DID AMERICAN SOCCER IMPROVE, OR WAS THE WORLD CUP WATERED DOWN?

The United States had a nice run in the World Cup, and I enjoyed it as the country united and got behind the team, and for a few weeks, it seemed like American soccer might finally be taking another step forward.

Now, I’m not a soccer guy. Far from it, but I can roll with soccer when it’s played at the highest level. If I’m awake by myself on a Saturday or Sunday morning, I’ll turn on the English Premier League and usually get into it.

But MLS?

I’d still rather watch my clothes dry in the front-load dryer while wiping my ass with sandpaper.

The World Cup is different.

Now that the United States has been eliminated, though, I think it’s fair to ask:

Did American soccer actually improve, or did FIFA just make the World Cup bigger and easier to advance through?

This was the first World Cup expanded from 32 teams to 48, with a new Round of 32 added before the traditional Round of 16. More teams got into the tournament, and more teams advanced out of the group stage, so in other words, it’s as watered down as the gas at any gas station that starts with Best and sells cigarettes individually.

The United States deserves some credit, though, for winning its group and then beating Bosnia and Herzegovina 2-0 in the Round of 32 before losing 4-1 to Belgium in the Round of 16.

At the end of the day, however, we went as far as Canada did, as Canada also won a Round of 32 game before being eliminated in the Round of 16.

So yes, the United States showed improvement, but we’re still jerking off to the JCPenney lingerie pages while the rest of the world has graduated to Penthouse.

The team improved somewhat, but the tournament was also somewhat watered down.

Both things can be true.

While we’re fixing soccer, something also needs to be done about VAR, or the video assistant referee.

I understand wanting to correct an obviously missed call, but there are times when VAR feels less like assistance and more like making sure the more popular team wins, as they’ll freeze the video, zoom in 600 percent, and determine that a guy was offside by a pubic hair.

Get the fuck out of here.

If it takes six camera angles, a computer-generated line, and a forensic scientist to determine whether somebody was offside, the original call should probably stand.

That brings us to Folarin Balogun.

Balogun received a straight red card during the victory over Bosnia, and the card carried an automatic one-game suspension that should have kept him out against Belgium.

Then Donald Trump decided he needed to get involved.

Trump personally contacted FIFA president Gianni Infantino and asked him to review the decision. FIFA then suspended Balogun’s punishment, allowing him to play against Belgium. FIFA said its rules gave the disciplinary committee the authority to do so, but the decision was heavily criticized by UEFA and others within international soccer.

Maybe Trump’s phone call didn’t directly change anything, but when the president calls the head of FIFA about an American player’s suspension and that player is suddenly allowed to play, it looks like political interference.

It looks even worse because Infantino has spent years acting like a Trump bootlicker for reasons I still don’t completely understand.

The reality is that it probably wasn’t a red card, and Balogun probably shouldn’t have been suspended, but allowing him to play after Trump called his buddy at FIFA was still a terrible look.

For once, it would have been nice if Trump had just kept his mouth shut and allowed the soccer people to handle soccer.

Maybe something positive can still come from it, and FIFA may create a legitimate and transparent process allowing teams to appeal suspensions resulting from obviously questionable red cards.

The United States had a good World Cup, and our young team gave American fans something to enjoy for a few weeks and a reason to unite instead of divide.

Celebrate the progress, but keep it in perspective, and please fix VAR before someone’s World Cup dreams are ended because his left testicle was technically offside.