Balogun admits red card controversy affected USA before heavy Belgium defeat

View 2 Images

Folarin Balogan has admitted that

FIFA's

controversial decision to allow him to play against

Belgium

had an effect on the

USA

before their limp

World Cup

exit. Balogun, 25, had been sent off in the previous round against

Bosnia and Herzegovina

and was set to miss the clash in Seattle.

But on the eve of the last-16 tie, it was announced that FIFA had made the unprecedented decision to

suspend his one-game ban for a year

, allowing the former

Arsenal

striker to play.

United States

President

Donald Trump

then revealed that he'd called his FIFA counterpart,

Gianni Infantino

, in a

bid to get the decision overturned

.

Infantino and FIFA insist that the decision - which was allegedly made

without the full consultation of FIFA's disciplinary committee

- wasn't influenced by Trump. Unfortunately for co-hosts USA,

Balogun wasn't able to prevent a miserable 4-1 defeat

which ended their run at the tournament.

Speaking on

CBS Mornings

, the

Monaco

star opened up on being at the centre of the drama. "My initial reaction was that I was happy to be back in the team. But when I started to reflect, I knew it was going to cause a lot of controversy," Balogun admitted.

Get the latest World Cup 2026 news in your inbox with our

Make Football Great Again newsletter

"And I could almost see within my team-mates a bit of nerves because it's something that is so unique. But the closer we got to the game, I tried to just focus as best as I could but it was difficult - a lot of outside noise and that's hard to avoid."

Balogun added: "It was confusing because the team was practicing without me in the team, I'm almost just playing a supporting role to keep morale high."

The 25-year-old was on the bus with his team-mates when he learned the news that he'd be available in what was seen as a huge boost for manager

Mauricio Pochettino

. Balogun had scored two goals in three games ahead of the clash with Belgium, and had been rested by Pochettino for the USA's final match in the group stage.

How do you rate the USA's performance at the World Cup? Have your say in the

comments section

He went on to say: "It's more [about] being able to separate the emotion from the job at hand - we're all professionals so it's not something I think was too difficult to be able to separate once we got over the initial announcement that I'd be back in the team."

"But you saw definitely it was a difficult game against Belgium and that can overshadow whether we were focused or not. But from me being inside the camp and inside the setup, I know we had full concentration going into the game."