Dave Portnoy unleashed a fiery, expletive-laden tirade online, slamming the US Men’s National Team for what he described as their “pathetic” performance in the crushing defeat to Belgium on Monday night.
“The United States delivered an embarrassing effort. The bright lights overwhelmed US soccer, and the stage was simply too grand,” Portnoy expressed on platform X following Belgium’s commanding 4-1 win in Seattle.
In a self-recorded video, the Barstool Sports chief boldly stripped off his USA soccer attire in a display of frustration, targeting several players shortly after the game concluded.
“We’re a complete mess. That entire match was a fiasco. If you want us to cheer for our team, how about having a goalkeeper who doesn’t just gift goals by carelessly kicking the ground and handing them to the opponents?” Portnoy remarked, singling out goalkeeper Matt Freese.
The American goalkeeper’s failed attempt to clear the ball outside the penalty area resulted in a turnover, allowing Belgium to seize the opportunity and score, making it 3-1 just 12 minutes into the latter half of the match.
“If we’re gonna create international incidents, we gotta stop having goalies who don’t know what they’re doing and a defense getting thrown around like f–king Christmas trees.
The heated Portnoy called for a draft for soccer to get better players if America was gonna keep getting into “international incidents,” after US officials got involved with the World Cup officiating to have Folarin Balogun’s one-game ban overturned.
“Listen if we are gonna keep making an international incident in FIFA and Trump’s gonna bully them and s–t and everyone’s gonna be like the angry Americans, then we’re gonna have to start instituting a draft in soccer,” Portnoy said. “Hey LeBron, no offense, you’re going to play f–king soccer and all these other great athletes that we got, you got to go play soccer.”
Portnoy called for better players to make up the American squad, which has four years to train before the next World Cup.
“These are country club D-tier athletes we got out here,” he said. “Again, I’m fine if we’re gonna sit on the sidelines and just be like ‘soccer, cool, cool.’”
The hot-tempered entrepreneur showed some sportsmanship to congratulate Belgium for making it to the quarterfinal match against Spain on Friday.
“As a proud American let me be the first to congratulate Belgium. You guys were the far superior team,” he wrote. “Granted I can’t tell if you guys are any good cause we are so pathetic but you beat us fair and square. Now in hindsight doesn’t all the bellyaching about Balogun playing seem silly?”
USA fans were quick to rip the team following the embarrassing loss.
“Soccer lost more than the US did with this loss. This World Cup was supposed to turn American fans on to soccer with a much hyped Team USA. Now anytime a casual American fan sees a soccer game they will just be reminded of that keystone cops goal Freese gave up. They will just turn it off. That game was a disaster for both the US and for soccer,” one person wrote.
“That was an embarrassing display! Pulisic is a fraud and the defense is an absolute joke!” another used added.