{"id":6534,"date":"2026-07-05T12:07:48","date_gmt":"2026-07-05T12:07:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orlandorelocationreport.com\/?p=6534"},"modified":"2026-07-05T12:07:48","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T12:07:48","slug":"folarin-balogun-urges-us-to-focus-on-beating-belgium-despite-red-card-he-calls-unjust","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orlandorelocationreport.com\/?p=6534","title":{"rendered":"Folarin Balogun urges US to focus on beating Belgium despite red card he calls unjust"},"content":{"rendered":"
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LOS ANGELES \u2014 Like a good striker, Folarin Balogun never loses sight of the goal. And the goal for the U.S. team in this summer\u2019s World Cup hasn\u2019t been just to win, which they\u2019ve done, but to inspire.<\/p>\n

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And that\u2019s how Balogun found himself on the field, shaking hands with Brazilian referee Raphael Claus, about 45 minutes after Claus gave him a controversial red card in Wednesday\u2019s win over Bosnia-Herzegovina, a red card that will keep him out of Monday\u2019s round-of-16 game with Belgium.<\/p>\n

\u201cLittle kids are watching, and we have to show them the correct way to handle things, even when you think it\u2019s unjust,\u201d Balogun said Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not an excuse to be disrespectful, to not do the right thing. I\u2019m aware that the World Cup might be the first time a lot of American viewers are tuning in. So it\u2019s important, whether things happen to you good or bad, just to continue to be yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n

That doesn\u2019t mean Balogun didn\u2019t think the red card was unjust. He does. And he definitely thinks something bad happened to him and his team since Balogun, the Americans\u2019 leading scorer with three goals in as many games, will have to sit out the team\u2019s most important game in a generation.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s just means that Balogun, who celebrated his 25th birthday Friday, is also mature enough to understand a game \u2014 even a World Cup elimination game \u2014 is just a game.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a roller coaster,\u201d he said before the team\u2019s training session at the University of Washington. \u201cThere\u2019s been lots of different emotions. I\u2019ve been upset, I\u2019ve been happy. But for me, it was just important to stay calm. I never want to react out of anger and out of emotion.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u2019s right foot, the American inadvertently stomped on his right ankle, twisting it awkwardly.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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\u2019s game with just 10 men and disqualified Balogun for Monday\u2019s game. U.S. Soccer said Friday FIFA\u2019s disciplinary committee did not add any games to Balogun\u2019s suspension.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s the scenarios that you simply can\u2019t avoid,\u201d he said, \u201cand it has to be taken into context when it\u2019s being reviewed. I felt it wasn\u2019t on this occasion. There\u2019s nowhere else to put your leg. It\u2019s going to be unavoidable.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI think a yellow card would have been fair. (But) it\u2019s something that\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Replacing Balogun won\u2019t be easy since he\u2019s emerged as one of the team\u2019s most effective and creative players, either scoring of setting up the go-ahead goal in all three of the U.S. wins.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got guys that can fill in and have to be ready for the opportunity to step up,\u201d midfielder Tyler Adams said. \u201cWhen you miss a player like Balo, obviously things change a little bit. But we\u2019ve been flexible. Guys have shown that they\u2019re ready to play.\u201d<\/p>\n

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 T\u00fcrkiye 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\u2019s tournament.<\/p>\n

\u201cBalo is an important part of our team, and it\u2019s a disappointing way for him to miss the next game,\u201d said Wright, who grew up in Culver City, Calif., and spent three years in the Galaxy academy. \u201cBut, I\u2019ll always be ready and prepared for whatever comes.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a moment, Adams acknowledged Friday, many players have waited for their whole lives.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou need to embrace the moment, that\u2019s for sure,\u201d he said. \u201cTo have the opportunity to play in a round-of-16 game \u2014 which, obviously, last World Cup we did, but it was the first knockout game, not the second \u2014 it\u2019s 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\u2019s good preparation.<\/p>\n

\u201cAdvancing and taking this thing as far as we can is the most important thing. We have a good opportunity here to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Although he will miss the Round of 16 match against Belgium because of a controversial red card, forward Folarin Balogun said his U.S. teammates will regroup and focus on the task at hand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6533,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"yoast_head":"\nFolarin Balogun urges US to focus on beating Belgium despite red card he calls unjust - Orlando Relocation Report<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/orlandorelocationreport.com\/?p=6534\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Folarin Balogun urges US to focus on beating Belgium despite red card he calls unjust - 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