I know you all want some hard hitting analysis of yesterday's action that had more bottles than a full redeemable machine at Stop and Shop but we have more important things to discuss.

Full highlight links will be tagged onto the scorelines.

UNITED STATES 2, BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA 0

Folarin Balogun joined an impressive and infamous list when he became the third player to score a goal and be shown a red card in a World Cup knockout game, joining a couple of guys named Zinedine Zidane and Ronaldinho who may or may not have been good.

USA Advances to Round of 16
The United States is better than Germany at soccer
The Blazing MusketSam Lattof

Balogun's goal right before halftime and then Malik Tillman's direct free kick in the 82nd minute sent the USA on their way back into the Round of 16 with their first knockout win since 2002.

But in between Balogun was dismissed for this coming together around the hour mark:

The decision to upgrade this play to a red card is doctrinal. This has been a point of emphasis for well over a decade, Balogun very clearly comes down on the ankle of the Bosnia player and endangers the safety of his opponent by doing so.

That is the end of the argument, there is no other evidence to provide or debate, case closed. Yes, the defender comes from off Balogun's shoulder and yes the contact is mostly incidental but that is irrelevant to the law and how it is written and the interpretations inside the vacuum that VAR is observing this play.

All the nonsense about slow motion and freeze frames is just noise, don't listen to it. This is in the end a very simple and very expected decision. Debates on whether or not Flo deserved this and all that nonsense...doesn't matter. VAR saw a player exert a greater than zero amount of force onto an ankle that was turned at like an 80* angle.

The problem is that decisions are not made in a vacuum, they are built upon and reinforced by the standards FIFA and leagues set forth and referees have to meet every single game. Which they did have not done in this tournament and absolutely did not do in this game.

If the standard is you are responsible for your actions at all time, then that needs to be the standard all the time. Lionel Messi needed to see a red card in the group stage, Germany needed to have their goal called back for kicking someone in the head, and Edin Dzeko needed to be at least cautioned for delivering cross check to Tyler Adams that could get him a game misconduct and a meeting with Brendan Shanahan in the NHL Player Safety Office.

Balogun's 64th minute red card was the first card issued in this match, which was absurd for a game that featured a blatant hold on Balogun in the box right before a shot attempt and Tillman needing to replace a cleat because someone punctured it and drew blood - both of which by the way would be red card offenses for denial of a goal scoring opportunity and the whole endangering the safety of an opponent thing we just discussed.

Balogun's red card is understandable, coaches like Bruce Arena have been around this rule for a long time and they understand the high bar that is set with these plays and the rationale behind the decisions and not whether or not they make sense all the time. The emphasis on player safety over the last decade has generally done a lot of good as far as player decision making and getting a lot of horror tackles out of the game. But the laws have not yet caught up to the bulk of the incidents we're seeing now that seem far more incidental than dangerous.

But the standard as it has been remains immensely strict, and when you lower that bar for even a game or a week, you open yourself up to a whole litany of issues. The entire point of having a near zero tolerance/excuse policy for these types of plays is to eliminate a wide range of subjective decisions from referees in the first place.

We don't want 20 different opinions on whether or not to send Messi off, we want at least 19 people to recognize that a challenge from behind in which you put your studs on your opponent's calf is a red card. We don't want referees judging intent, we want them to correctly identify potentially dangerous plays on the field and punish them accordingly, not five minutes later through VAR.

You can't in the same game correctly rule out Germany's go ahead goal against Paraguay for screening the keeper and then miss a Paraguayan player giving a full bear hug on a player in midair going up for a header. The consistency is non-existent with the officials and VAR in this tournament and right now feels entirely reactionary with referees letting far too much go and having VAR settle things in the end and that's not what we should expect from the best referees in the world in the best tournament in the world.

