any good? How much impact will that red card have?

I said at the very beginning of this tournament that if the United States simply made it through the first round of the knockout stages that I would consider that a "win" for the USMNT. I have no expectations of them going forward. However, their win over Bosnia and Herzegovina wasn't just a win or a lucky thing, the US team looked much better than Bosnia and I don't think anyone is going to contest this.

The US has also looked a lot better than every team they have played up to this point and yes, I include the loss to Turkey when I say that.

This however, doesn't mean that they are at all favorites to go much further even though their next match is an important one because Belgium eliminated the USA years ago in the first round of World Cup when Tim Howard was in goal and seemed to be the only thing keeping this game from being 9-0 when he made a staggering 15 saves in that game on 26 shots on target.

Now USA will have their chance at vengeance in a few days and while I am keeping my expectations low, it would be nice to see a really good game because even the pundits believe that the USA is a better team this time around.

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Things get a bit dicey though when we look at the fact that a key US player, Folarin Balogun, received a rather controversial red-card that will see him miss the game vs. Belgium and perhaps, not get a chance to play again in this World Cup.

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Stepping on the back of an opponent's leg is a big time offense in football of the soccer variety, but there are a lot of reasons why in this particular instance there are some people complaining about being shown red. I'll keep this brief because it isn't my intention to overly question the officials. For starters, when both players hit the ground in their usual theatrics, there wasn't actually a whistle. No call had been made, no booking had been issued and no call at all had been made on the field. Apparently, the head official on the field received word from VAR that there needed to be a review of the play and to my knowledge (which I will admit is not very far-reaching) this almost never happens. Normally when there is VAR it is initiated by the referee on the field, and it will be in a situation when a foul was called and there is need to look to see if it was particularly egregious and in need of a booking, yellow or red.

That didn't happen in this situation and some are calling this foul play and favoritism (as they would, of course) because several other players, including number-one-favored-player Lionel Messi, have done essentially the same thing but in even more of a sense of having done it on purpose.

Folarin's contact seems to be incidental and off balance, whereas, well. look at this yourself.

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Messi is behind his opponent, looking down at his legs, on balance, and not near the ball. In this situation no booking was given. Folorin, who just happens to be the USA's number one goal-scorer and quite the weapon on finishes, get's red carded and a one-match ban even though no call was actually made on the field. The USA is not allowed to appeal this ruling either.

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_{another angle. Messi had no chance at the ball but he gets "Lebron" treatment by FIFA.}

Whatever I guess, it could have happened to anyone else as well but in this situation it just happened to happen to "my" team. Folorin is instrumental in goals just like Messi is, and not having him on the pitch is a rather large disadvantage before the game against Belgium even starts.

I am managing my expectations though and if the USA doesn't make it to the quarterfinals I will not be surprised. I am surprised they made it this far and the same can be said for the other two host nations' teams as well.

If USA does manage to make it past Belgium that would be great because it would be the first time the USA progressed to the the quarterfinals in nearly a quarter of a century.

According to Vegas betting lines the USA is a slight favorite to win and I suppose that is somewhat reassuring.