Americans Have Lost Their Minds Over Balogun’s Red Card But Frankly They Need to Shut Up

Let’s Get One Thing Straight – This Isn’t American Football

Now, I know all you American readers are used to full-on physical contact in most of your sports. American football and ice hockey can morph from sporting tactical battles to full-on wrestling matches in the blink of an eye, and you all seem to absolutely love it.

However, football (or soccer, as it’s called over there) has entirely different thresholds for what it thinks is excess physicality and what is legal physical contact, and as much as you all want to fool yourselves into believing otherwise, Folarin Balogun’s sending off against Bosnia and Herzegovina was entirely fair and justified.

This is the definition incidental contact. It’s a true accident from Balogun. VAR continue to be a complete sham and are all over the place.

Refs are three blind mice at all points in time. No consistency. pic.twitter.com/1XfCToo2ec

— Timmy Tebrows (@TimmyTebrows) July 2, 2026

Now, stop losing your minds, as in any ordinary game of football, that is a straight sending-off with no questions asked. It doesn’t matter if it was completely accidental, nor does it matter that he didn’t commit the foul while even making a challenge – all you need to do is watch it back once to agree with the referee entirely.

Balo-Gone

Monaco’s Balogun has taken the USA, and more broadly, the World Cup tournament by storm, finding the net in three of his country's four games so far, and sitting just two goals behind the legendary pairing of Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappé at the top of the Golden Boot standings.

The Arsenal academy graduate continued in this excellent vein of form against Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Round of 32, netting the USA’s first of the game in a 2-0 win. In truth, he could have had a hat trick, seeing an earlier finish disallowed for offside before hitting the bar from close-range shortly after.

However, his most telling contribution to the game came just after the hour mark, when the 24-year-old striker entered into a foot race with Tarik Muharemovic. With the ball still in the air, and with players having eyes only for the ball, it was exactly the sort of situation where a seemingly innocuous challenge could do a lot more damage than initially thought.

Chasing after the ball, Balogun inadvertently scraped his studs down the back of the defender's lower leg, eventually catching them in the sock bunched around his ankle. The ankle twisted sickeningly, and understandably, Muharemovic let out an audible scream of agony.

The incident that led to a red card for Folarin Balogun.

Correct decision? pic.twitter.com/bzgLMxKFgS

— Match of the Day (@BBCMOTD) July 2, 2026

I can understand why US fans are angry – it was as accidental as they come, with Balogun’s right boot searching for ground rather than the Bosnian’s lower leg. Similarly, Muharemovic cannot be accused of looking for a foul – he was tussling just as physically as Balogun was, jostling for position to win the bouncing ball as his side searched for a way back into the game.

However, as soon as the studs of one and the ankle of another collide, VAR is always going to start taking an interest.

Correct Decisions

Now, US fans will immediately be pointing to an almost identical challenge made in the opening days of the tournament, committed by none other than Argentina’s Messi.

The eight-time Ballon d’Or winner, also in a chase with an opposing defender, this time from Algeria, inadvertently planted his studs painfully into the calf of the centre back. This trapped the defender's boot in the turf and culminated in a similarly painful ankle twist, with the Algerian player going down in a heap.

However, not only did Messi go unpunished for the challenge, but the officials didn’t even call a foul on Argentina, nor was VAR called upon to help make a decision at any point.

I’ll leave the conspiracy theorists to speculate over whether FIFA is giving Messi preferential treatment, but regardless of whether that’s true, failing to give a foul, as well as a red card, was a wrong decision and one that the officials at the USA vs Bosnia game succeeded in addressing.

Everyday I wake up and I think about this Lionel Messi challenge and Wonder how did he never get punished for this disgusting tackle

The worst thing is he didn’t even get a yellow card and the referee never checked VAR pic.twitter.com/7WbEpZrKtq

— DrewS🇫🇷🇵🇹 (@XnzyDrewS) June 29, 2026

By sending Balogun off, FIFA corrected themselves for an earlier error – many will claim that because of the different treatment of the two challenges, the officiating at the tournament is inconsistent, but at least on the second occasion the punishment matched the offence, a far less damaging sequence than if it had been the other way around.

US fans will next point to the letter of the law, which states that when a tackle is concerned, a red card should only be given when there is “a tackle or challenge using excessive force that could injure an opponent".

Balogun was neither out of control nor using excessive force and was instead simply sent off for placing his foot in the wrong place at the wrong time. However, the majority of red cards are equally as accidental. Regardless of whether a challenge is accidental or not, it cannot go unpunished if it endangers the welfare of an opponent.

We’ve seen red cards dished out for anything ranging from mistimed tackles to completely accidental leg breaks – just watch the foul on Ismael Kone in Canada’s win over Qatar and it becomes easy to understand how accidental a red card challenge can be.

The main reason why US fans are fuming is thanks to the fact that they will be missing their star striker for the high-stakes last 16 clash against Belgium next week – the absence of Balogun up top has the potential to completely derail their World Cup campaign, as his absence coincides with their nation's first true test of the tournament.

It’s not as if the USA doesn't have capable backup – Ricardo Pepi, Haji Wright and even Christian Pulisic all provide unique threats at the top of the field, and all have more than enough ability to cause Belgium some problems.

However, the loss of Balogun means Mauricio Pochettino needs to diverge from the style of play he and his players are most comfortable with. When Balogun starts, the Stars and Stripes have an aerial threat, a focal point, and a physical presence that can defend the ball while teammates pour forward, while also being a more-than-capable finisher, as we’ve seen with so many teams this tournament.

Starting any of their backup options still means that there is a high-quality finisher playing up top, but the way in which they get involved will have to differ from Balogun's thanks to their vastly different skill sets.

FIRST WORLD CUP KNOCKOUT WIN SINCE 2002 🇺🇸

USMNT ADVANCES. pic.twitter.com/Tj6hJuBzy5

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) July 2, 2026

Thankfully, it is a situation that Pochettino only needs to deal with for the duration of one match. The unfortunate part is that thanks to their lack of a first-choice striker, there is a very real risk of the USA crashing out of the tournament in the third round, a humble exit for a nation that has everyone believing that they can go on a serious run at the tournament.

Balogun’s red card was certainly unlucky, and his reputation remains fully intact thanks to the lack of malice in the challenge, but it’s hard to see what other choice the referee had.

To allow him to play on would have been to undermine the severity and potential damage the tackle could have caused, while sending him was inevitably going to rile up all 350+ million US citizens keenly watching on.

The referee came to the right decision, and while we can understand why the entire country is up in arms about the decision, there really was no other viable outcome. Though a complete accident, it was a bad foul worthy of a red, and no amount of complaining and arguing is going to overturn the decision.