Folarin Balogun addresses FIFA decision to lift red card suspension

U.S. soccer star Folarin Balogun said in an interview Tuesday that while he was happy to rejoin his team following FIFA’s divisive decision to lift his red card suspension for the team’s match against Belgium, he knew it was “going to cause a lot of controversy.”

“I could almost see within my teammates a bit of nerves because it was something that’s so unique. But the closer we got to the game, I tried to just focus as best as I could,” Balogun told “CBS Mornings” on Tuesday.

The 25-year-old striker received a red card during the first round of the World Cup knockout stage when the U.S. took on Bosnia and Herzegovina. The red card meant not just an ejection from the round of 32 game, but also a suspension for the team’s next game.

Balogun said he “was in shock” when he got the red card and didn’t agree with the call. 

“When something is not intentional … it should never be a red card,” Balogun said. “So it was just an unfortunate situation and I think, you know, it put a lot more pressure on us than we needed. “

Despite being down a player for much of the second half, the U.S. men went on to win the match against Bosnia and Herzegovina 2-0.

Afterward, President Trump called the head of FIFA and asked for the controversial call against Balogun to be reviewed.

“I asked for a review because I didn’t think it was a foul,” Mr. Trump said in the Oval Office after an unrelated event. “I thought it was two great athletes that crashed into each other and got entangled.”

FIFA President Gianni Infantino would confirm Mr. Trump called him, but he said the FIFA Disciplinary Committee was already reviewing the red card and the president’s call did not impact the decision.

FIFA’s decision to lift Balogun’s one-game ban drew heavy criticism.

But amid the controversy, Balogun said his teammates provided him with “a lot of reassurance.”

“It wasn’t something I could change,” he said. “It was just a situation that was unfortunate, which gave me confidence.”

He was permitted to play against Belgium, which dominated the U.S. in the round of 16, winning 4-1. Despite the controversy ahead of the match, Balogun said the U.S. was prepared and able to separate “emotion from the job at hand.”

“It is not something I think was too difficult to be able to separate once we kind of got over the initial announcement that I would be back on the team,” Balogun said. “I think you saw, definitely, it was a difficult game against Belgium, and that can kind of overshadow whether we were focused on not. But … I know we had full concentration going into the game.”

The U.S. men’s national team’s victory over Bosnia and Herzegovina was its first World Cup knockout round win since 2002.

Balogun said “it was amazing to be part of it” and he feels the team was “able to unite the country.”

“I think you could see how many fans and how many young kids were really captured by it,” he said.

For him, the journey isn’t over. Balogun said he expects to play for the U.S. in the next World Cup.