Glee and Snark in Europe after Belgium knocks U.S. out of World Cup

Dejected fans of the United States team react to Belgium’s victory in their World Cup match in Seattle on Monday, July 6, 2026. (Ruth Fremson/The New York Times)

By JEANNA SMIALEK and KOBA RYCKEWART

“Overturn this.”

That is what Belgium’s national soccer team posted on social media after crushing the United States 4-1 in the World Cup on Monday — a snarky reference to the reinstatement of a banned U.S. player before the game. The reversal on the player’s eligibility followed a phone call from President Donald Trump to Gianni Infantino, head of FIFA, soccer’s governing body.

Many Europeans had reacted in outrage at what they saw as an egregious intervention in the tournament. So when Belgium defeated the United States to advance to a quarterfinal against Spain, the reaction in Europe was triumphant, and often biting.

“Belgium got the last laugh,” Brussels Playbook, a Politico morning newsletter, said.

“Sporting justice was served while you slept,” declared Europe Express, The Financial Times’ Belgium-based morning offering.

“Allô, Donald?” read the banner headline across the website of Le Soir, a French-language daily in Belgium. The Belgian team had the final word, the accompanying article noted.

The game came against a fraught geopolitical backdrop, as world leaders head to Ankara, Turkey, for a closely watched NATO summit. European leaders have been trying to remain on Trump’s good side as they push for U.S. help in supporting Ukraine against Russia and in trying to broker an end to that war.

Still, Belgian officials were mordant after their team’s victory.

Bart De Wever, the Belgian prime minister, has a cat with a very active Instagram account. On Tuesday, it posted: “I slept so well! You too?” The cat was hugging a Trump plushie. Taylor Swift’s “Karma” played in the background of the post.

Theo Francken, Belgium’s defense minister, in Ankara for the NATO summit, posted, “Our Defense is better than yours,” backed by ABBA’s “The Winner Takes It All.”

Belgium, which is home to the headquarters of the European Union and NATO and thus host to a large international community, was not alone in relishing the victory.

Soccer “still has antibodies against injustice,” read the first line of a story about the Belgium-U.S. game in El País, a Spanish newspaper.

Even one of the pro-Iran accounts that make anti-Trump videos using artificial intelligence-generated Lego toys weighed in, posting a video with the lyrics, “FIFA bent the rules. Still got sent home fools.”

Members of the Belgian team celebrate their defeat of the United States in their World Cup match as U.S. goalie Matt Freese (24) looks on in Seattle on Monday, July 6, 2026. The U.S. lost, 4-1. (Ruth Fremson/The New York Times)

The reinstated U.S. player, Folarin Balogun, who was the top scorer in the World Cup for the U.S. team, had been given a red card in the previous game, against Bosnia. That decision would normally suspend him for the subsequent game, but he was allowed to play after Trump called Infantino and asked the FIFA chief for a review. Trump said Monday that he had not told FIFA what to do, and Infantino said that there was nothing unusual about the call.

After FIFA announced Sunday that it was lifting the one-game suspension against the player, Belgian officials and various soccer bodies questioned the basis for the move and pointed out the unusual aspects of the process.

The Royal Belgian Football Association said in a statement Monday that it had “not received any grounds for this decision,” noting that it contested the eligibility of the player and left “all further actions open.”

Many online accounts joked that Belgium would need to watch out for tariffs in the wake of the victory, referring to Trump’s tendency to turn to his favorite trade tool when displeased. Online spectators and international media noted that the dance that Belgium’s players performed after scoring their fourth goal resembled one that Trump has done in the past, something akin to a happy bob.

This year has repeatedly tested the trans-Atlantic alliance: Trump started 2026 with threats to take over Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark, a NATO member. Recently, he threatened a 100% tariff on European countries over digital policies.

The soccer episode “obviously plays into a certain stereotype about Donald Trump,” Jacob Funk Kirkegaard, an analyst at the Belgian think tank Bruegel, said Monday. It would be seen, he added, as “another example of a rogue, unconstrained America.”