SEATTLE — Folarin Balogun will be able to play for the U.S. in Monday’s World Cup elimination game with Belgium after FIFA rescinded the one-game suspension it handed down when Balogun drew a red card in the second half of the team’s round of 32 match against Bosnia and Herzegovina last week.
In a statement released Sunday morning, FIFA said “In line with article 27 of the FIFA Disciplinary Code, the implementation of the match suspension is suspended for a probationary period of one year. If Folarin Balogun commits another infringement of a similar nature and gravity during the probationary period, the suspension shall be revoked and the sanction enforced without prejudice to any additional sanction imposed for the new infringement.”
Balogun leads the U.S. with three goals in as many games. He is the first American to score three times in a World Cup since 1930.
Balogun got the red card after colliding with Bosnia’s Tarik Muharemovic 16 minutes into the second half when the Bosnian defender planted his right leg below Balogun’s right foot, the American inadvertently stomped on his right ankle, twisting it awkwardly.
Both players went down and referee Raphael Claus did not signal a foul or pull a card. But after the video assistant referee urged him to watch a replay, Claus walked away from the monitor and flashed the red card.
After the game Balogun shook Claus’ hand on the pitch. And on Friday, in his first public comments, he spoke respectfully of the decision to give him a red card.
U.S. Soccer also released a statement Sunday.
“We accept the decision of the Disciplinary Committee and are pleased that Folarin Balogun is eligible to compete tomorrow,” the statement said. ”Our full attention is focused on the Round of 16 match against Belgium in Seattle, and we look forward to the continued support of our amazing fans.”
A U.S. Soccer spokesman said the team was informed of FIFA’s decision Sunday morning and Balogun was told the suspension had been lifted during a bus ride to training.
Like a good striker, Folarin Balogun never loses sight of the goal. And the goal for the U.S. team in this summer’s World Cup hasn’t been just to win, which they’ve done, but to inspire.
“Little kids are watching, and we have to show them the correct way to handle things, even when you think it’s unjust,” Balogun said Friday.
“It’s not an excuse to be disrespectful, to not do the right thing. I’m aware that the World Cup might be the first time a lot of American viewers are tuning in. So it’s important, whether things happen to you good or bad, just to continue to be yourself.”
That doesn’t mean Balogun didn’t think the red card was unjust. He does. And he definitely thinks something bad happened to him and his team since Balogun, the Americans’ leading scorer with three goals in as many games, will have to sit out the team’s most important game in a generation.
It’s just means that Balogun, who celebrated his 25th birthday Friday, is also mature enough to understand a game — even a World Cup elimination game — is just a game.
“It’s been a roller coaster,” he said before the team’s training session at the University of Washington. “There’s been lots of different emotions. I’ve been upset, I’ve been happy. But for me, it was just important to stay calm. I never want to react out of anger and out of emotion.”
Balogun, who had given his team a 1-0 lead in the waning seconds of the first half, collided with Tarik Muharemovic 16 minutes into the second half, and when the Bosnian defender planted his right leg below Balogun’s right foot, the American inadvertently stomped on his right ankle, twisting it awkwardly.
U.S. forward Folarin Balogun steps on Bosnia-Herzegovina defender Tarik Muharemovic’s foot and received a red card.
(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)
Both players went down and Claus did not signal a foul or pull card. But after the video assistant referee urged him to watch a replay, Claus walked away from the monitor and flashed the red card. That left the U.S. to finish Wednesday’s game with just 10 men and disqualified Balogun for Monday’s game. U.S. Soccer said Friday FIFA’s disciplinary committee did not add any games to Balogun’s suspension.
“There’s the scenarios that you simply can’t avoid,” he said, “and it has to be taken into context when it’s being reviewed. I felt it wasn’t on this occasion. There’s nowhere else to put your leg. It’s going to be unavoidable.
“I think a yellow card would have been fair. [But] it’s something that’s happened, so we have to move forward, and I have to accept it. The most important thing is just to focus on the bigger picture, which is Belgium.”
Replacing Balogun won’t be easy since he’s emerged as one of the team’s most effective and creative players, either scoring of setting up the go-ahead goal in all three of the U.S. wins.
“We’ve got guys that can fill in and have to be ready for the opportunity to step up,” midfielder Tyler Adams said. “When you miss a player like Balo, obviously things change a little bit. But we’ve been flexible. Guys have shown that they’re ready to play.”
