As Folarin Balogun reflects on his world exploding, Belgium rejoices over beating the U.S.

SEATTLE — Even many who think Folarin Balogun’s red card was justified don’t blame him for the global fallout over the last few days.

It isn’t his fault that he’ll be forever known as the player President Donald Trump lobbied FIFA president Gianni Infantino to get back on the field.

“When that decision’s overturned, of course it’s going to be controversial,” he said, “So for me, it’s something that didn’t really surprise me too much. But as a player, my job is just to go out there and focus on my job.”

He spoke with the same clarity that he offered last Friday, when he discussed wanting to be a role model for fans.

“I can only be honest, you know. I don’t think we had a good game today collectively,” he said. “We played well in the other games. We were very intense; we were able to generate energy with the crowd. And today, we didn’t give the crowd a lot to cheer for. That’s the most disappointing thing — that’s the part that hurts the most for me, personally.”

» READ MORE: USMNT blown out of World Cup with a 4-1 loss to Belgium in the round of 16

And he acted with grace again when he went to speak with Belgium manager Rudi Garcia, whom he has known for a while, after the final whistle.

“This is a game, there’s winners and losers, and similar to when I was given the red card, you have to handle it in the right way,” he said. “So, us losing today again, of course there’s huge disappointment. But for me, I wanted to just say congratulations to Belgium and Rudi Garcia and wish them good luck for the rest of the tournament.”

Garcia returned the favor in his postgame news conference.

“This wasn’t his fault,” he said. “He isn’t the one to blame, that’s what I told him. I appreciated that he came to see me.”

How much did the scandal motivate Belgium? Any team could draw easy motivation from saying Trump and FIFA stacked the deck, so let’s go beat the U.S.

» READ MORE: The USMNT lived down to Donald Trump’s expectations: They played like the losers he thought they were | Mike Sielski

“No, we just wanted to win the game on the field,” veteran goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois said. “It was a bit bizarre, it wasn’t the fault of the U.S. team or Balogun. … Whether he played or not, it was important for us to win.”

Not all of his teammates were so polite.

“There’s always a justice somewhere in life,” midfielder Nicolas Raskin said. “And the fact that something happened like that, you can call it what you want, but we don’t think that was fair. And I think today, it just brought us a little bit of luck that we needed to win the game.”

One of the Red Devils’ biggest stars, midfielder Youri Tielemans, had stronger words about why his team “had a fire in us” throughout the game.

» READ MORE: U.S. fans lament loss to Belgium at watch parties across the area: ‘I had a bad feeling from the get-go’

“Of course we aren’t going to hide it,” he told Belgian TV network RTBF. “We had a meeting about it when we got the news, and afterward, we said we have no excuse. Whether he plays or not, it’s up to show that we should to talk on the field, and that’s what we did today. So I’m very happy, and very proud of the team.”

When Romelu Lukaku scored his team’s fourth goal to cap the 4-1 win, he gave the universal “talk less” gesture to the crowd. The team then got together for a celebration that midfielder Axel Witsel acknowledged was a version of “the Trump dance.” Then they did it again in the postgame locker room.

And after the final whistle, Belgium’s social media staff delivered its own shot.

“Overturn this,” the post said.