SEATTLE – FIFA handed the U.S. men’s national team a rare and precious gift on Sunday morning, declaring striker Folarin Balogun eligible for Monday’s World Cup Round of 16 clash vs. Belgium despite his VAR-imposed red card in last week’s 2–0 win over Bosnia and Herzegovina, citing the increasingly controversial Article 27 of its disciplinary code.
Their opponents responded with a level of fury most fans would expect.
“I didn’t know that at FIFA’s headquarters, July 5 is the same thing as April 1 in Europe. It’s a discovery for me,” declared Red Devils manager Rudi Garcia in French in his team’s pregame press conference at Seattle Stadium, clearly fuming about the day’s shocking course of events, which led the Royal Belgian Football Association (RBFA) to threaten legal action.
“The Belgian federation isn’t just defending itself, it’s not just defending the national team. It’s defending football in general. It’s defending its integrity, defending its ethics. From memory, it’s the first time in the history of the World Cup that there’s been this type of decision.
“Beyond that, I’m a coach. I’m going to concentrate on my team, on the game. No matter the starting U.S. lineup, what matters for me is the field, my team, and that we win and reach the quarterfinals.”
An hour or so later, USMNT coach Mauricio Pochettino stepped up to the same podium and offered a very different perspective.
“Like everyone that really loves the sport, and trusts in the ethics and integrity, I think we celebrate all that decision," the Argentine said. “We were punished enough against Bosnia & Herzegovina to play with 10 men, 30 minutes, in a decision that was completely unfair.”
Jeremiah Oshan
‘Poch’ later offered further detail in his native Spanish when queried by a journalist from Spain, politely contravening Garcia’s view.
“I respect the opponent; everyone has their own arguments to defend their position,” said Pochettino. “But the [original] decision isn’t fair, because it was never a red card. There was a mistake, call it what you will, and the resulting punishment is far too severe, especially for an action that was unintentional. Everyone has said so; 99.9% of people in the football world have called it an unjust sanction.
“Furthermore, there are precedents where sanctions have been suspended or deferred, so I don’t understand why anyone would be surprised. This isn’t something extraordinary that only happens to us; it has happened before. We’ve seen plenty of plays in this World Cup that – fortunately, and I’m glad for this – didn’t result in the kind of punishment we received, because that would have been unfair, too.”
After his fiery opening remarks, Garcia declined to delve further into the dispute, referring members of the media to a 280-word statement released by the Belgian federation shortly beforehand, in which it described itself as "astonished by FIFA's decision … [which] is in direct contradiction with the provisions of the FIFA World Cup 2026 Competition Regulations," and declared itself "investigating all potential options."
Meanwhile, a global debate raged about the apparent corruption of FIFA letting one of the host nation’s best players off the hook with little to no explanation, with multiple reports of President Donald Trump lobbying for just such an outcome adding further fuel to the flames, as did Trump’s own social-media post thanking the governing body for “reversing a great injustice.”
FIFA communications staffers read the same prepared text before the Belgian and US press conferences, repeating the statement posted on the organization’s website that morning, with no further details provided.
Pochettino’s main message, in so many words: That’s got nothing to do with us, and the same goes for Trump’s pontifications.
“No, don't we cannot mix that. We cannot mix that. That is a decision from FIFA with the evidence that happened before, and that's it,” said the coach when asked if it was good for soccer that politicians would be calling FIFA president Gianni Infantino directly to advocate for decisions like this one, as Trump reportedly did.
“If anyone was harmed in this situation, it was the United States,” he later contended in Spanish. “If anyone tries to argue that we weren’t punished, playing 30 or 35 minutes a man down in a World Cup knockout match, well, there’s no extraordinary benefit we’re gaining here. Ultimately, we aren’t playing the victim, but we certainly aren’t the villains of this story, either.”
Amid all the sound and fury around the Balogun situation, it falls to the other players to remain focused on the actual game at hand, even with the controversy casting a long shadow.
“We know tomorrow’s match against the host nation will be tough; the odds are stacked against us, and obviously, they’re very eager to beat us, just as we are to beat them,” said Belgium and Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois in Spanish. Asked about the impact of Balogun’s sudden availability, he paid tribute to the USMNT’s attacking talent.
“As a team, we always prepare for all the possible strikers,” Courtois said. “[Balogun] is a very fast striker, obviously a different profile than maybe [Ricardo] Pepi, but I think they’re all good strikers. Also, with [Sergino] Dest playing on the right wing, [Christian] Pulisic can play; they have a lot of quality up front, they arrive well in the box. They create a lot of 1v1s for the goalkeeper.”
USMNT defender Chris Richards was all smiles as he spoke to reporters before Sunday morning’s training session at the University of Washington, having received the Balogun news just before stepping off the team bus.
“He strikes fear into a lot of defenders. He's had a good season at Monaco, and he came in here with the same momentum,” Richards said of ‘Balo.’
“In the back, it gives you a lot of confidence in the guys up front, if you just give the ball to them, and they go and do their thing. So then we try to do our work, and now they've been doing their work, they've been scoring a lot of goals for us. So it's been really nice.”