The most likely replacements are Ricardo Pepi and Haji Wright. Pepi, who scored 16 goals for PSV in the Dutch Eredivisie this season, played 90 minutes in place of Balogun in the U.S. loss to Turkey in the final group-stage match. Wright, who had 17 goals for Coventry City in the English Championship, played in all four U.S. games in the 2022 World Cup, scoring once, but he has made just one appearance in this summer’s tournament.
“Balo is an important part of our team, and it’s a disappointing way for him to miss the next game,” said Wright, who grew up in Culver City and spent three years in the Galaxy academy. “But, I’ll always be ready and prepared for whatever comes.”
A victory over Belgium would send the U.S. to the quarterfinals of a World Cup for just the second time. It would also give it four wins in the tournament, double the number of victories in any previous World Cup and marking the first time the Americans have won twice in the knockout stages in the same tournament.
U.S. forward Ricardo Pepi pursues the ball during a World Cup match against Bosnia-Herzegovina at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara , Calif., on Wednesday.
(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)
It’s a moment, Adams acknowledged Friday, many players have waited for their whole lives.
“You need to embrace the moment, that’s for sure,” he said. “To have the opportunity to play in a round-of-16 game — which, obviously, last World Cup we did, but it was the first knockout game, not the second — it’s exciting. It was nice to get a little bit of a taste of what it feels like to play with something a little bit more on the line in the last game. I think that’s good preparation.
“Advancing and taking this thing as far as we can is the most important thing. We have a good opportunity here to do so.”
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — What do you mean U.S. forward Folarin Balogun got red-carded? For that?
As a nation, we’re pretty new to all this. And this VAR abomination we’ve all now been introduced to? Thanks, we hate it.
Soccer’s video assistant referee system is worse than the NBA’s tedious in-game reviews. Worse than the existential NFL question of whether it is or is not a catch. Dumber than not being able to argue obvious balls and strikes in a pre-ABS baseball world.
Worse than all those things put together.
And now that we witnessed it burn the U.S. men’s soccer team in its rousing 2-0 round of 32 World Cup victory over Bosnia and Herzegovina on Wednesday, all of us newly accredited soccer experts in America are ready to declare war on VAR.
In a physical fixture filled with shoving and shouldering, pushing and pummeling, blood and guts, after 60-plus minutes of letting ’em play, Balogun’s off-balance misstep got him kicked off the pitch.
A match of no-calls — including, initially, this gnarly moment of incidental contact between Balogun and Tarik Muharemovic — and the United States found itself down a man for most of the second half at Levi’s Stadium.
The unfortunate accident will rob Americans — both those on the pitch and those glued to screens at home or at a watch party — of their top scorer (Balogun has three goals in three matches) in a round of 16 showdown with Belgium on Monday in Seattle.
The young man was doing LeBron James’ silencer celebration after scoring a goal one moment and being tagged with soccer’s equivalent of a Flagrant 2 the next — because of how one moment was assessed on tape delay.
Delay being the operative phrase. No one loves late calls, but soccer has some late calls. Examined in super-slow motion. And, as the United States’ Tyler Adams pointed out: “When you slow everything down, it’s only going to look worse.”
And Balogun didn’t mean it! That’s a better defense in some situations than others — including this one. Per letter of the law.
ESPN’s resident refereeing expert, Andy Davies, a former Select Group referee with more 12 seasons on the elite list provided this summary judgment: “With both players challenging for ball, the contact from Balogun on Muharemovic, while it looked bad in slow motion, was purely accidental and an unfortunate result from two players challenging for possession of the ball in a normal football movement.”
Also, Davies: “VAR made their recommendation to the referee based on slow-motion and still replays, which is not aligned with VAR protocols, as these should be used for only point-of-contact purposes in a red card tackle situation.”
Let me tell you something you already knew: FIFA is inconsistent.
Malik Tillman’s exquisitely placed, curving free kick for a goal in the 82nd minute might have been Messi-esque, but the call on Balogun? Not Messi-esque.
In a group play match against Algeria, Lionel Messi, the Argentine superstar, seemed to rake his studs along Aïssa Mandi’s right calf and ankle. That time, a foul was called. VAR had a look. And despite the rules stating that a challenge from behind with studs-on-calf contact and a level of force should be a red card — no card was administered. Can’t have Messi missing games.
“For me, never is this red card,” Pochettino said. “Watching after on TV, never was [it] intention[al] to step up on the player. That was a normal action in football that happened by accident.
“That is why for me it’s never a red card.”
But you don’t have to take his word for it.
On Fox, former French footballing legend Thierry Henry said: “You need to adopt some type of common sense. He never went to hurt nobody. He went to get the ball, and where do you land after? You have to land somewhere.”
