{"id":194057,"date":"2026-07-07T10:26:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T10:26:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/194057\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T10:26:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T10:26:17","slug":"iran-fire-brutal-response-to-donald-trump-and-usa-after-co-hosts-crash-out-of-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/194057\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran fire brutal response to Donald Trump and USA after co-hosts crash out of World Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"

The United States crashed out of a World Cup on home soil with a humbling 4-1 defeat to Belgium, and Iran wasted no time in celebrating their exit.<\/p>\n

A saga surrounding star striker Folarin Balogun<\/a> and his suspended one-game ban, which put political interference in sport<\/a> at the heart of the conversation, dominated the build-up to what was supposed to be the biggest USMNT game since 2002.<\/p>\n

\"Belgium<\/a><\/p>\n

5<\/p>\n

The US crashed out of the World Cup and were well beaten by BelgiumCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

But with a place in the quarterfinals on the line, Mauricio Pochettino’s team crumbled in Seattle<\/a>, and will be spectators to the rest of the World Cup<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Even Balogun, who took his place in the starting 11 after extraordinary intervention from Donald Trump<\/a>, couldn’t save the US.<\/p>\n

Belgium<\/a> were quick to mock the whole saga — and the president himself — with on-field celebrations and social media posts on a humbling evening.<\/p>\n

Iran issues brutal response after USA bow out of home World Cup<\/p>\n

Iran, the team that claimed to face ‘mistreatment’ from the US government<\/a> during their own campaign, also reveled in the American heartbreak.<\/p>\n

READ MORE ON WORLD CUP<\/p>\n

“Now the whole world is dancing to celebrate politics\u2019 humiliating defeat by football,” a spokesperson for the Iranian Football Federation said, following the result.<\/p>\n

The message referenced comments made by US Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin, after their own exit from the competition.<\/p>\n

Iran crashed out at the group stage, having drawn all three of their games against Egypt, Belgium and New Zealand.<\/p>\n

Once they were sent packing, Mullin said he ‘danced a happy dance’<\/a> when he heard the news.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019m just glad they\u2019re done, and they\u2019re not coming back,” he told reporters during a briefing last week.<\/p>\n

“I was so happy when we were able to pull their visas and said they could leave the US soil, and I might\u2019ve sung a song or two or maybe even danced a happy dance.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

5<\/p>\n

The USMNT crumbled in their biggest game since 2002, to the delight of IranCredit: Getty\"Ramin<\/a><\/p>\n

5<\/p>\n

Iran claimed mistreatment from the US during their own World Cup runCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

“I\u2019m very happy they\u2019re going back because there wasn\u2019t a single team that we dealt with more than them.”<\/p>\n

Mullin’s comments caused a storm, and Iran were quick to turn the tables after the US became the third and final co-host eliminated from their own World Cup.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump favor backfires as USMNT humbled by Belgium<\/p>\n

Trump’s personal call to FIFA<\/a> president Gianni Infantino<\/a>, and his plea to bring a ‘wronged’ Balogun back into the fold a day before the crunch fixture, perhaps could have given the US a sporting edge.<\/p>\n

But in the end, it served as nothing more than a distraction to a team that Pochettino had worked so hard to keep focused on nothing but soccer.<\/p>\n

Such was the gap in quality, that in hindsight, it’s fair to suggest Belgium would have comfortably beaten the USMNT with or without Balogun — who scored three goals in his first four games — or any of the noise around his non-suspension.<\/p>\n

Postgame, Pochettino and captain Tim Ream insisted the saga wasn’t to blame for the heavy defeat.<\/p>\n

\"Mauricio<\/a><\/p>\n

5<\/p>\n

Pochttino insisted the Balogun saga had no impact on the US performanceCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

“It didn’t affect our performance. It’s not an excuse,” Pochettino said.<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

“All that was happening around (with the Balogun situation), it was around us, but I think it wasn’t a situation that affected us in the group.”<\/p>\n

Ream added: “It had no impact.<\/p>\n

\"Tim<\/a><\/p>\n

5<\/p>\n

Ream suggested outside noise was kept away from the team, despite a 4-1 defeatCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

“Outside noise. We’ve done a good job with this group of allowing outside noise to be outside noise.<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

Read More on talkSPORT<\/p>\n

“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.”<\/p>\n

Stay up to date on all things USMNT across our talkSPORT platforms – subscribe to our YouTube channel for the latest news, opinion, exclusive interviews and our daily unfiltered, unscripted show ‘The S* Word, from 8am ET<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The United States crashed out of a World Cup on home soil with a humbling 4-1 defeat to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":194058,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[3095,57665,57673,55547,57676,57661,38,57670,2982,57671,2978,57664,57667,57666,6113,2983,57672,34,57686,57679,57680,57678,57685,57677,24329,23047,57681,48763,52763,2576,57684,48767,57668,57658,57663,57659,57682,57683,57660,57669,57662,2577,57674,57675],"class_list":["post-194057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-iran","tag-2026-world-cup","tag-balogun-suspension","tag-belgium-score","tag-christian-pulisic","tag-did-trump-cost-usmnt-against-belgium","tag-did-usmnt-beat-belgium","tag-donald-trump","tag-donald-trump-usmnt-news","tag-fifa","tag-fifa-president","tag-fifa-world-cup","tag-folarin-balogun","tag-folarin-balogun-distraction","tag-folarin-balogun-saga","tag-football-news","tag-gianni-infantino","tag-infantino-trump","tag-iran","tag-iran-donald-trump","tag-iran-mock-donald-trump","tag-iran-mocking-usmnt","tag-iran-response-usmnt","tag-iran-statement-usmnt","tag-iran-us-soccer","tag-iran-usa","tag-iran-world-cup","tag-malik-tillman","tag-mauricio-pochettino","tag-romelu-lukaku","tag-soccer","tag-soccer-news","tag-tim-ream","tag-trump-world-cup","tag-us-soccer","tag-us-soccer-news","tag-usmnt-belgium","tag-usmnt-belgium-goals","tag-usmnt-belgium-highlights","tag-usmnt-belgium-score","tag-usmnt-donald-trump","tag-usmnt-vs-belgium-result","tag-world-cup","tag-world-cup-games","tag-world-cup-schedule"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194057"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194057\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}