Megan Rapinoe says the chaos surrounding Folarin Balogun's overturned red card left the USMNT unprepared heading into their Round of 16 exit. She argued that Monday's 4-1 defeat to Belgium was influenced as much by off-field distractions as by Belgium's performance.
Speaking on her podcast, she went further still, after suggesting the team might genuinely have fared better without Balogun in the lineup at all, a notable claim given he had been the squad's leading scorer through the tournament.
Rapinoe drew a direct line back to her own 2019 World Cup-winning USWNT squad, arguing that group carried far more experience handling political scrutiny than this current USMNT roster ever built up.
Why Megan Rapinoe Thinks the USMNT Should Have Left Out Balogun
Speaking on her podcast, "A Touch More: The Beautiful Game," Rapinoe said the surrounding noise weighed on the squad regardless of how anyone felt about the underlying decision.
"I think the distraction got to the team for sure in some type of way," she said, pointing to "all of the shenanigans and chaos that comes with the feelings on both sides of that."
Her more striking claim followed. Rapinoe suggested "it might have been better for us to play without Balogun," arguing Mauricio Pochettino's side has often thrived when treated as an underdog rather than carrying the weight of a reinstated star.
Balogun's suspension stemmed from a red card shown during the USMNT's Round of 32 win over Bosnia and Herzegovina, later lifted by FIFA after President Trump contacted FIFA president Gianni Infantino directly about the ruling.
Why Rapinoe Questions the USMNT's Ability to Handle Pressure
Rapinoe said the current squad simply lacks the makeup to handle that kind of scrutiny.
"Not only does this team not have like a core of older players who are used to that, but none of these players talk about anything ever, like for the most part," she said.
She extended the point beyond this specific roster, suggesting men's football broadly has fewer players willing to "expand the range of pressures and responsibilities they take on" beyond results on the field.
By contrast, she said her own 2019 squad was "a little bit more prepared" for Trump-related scrutiny at that tournament, having already filed their equal-pay lawsuit shortly before the competition began.
Rapinoe Still Praised Belgium After the USMNT Exit
Rapinoe still credited Belgium directly for the result, calling them "a really, really, really good team" with "legends sitting on the bench," while acknowledging the USMNT has looked "sort of up and down" over recent years.
The 4-1 defeat ended the co-hosts' tournament in the Round of 16, a result that closed out what had otherwise been a landmark run on home soil.
"I'm just bummed for them and bummed for us because it was a really fun run," Rapinoe said, adding that the team "didn't handle the pressure... well" once the noise around Balogun's case intensified.
