Infallible Shalin 🥔

Host of @ProjectGeminiFM 🎙️ | Gamer 🎮 | Video Game Blogger 🖥️ | Writer ✍️ | T=Personal RT ≠ Agree | Potato Verified via @FallGuysGame

[Infallible Shalin 🥔 @realShaySmooth]

@kangminlee This was definitely a painful match to watch...

[Hippies con Osde @HippiesConOsde]

En Canada unos mexicanos dieron más motivos para que los odien después del partido en el que quedaron afuera.

[Ellen Carmichael @ellencarmichael]

The most interesting part of the red card saga isn't the ruling. It's how differently Americans and Europeans process the idea that they might have been wronged.

Europeans are fundamentally different from Americans in one particular way: they expect life to be aggravating and at times unfair. It's just a fact of moving through the world. I joke that in Europe, the customer is always wrong. You didn't read the fine print. The only pharmacy in town is closed every other Tuesday for three hours, and even if the times weren't posted, that's still your problem. Too bad if you want the bill, because the waiter's on his union-mandated half-hour smoke break, and you're just going to have to wait.

To quote the great Mark Knopfler: sometimes you're the windshield, sometimes you're the bug. There's something freeing in that. Things are less in your control, so there's less angst in managing your expectations.

In America, things couldn't be more different. We simply can't accept a wrong left unrighted.

The flight attendant sneezed handing you a drink on your one-hour flight? 15,000 frequent flyer miles. Didn't like your appetizer? A replacement is on the way, and the whole course comes off the bill. There's a reason our interstates are lined with trial lawyer billboards.

Europeans have turned complaining into a continental pastime with no expectation that the universe owes them a remedy for their grief. You gripe about the train being late, your friends nod solemnly and everyone goes back to their apéro. In America, we launch a full-blown investigation of the train system, sue the government (and its contractors) that allowed for the tardiness and hold a Congressional hearing on the state of national infrastructure.

So to an objective observer, the red card shouldn't have happened, and VAR was a travesty. To Americans, our star player shouldn't be unfairly banned from a match we couldn't afford to lose for a card he so obviously didn't deserve.

Who cares that FIFA used a little-used reversal to fix it. Who cares that other people are mad about it. We. Were. Wronged. It was unjust. It must be corrected. We would accept nothing less.

Europeans waxing poetic about the sanctity of the game are, of course, talking about a governing body whose last tournament host was decided via confirmed cash bribes — one that imposed dress codes on women, shrugged off widespread allegations of modern slavery and reconfigured the entire tournament calendar to suit the host country. Which is exactly the point. If you've made peace with all of that, at least enough to watch the tournament four years later, a probationary suspension isn't actually a scandal.

Maybe that's the real divide. Over millennia, Europeans have made peace with being the bug. Americans have never once considered it, and apparently, we're not about to start now.

[Wade Plemons @WadePlem]

What exactly is Belgium upset about??

That they don’t get a competitive advantage to play a USA team missing one of their best players?

Imagine being angry you have to play a team at full strength 😭

[Kyle Tibbitts @KyleTibbitts]

“A ridiculous red card suspension was overturned. We now have to play against the full American team, it’s not fair.”

— Belgium who was awarded a fake penalty against Senegal a few hours before

[🌼🌼 @Avide81842397]

Algo más que decir 🤔 ?
Segun la chaira del socalo es cultural.

[Jorge Antón Noboa @yorchant11]

Nunca más un mundial en México

[Melissa Chen @MsMelChen]

Flew into Mexico City from DC last night and I’m already clocking the shift in energy.

I left my England shirt in the bag for this flight despite wearing it loud and proud on every single one before now without any second thoughts.

But here? The Mexico fan vibe isn’t reading as normal rivalry. It’s heavier and meaner. It’s not banter; there’s no playfulness about it. There’s actual aggression in it, and underneath that, something colder and almost unhinged.

Walked a few blocks around the hotel in my England shirt this morning and got called “puta gringa” - white whore, basically. The whole atmosphere is steeped in this hostility.

Police have shut roads down, running checkpoints, confiscating glass bottles like they’re expecting things to pop off. Riot vibes. I’ve traveled everywhere in this shirt and never once felt this on edge.

It feels like it’s more than “just football” at stake here. I hope that I’m reading it all wrong, that it’s just pre-match noise that burns off once the final whistle blows and everyone goes home.

[Infallible Shalin 🥔 @realShaySmooth]

🤣😂

[USMNT Only @usmntonly]

Everyone hates us. We're a proper footballing country now.

[Mati Smith🇦🇷 @Trumperizar]

🤡 Hinchas mexicanos le tiraron espuma al micro de Inglaterra cuando llegaba al estadio.

El peor anfitrión de todos los mundiales de la historia.

[Infallible Shalin 🥔 @realShaySmooth]

Agreed 💯%

[Matt Wallace @MattWallace888]

Mexico fans played loud music and shot fireworks outside of the hotel while England players were trying to sleep last night.

Mexico fans sprayed a white substance all over England’s team buses.

They absolutely deserved to lose this World Cup match.

[Bleacher Report @BleacherReport]

The US is the last host country standing...

[Infallible Shalin 🥔 @realShaySmooth]

@agould2 @Karl_Downey Okay 👍

[Infallible Shalin 🥔 @realShaySmooth]

@Didi1736555 @Karl_Downey I just needed England to beat Mexico for how Ecuador was treated. The fact they mistreated England just made my desire stronger.

Also, very glad Brazil is out.

[Infallible Shalin 🥔 @realShaySmooth]

@agould2 @Karl_Downey Cool.

[Infallible Shalin 🥔 @realShaySmooth]

@Karl_Downey Here is another angle

https://t.co/ttw4raKDQz

[USMNT Only @usmntonly]

Mexico fans outside the England hotel in the middle of the night 😭

[Infallible Shalin 🥔 @realShaySmooth]

@Karl_Downey It was so disgusting how they treated the opposing teams in their hotels. This is the best outcome by far!

[Infallible Shalin 🥔 @realShaySmooth]

@karurable @Karl_Downey I will leave this here (Ecuador and England qualify as teamS)

[Polymarket Sports @PolymarketSport]

🚨TRENDING: Mexico fans outside of England’s hotel last night

England brought up 14 hotels across the city to hide from the Mexicans

[Infallible Shalin 🥔 @realShaySmooth]

Haha!!! 💯%

[Merriam-Webster @MerriamWebster]

Told you.