US coach, star rip World Cup referee’s decision to give Folarin Balogun a red card

The U.S. Men’s National Team’s postgame celebration from Wednesday’s 2-0 World Cup win over Bosnia-Herzegovina was muted somewhat by their frustration at Folarin Balogun‘s controversial red card.

The Americans’ leading scorer, who had scored in the first half, was ticketed in the 64th minute. Initially, Balogun received no discipline for stepping on Tarik Muharemovic‘s ankle in the 64th minute. But using VAR, the match official then gave him a red card.

The Americans played the remainder of the game with 10 players and won’t have Balogun for Monday’s game against Belgium.

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United States coach Mauricio Pochettino told The Athletic the call was overly harsh.

“For me? Never a red card,” Pochettino said. “Never an intention to step on the player. It was a normal action in football that happened by accident.”

“He’s very disappointed,” Pochettino added. “It was an action that wasn’t intention, he’s sad. We cannot do anything to change this feeling. This is soccer, this is football. For sure he’s going to help us to perform and hopefully we can go to the next round so he can be available again.”

Christian Pulisic, who hugged Balogun in a sympathetic embrace after the call, disagreed with the decision, but told The Athletic that the U.S. would rally on his behalf.

“It just seems so harsh,” Pulisic said. “I just told him, he’s done so much for us, and now we got his back.”

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