Commentator Ian Darke weighed in with a post on X: “Reckless and yellow would have covered it.”
Trust your own eyes.
In an attempt to eliminate human error, this great sport has introduced human error. But it feels more egregious than a bad call in the run of play because it’s justice — or injustice — meted out arbitrarily, unevenly and after the fact.
Look, I’m sure the world doesn’t want to hear any of our star-spangled opinions about how to improve the beautiful game — but in this, we’re united.
There’s a universal sentiment: Give VAR the red card.
Wednesday’s win over Bosnia-Herzegovina in San Francisco Bay Area Stadium was thoroughly deserved and earned Pochettino’s side a date with Belgium in Seattle on Monday evening (01:00 BST on Tuesday).
It did not, however, come without a price.
Folarin Balogun, the 24-year-old former Arsenal youngster, who inspired the US to a thumping win over Paraguay with two goals to begin their campaign, added his third of the tournament to break the deadlock shortly before half-time.
He might have had a hat-trick, firing one effort wide of the near post, seeing an effort ruled out for offside and slicing a shot onto the bar from close range, but just after the hour mark his night, and potentially his World Cup was ended.
What looked an innocuous tussle with Bosnia defender Tarik Muharemovic for a looping ball down the left channel ended with the forward being shown a straight red card.
As Balogun attempted to shield the ball, Muharemovic managed to get in front of him, and as the forward’s boot returned to the ground it landed on the back of the Bosnian’s ankle, causing it to twist gruesomely.
In real time, and in all likelihood in reality, it looked entirely accidental, but Brazilian referee Raphael Claus was sent to the monitor to watch a super slow-motion replay, which gave him little choice but to brandish the red card.
It etched Balogun’s name further into the record books.
On the night when he became just the third American to score three goals in a World Cup edition, he also became the fourth player to both score and be sent off in a knockout match, following Brazil’s Garrincha in the 1962 semi-final, his compatriot Ronaldinho in the 2002 quarter-final against England, and France’s Zinedine Zidane in the infamous 2006 final against Italy.
The sending-off brings an immediate one-game ban, ruling him out of the Belgium match, but it could yet be extended by Fifa officials to potentially rule him out of the quarter-final and semi-final, should the Americans make it.
Long-time Fulham target Ricardo Pepi is the man most likely to fill Balogun’s boots , though he has not scored in his 184 minutes on the pitch at this tournament, nor in the four friendly games before it.
The PSV man’s last international goal came in a Nations League game in November 2024.
Crystal Palace and US defender Chris Richards said the players were supporting Balogun.
“We told him we have got his back,” he said. “We are a team of 26, not just one.
“Ultimately we are going to miss him for the next game but we know whoever is going to step up is going to do a job just as well as he did.
“I think it’ll keep us stronger. One man is down, the next guy steps up. We are a team, we are more than just one player, we are more than just 11 players.”
Pochettino added: “When Balogun received the red card, I thought that is the moment we need to show we are a team and the eyes of the players were [saying], ‘Coach, we are ready to go and fight’ and that is amazing.
“These guys are creating a legacy in this country and with our amazing fans everything is possible. Why not us?”
Folarin Balogun scores and is later sent off as the United States advance past a lacklustre Bosnia-Herzegovina in Santa Clara to reach the last 16 of the World Cup.
SEATTLE — If a pregnant Nigerian woman had been allowed to board a plane 25 years ago, the U.S. team’s path through this summer’s World Cup may have unfolded much differently. Instead, a gate agent turned her away, insisting it wasn’t safe for her to fly from New York to London.
So Florence Balogun returned to Brooklyn, where she had been visiting relatives, and waited for her second son to be born. And when Folarin arrived a few weeks later, entering the world just hours before Independence Day dawned, he did so as an American citizen.
It was that quirk of fate that allowed Balogun, who lived just two months in the U.S., to represent the country on soccer’s biggest stage.
“I’m extremely proud my individual journey will come full circle now,” he said before the tournament started. “Especially the World Cup being here, the opportunity to represent my nation. It’s going to be something special for me.”
The first game certainly was, with Balogun scoring twice in the first half of a dominant 4-1 win over Paraguay, becoming the first American with multiple goals in a World Cup game in 96 years while introducing himself to a country that may have known his name, but not his unique talent.
“If you don’t know the type of player he is, you could see it today,” midfielder Weston McKennie said. “It’s the World Cup, everyone steps up to their maximum. In the past a lot of people maybe have not made him out to be a player like that.