Why Esmir Bajraktarević Chose Bosnia After Representing The United States
Bajraktarević impressed in his one appearance for the U.S. Men’s National Team in January 2024. Later that year, he filed a one-time switch to represent Bosnia and Herzegovina, his parents’ birthplace.
The Blazing MusketSeth Macomber

Pour one out for Esmir and Bosnia, a wonderful performance for them and I think we'll see a lot of these young players win a knockout game at some point in their careers. Also, Nikola Vasilj, sir I think you need to do a lot better on that Tillman free kick. Great job from Tillman to get it up and over the wall but I think the keeper is beaten for pace here or lackthereof expecting that to be a full extension save and it handcuffed him a bit.

ENGLAND 2, DR CONGO 1

Harry Kane bailed out England with two late goals because we can't have nice things and at some point Lionel Mpasi was going to have to concede. The equalizing header was typical Kane but the winner, a turn and fire from the top of the box into top bins, that's why Kane is special because a lot of target guys can't do that.

Anyway, enough of that Harry wizardry, let's talk about why Kane belongs in Slytherin and the mostly Dark Arts he tried to employ here.

There's a reverse angle that makes this even more dubious than it already is and perhaps that there isn't any contact with he keeper but I want to focus on this angle. First Kane is already leaning well forward before any contact with the keeper and that is not a naturally falling action.

Two, and real issue I have with this play is the contact from the defender right before the interaction with the keeper. To me, this is where VAR needed to intervene and determine if there was a foul...was that contact enough to prevent Kane from getting a shot off or maintain possession.

In the end, I think the referee did get this right, but I was stunned that a yellow card wasn't produced after the universal signal for swimming was used and equally stunned that VAR didn't ask for a second look at this.

I am a firm believer that you can award a penalty for a defender fouling and caution an attacker for embellishment in the same play. This is not the best example of such a scenario but it can and should happen, there just needs to be a lot more contact against Kane to get the PK level for me.

We will always have the hour where a Leopard stood tall over Three Lions, I know DR Congo is disappointed to go out but they pushed England quite literally to the limit and thankfully were not on the wrong end of a VAR'ing. Lumumba Vea forever.

BELGIUM 3, SENEGAL 2 (AET)

The top bottle job of the day sadly belongs to Senegal who were just excellent for over eighty minutes before Romelu Lukaku and Youri Tielemans saved the day and then this happened.

This one is a 50/50 to me, I think I'm firmly in the camp that the two players get to the ball simultaneously and their actions cancel each other out, no one plays the ball so no advantage is lost or gained.

But, if you do think this is a foul because the Senegal player's trailing leg - the one that he's trying to play the ball with - has to go through Tielemans to do so then that is completely understandable and does reach the threshold for a foul and therefore a PK.

I just don't think this is a clear and obvious error because I don't see how Tielemans is in a position to play the ball since his left foot is planted and his right foot isn't anywhere near the ball as it goes by. He gets wrong footed here, maybe the defender's attempt threw him off which is fine, and there is plenty of contact unlike the previous play above. Context matters here and I think both players are attempting to make a legal play on a 50/50 ball and they end up getting tangled up, it happens.

The whole getting your foot in before the other player kicks it thing is an overblown phenomenon, I can't find the Vini Jr play against Scotland but that occurred with a player in clear possession so that does rise to a level of foul in my opinion because I think it is obstruction to get your foot in beforehand to prevent someone from playing a ball they currently have.

Possession being nine tenths of the law or whatever. Here, everyone is trying to get to a spot to play the ball and they did at the same time. Yes, Lamine Camara's trailing foot does eventually take out Tielemans which is very damning on the replay, but since no one is in possession everyone is allowed to get their foot in there and cancel each other out.

I did not fancy Senegal's chances in the shootout without starting keeper Edouard Mendy out and Mory Diaw potentially rattled after conceding twice in the final minutes, but we should have seen spot kicks in this one.

UPCOMING MATCHES

The USA and Belgium will meet again in the Round of 16 after the 2014 Tim Howard classic and the sequel "Wondo's Revenge" is going to be excellent. That matchup will be on July 6th from Seattle.

Meanwhile, if England thought DR Congo gave them nightmares, then a trip to Estadio Azteca to play hosts Mexico on July 5th is sure to make things a lot worse.