Two matches today, and both ended as they should have. Portugal and Spain played a close, joyless thing that either side might have taken, until Mikel Merino settled it in the first minute of stoppage time and left Ronaldo four minutes to find an equalizer he was never going to find. It was his last World Cup, and the tears were real. Whatever else I think of him, that is a hard way to leave.
The other match I watched with less charity. The United States fell 4-1 to Belgium, and I confess I enjoyed every goal. The road here was ugly: Balogun’s red card against Bosnia, then Trump lobbying FIFA directly to have it overturned, then FIFA declining to admit any fault and quietly using Article 27 to push the suspension a year down the road. Corruption in the open, and no one made to answer for it. So there was a plain justice in watching Belgium humble them on the field, where no article could intervene. Pochettino and Balogun got the afternoon they earned. Belgium move on. This is the match the United States will be remembered by, and rightly so.