“He showed everyone he’s willing to do the dirty work as well.”
Balogun once had his pick of countries to represent. His birth in Brooklyn made him eligible to play for the U.S., his longterm residency in London made him eligible to play for England and his parents’ nationality qualified him to play for Nigeria.
He picked the U.S.
And he’s not the only one on the American team who had a choice. Half the men on the World Cup roster — including Christian Pulisic, Gio Reyna and Malik Tillman, who each had a goal or an assist against Paraguay — are dual nationals, meaning they’re playing for the U.S. because they want to, not because they have to.
“You’re more American if you were not born over there because you had the choice to choose and you chose America,” Kenneth Dest, the Surinamese-American father of Dutch-born defender Sergiño Dest, said in an HBO Max documentary.
If America is a nation of immigrants, it only seems right that it should be represented in the World Cup by a team of immigrants. Like Tillman and Dest, who were born and raised in Europe, the sons of U.S. soldiers. Or forwards Tim Weah, the Brooklyn-born son of the former president of Liberia, and Alejandro Zendejas, who was born in Mexico but became a U.S. citizen at 13 after his father was naturalized.
U.S. forward Folarin Balogun, right, celebrates his goal with Sergiño Dest (2) and Chris Richards (3) against Paraguay.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
The paternal great-grandmother of goalie Matt Turner fled religious persecution in Lithuania, with his Jewish ancestors changing their family name from Turnovski to Turner when they arrived at Ellis Island. The parents of midfielder Cristian Roldan came to the U.S. to escape civil wars in Central America, his father from Guatemala and his mother from El Salvador.
They didn’t wind up wearing the same uniform by accident, however. The recruitment of dual nationals dates to the 1980s under Hungarian-born manager Bob Gansler, who qualified the U.S. for the World Cup for the first time in 40 years with a team that included players born in Uruguay, Greece, Germany and El Salvador.
It really began to scale up about 15 years ago under Bob Bradley and his successor Jurgen Klinsmann. Gregg Berhalter then took it to another level, recruiting more than a dozen dual nationals — including Dest, Tillman, Balogun and Turner — in his five years as coach.
The practice isn’t limited to the USMNT. When France won the World Cup in 2018, 16 of the 23 players on the team came from families that recently immigrated from places like Zaire, Cameroon, Morocco, Angola, Congo or Algeria. More than half the players on Algeria’s team in this summer’s tournament were born in Europe while only seven men on Morocco’s roster are from Morocco.
Even Japan, famously homogeneous, has a Black goalkeeper who was born in Arkansas to a father from Ghana.
“Inclusion always pulls sport forward,” said Ronen Dorfan, a journalist and sports historian based in Budapest.
Still, Balogun’s journey is unusual — and not just because of the way it started.
He was two months old when he and his mother finally made it to London and eight years later he was good enough to enter Arsenal’s academy system. He made his junior international debut with England at 17, then three months later was invited to play four games for the U.S. U18 team.
But Balogun’s future appeared to be with England, especially after he scored seven times in 13 appearances with the U21 team, then followed that up with a career-high 21 goals for Reims in France’s Ligue 1 in 2022-23.
Yet neither performance earned him a call-up to a senior national team that was deep at forward.
So the U.S., which desperately needed a fast, technical, two-footed No. 9, pounced, getting Balogun to withdraw from England’s U21 training camp to make a secret visit to Florida. Once there, U.S. Soccer arranged for him to sit courtside at an NBA game, receive VIP passes to Universal Orlando, attend spring training with the Yankees and meet with a number of U.S. national team players.
With a schedule like this, his visit didn’t stay secret for long. After studying pictures Balogun had posted on social media, some U.S. fans determined he was in Orlando and began peppering his feeds with American flag emojis. Others found him at his hotel and urged him to commit to the U.S., a plea his parents, citing a quirk in fate, had been making for years.
You’re American, they argued. You were born there.
Six weeks later he did commit, with FIFA approving his request to switch allegiances from England to the U.S. A month after that, he scored his first senior international goal in the 2023 Nations League Finals and he’s never looked back. Because if Balogun, 24, felt overlooked in England, he’s felt looked after in the colonies.
“When I committed and throughout this whole cycle and the whole journey to me being at this point, I’ve always said the fans gave me so much motivation, showed me so much support,” said Balogun, who speaks in a pronounced London accent. “The most important thing has been to repay that.
“I just want to continue to show the fans I made the right decision. I want to continue to make the fans proud as well.”
He made a great start on that in his World Cup debut.
