​Belgium defeated the United States 4-1 in their World Cup Round of 16 match on Monday, eliminating the hosts from the tournament amid controversy surrounding FIFA’s decision to overturn Folarin Balogun’s red-card suspension after a push by President Donald Trump. Belgium’s Romelu Lukaku celebrated after scoring the team’s fourth goal in Seattle. Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. Belgium captain Youri Tielemans told RTBF that the squad held a meeting after learning of the Balogun decision and decided that “we needed to do our talking on the pitch.” In a post-game interview, goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois said his team had faced “a lack of respect” from the U.S. in recent days and had been told they could be beaten “easily.” Midfielder Nicolas Raskin told reporters that the result demonstrated there’s “always a justice somewhere in life,” and that the red-card controversy had not been fair to his side. However, Belgium head coach Rudi Garcia, who had mocked FIFA on Sunday, downplayed the impact of the controversy, insisting it wasn’t a motivator and that “what really mattered to us is our game plan.” Garcia added that he spoke with Balogun and reassured the U.S. striker that the controversy wasn’t his fault, noting, “he’s not the one to blame.” The Belgian team’s official X account celebrated the victory with two mocking posts. One read: “It’s called FOOTBALL,” with the word “soccer” crossed out. The other showed Lukaku after scoring Belgium’s fourth goal with the caption “Overturn this.” Some fans noted that Lukaku and the team celebrated the final goal by mimicking Trump’s YMCA dance. This article was originally published on Forbes.com.