SEATTLE — United States manager Mauricio Pochettino praised FIFA‘s decision to lift the suspension on U.S. forward Folarin Balogun, saying the USMNT was “punished enough” by having to play shorthanded against Bosnia-Herzegovina for 35 minutes.
Balogun scored the opener for the U.S., but was shown a red card in the 64th minute after a lengthy VAR review for a hard challenge on Bosnia defender Tarik Muharemovic. The U.S. held on to see out a 2-0 victory.
The initial response from FIFA was that the decision by referee Raphael Claus couldn’t be appealed and that Balogun would serve a one-game suspension, which would have forced him to miss Monday’s round-of-16 match against Belgium.
On Sunday morning, though, FIFA announced that Balogun’s suspension would be lifted, allowing him to play in the Belgium match, and that the player would instead be placed on probation for a period of one year.
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FIFA said in a statement that if 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.”
“My reaction I think is like everyone that really loved that sport, and trust on the ethic and integrity. I think we celebrate all that decision,” Pochettino said about the lifting of Balogun’s ban. “We were punished enough against Bosnia-Herzegovina to play with 10 men, 35 minutes in a decision that was completely unfair.
“But it’s not only because I am the head coach of the U.S. men’s national team, [and] I need to defend my side. It’s only because I think it’s…99.9% that we all agree that it was an unfair card.”
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Pochettino added that he was “not involved” in the process by which Balogun’s ban was lifted. One source said that U.S. Soccer was engaged in the process with FIFA. When asked what he knew about the process, Pochettino provided little in the way of details.
“[It was a] normal process and of course the Federation for sure was working really hard,” Pochettino said. “[U.S. Soccer CEO JT Batson] and the whole federation working on trying to defend our situation and that’s it.
“I was focusing on trying to prepare the team to face to Belgium, working in different options, working in trying to be focusing and to play tomorrow with our best, in our best condition.”
While speaking to reporters on Saturday, Balogun mentioned that it was important to behave well in such situations, and set an example for young fans. That was why he shook Claus’ hand. Pochettino felt this helped the U.S. effort in getting the ban lifted.
“The lesson is if you behave well, maybe you will be rewarded,” Pochettino said. “And I think it’s fantastic to have that mindset. I am so happy that he act in this way and he took that decision because sometimes, when you are upset after the game and you feel in some point knowing that it was unfair to everything, but you have a small percentage of you feel guilty about this type of situation. But I think he did very well and manage [the situation] and I am so happy about that.”
Pochettino sidestepped a question about U.S. President Donald Trump posting on social media that he was happy about the decision.
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“I didn’t see it,” said Pochettino about Trump’s comments.
When asked if he thought it was appropriate for Trump to reach out to Infantino, Pochettino said: “We cannot mix that. That is a decision of from the FIFA.”
The U.S. is trying to reach the quarterfinals of the World Cup for the first time since 2002. If the Americans beat Belgium on Monday, they would face the winner of the round-of-16 game between Spain and Portugal.
