On USA soccer, narratives, and a potential lesson the Red Wings can take with this

Happy Tuesday, here are some thoughts on things.

Like many of you, I watched the United States’ 2026 World Cup run come to an end on Monday night with a 4-1 loss to Belgium.

From a soccer perspective, it was pretty clear the United States was outclassed and after beating some lesser opponents early on, a true match against a top-10 nation proved to be too much.

But I want to localize what happened here to a hockey perspective, and perhaps take a lesson from the circus and hoopla happened before the loss to Belgium.

Folarin Balogun got what is probably now the most famous red card in soccer history. I would argue before that it was probably Zinedine Zidane headbutt in 2006 World Cup final or the Eric Cantona flying karate kick of a fan in 1995, but neither of those incidents led to an American president and administration pushing FIFA, publicly, to change the rules and reverse the red card suspension.

Belgium, in my belief, wins this game either way, but for an American team that was thriving on the vibes and energy from the group stage, everything changed with the aftermath of the red card. When the red card got reversed, and in the public manner it did, it changed the perception. The Americans needed Balogun, it was such an injustice to lose a top player, according to the narratives, and it seemed like fighting to get him back was the equivalent of the Norwegians losing Erling Haaland (which is not the case).

The pressure also ratcheted up, not just the natural pressure of a knockout stage match, but the pressure that all of America had been righted of this wrong and now the United States would win this match against Belgium.

Instead the Americans struggled, they looked out of sorts, Balogun played very little impact, and in many ways the narrative had helped sink the United States before they ever stepped on the field.

Now let’s connect that back to hockey and some of the events currently ongoing in the NHL.

The Ottawa Senators traded Brady Tkachuk to the Florida Panthers this summer, a move that felt like it was always going to happen and was only further pushed by the ongoing podcast with his brother, which seems to have ticked off many within the Senators’ locker room. There was no pride in Ottawa, publicly, for Brady in his most public setting and it started to seep deeper into other players.

Ottawa, for any chance of success, had to move on from their captain, the narrative and cloud around it were hanging on too long.

Which brings me Dylan Larkin and the Red Wings, the trade request heard across the league, and how the team, one way or the other, will deal with this moving forward, especially as top-line centers making less than $9 million per season became that much more valuable in the past week.

The Red Wings have also been overly impacted by outside noise, Larkin included, the past few years and players have admitted as much. The culture of losing has infected Detroit in now annual March collapses, and players have taken the moments of booing and internalized them, frankly, in the wrong way and been almost indignant about it.

Yes, the Red Wings need better players, that’s a direct line from Steve Yzerman, but they also need a locker room that takes that adversity and either gets pissed off about it or uses it to find a solution.

Larkin, I believe, used to be the type of person that would have looked at it the other way, and wanted to dig his way out. But he eventually reached his breaking point, and I think it impacted others, and it greatly muted the intended “culture import” that the Red Wings tried to bring with return of David Perron at the trade deadline.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately, my opinions have changed a bit here and there, and when it comes to Yzerman’s promise that he must do “what’s best for the Red Wings,” I think we’ve reached the point where for the Red Wings to have a proper narrative, which doesn’t drive the team negatively during the 2026-27 season, a deal needs to be done before training camp.

It’s not apples to apples to what happened with Team USA, an a short tournament is very different than an 84-game season, but to me there are some prime examples in front of Yzerman right now about how to at least put his team in a better spot to avoid the outside noise becoming internal, again.

Just some food for thought on a Tuesday in July, thanks for reading.