Dave Portnoy slams ’embarrassing’ USMNT and calls on LeBron James to take up soccer

Photo by Robbie Jay Barratt - AMA/Getty ImagesThe USMNT’s exit from the World Cup 2026 has seen Dave Portnoy call for the country to make a radical change to how it approaches soccer.

>A World Cup campaign that briefly promised so much came to a crushing end in Seattle after Belgium cut through the noise to emerge 4-1 winners.

>In truth, it never really looked as if the USMNT would book a spot in a World Cup quarter-final for the first time since 2002.

>Despite so much controversy heading into the game following the Folarin Balogun saga, it all ended in a whimper.

>Portnoy was unhappy about it.

Portnoy calls for a draft in American soccer and wants LeBron to play Immediately after the game, the Barstool Sports owner and founder took to social media platform X.

>He wrote: “Embarrassing effort from the United States. Lights were way too bright for US soccer team. Stage way too big. If we’re gonna keep creating international incidents over soccer it may be time to institute a soccer draft.”

Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLCIn a video accompanying the post, he called for athletes such as LeBron James to play: “We’re going to have to start instituting a draft in soccer. We’re going to have to say to ‘Hey, LeBron, no offence, you’re going to play soccer’.

>“All of these other great athletes that we’ve got, you’re going to have to go play soccer.”

>The “international event” he is referring to is clearly the aforementioned Balogun saga. After an intervention from Donald Trump, the striker was cleared to play despite receiving a red card against Bosnia in the last round.

>All of that effort, however, did very little in the end. Balogun – like many of his teammates – struggled to get into the game or make any meaningful impact as the World Cup ended from an American perspective for another four years.

Portnoy fumes about the state of American soccer It was not only the defeat that had Portnoy so angry. It was the way in which the USMNT were outclassed that riled him so much.

>In another X post, he wrote: “I don’t want to hear that the future is bright for American soccer. That they should be proud. That was a disgusting effort. We’re far closer to the bottom than the top. Just not a soccer country.”

Mere hours after fellow co-hosts Mexico had gone toe-to-toe with England in one of the best World Cup games of all time, the USMNT were pretty much bullied out of the tournament.

>That has to sting, particularly after so much talk heading into the game.

>Read more:

>Pat McAfee stunned by USMNT World Cup defeat as he calls Belgium ‘monsters’

>FIFA issue statement on World Cup referee Raphael Claus after Donald Trump comments

>Ex-England defender points out what USMNT players will regret after World Cup defeat