{"id":26936,"date":"2026-07-07T00:13:20","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T00:13:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/26936\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T00:13:20","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T00:13:20","slug":"balogun-starts-for-us-against-belgium-after-suspension-lifted-following-trump-call","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/26936\/","title":{"rendered":"Balogun starts for US against Belgium after suspension lifted following Trump call"},"content":{"rendered":"

SEATTLE (AP) \u2014 Folarin Balogun is in the United States\u2019 starting lineup for Monday\u2019s World Cup round of 16 match against Belgium after his red-card suspension was lifted by FIFA in a decision that sparked an uproar<\/a> across the sport.<\/p>\n

Balogun\u2019s red card was assessed by Brazilian referee Raphael Claus<\/a> for stepping on an opponent\u2019s ankle last Wednesday during the Americans\u2019 2-0 win over Bosnia-Herzegovina, triggering an automatic one-game suspension.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo have all the players available always is a good news,\u201d U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino said during a pregame interview on the television broadcast. \u201cTo have the possibility to have Balo again with us and being available is important for the team. … He scored three goals and I think he is doing a fantastic job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following a phone call from U.S. President Donald Trump to FIFA president Gianni Infantino<\/a>, FIFA\u2019s disciplinary committee suspended the discipline for a year<\/a> on Sunday, prompting the European governing body UEFA to call the decision \u201cunprecedented, incomprehensible and unjustifiable.\u201d <\/p>\n

Belgium\u2019s attempt to have FIFA reinstate the suspension was denied by FIFA\u2019s appeals committee, which said the Belgian federation lacked standing.<\/p>\n

Belgium fans chanted \u201cFIFA Mafia\u201d during their pregame march to Lumen Field.<\/p>\n

Infantino said he did not play a role in the decision by the disciplinary committee, which also fined Balogun $40,000, a penalty that can be paid by the U.S. Soccer Federation.<\/p>\n

The U.S. started an unchanged lineup, while Belgium dropped J\u00e9r\u00e9my Doku and Kevin DeBruyne, who began on the bench along with Romelu Lukaku. The Red Devils also left out Artur Teatre and Hans Vanaken, while inserting Dodi Luk\u00e9bakio, Amadou Onana, Nicolas Raskin and Nathan Ngoy.<\/p>\n

Balogun\u2019s three goals lead the U.S., which has never won consecutive knockout-rounds games at the World Cup. Belgium eliminated the Americans in the 2014 round of 16.<\/p>\n

The U.S.-Belgium winner faces Spain on Friday at Inglewood, California, for a semifinal berth against France or Morocco. The U.S. last reached the quarterfinals in 2002, when it was knocked out by Germany. The Americans advanced to the semifinals of the first World Cup in 1930.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

See more of AP\u2019s World Cup coverage here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SEATTLE (AP) \u2014 Folarin Balogun is in the United States\u2019 starting lineup for Monday\u2019s World Cup round of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26937,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[5463,15261,7,4988,12728,381,5731,3933,4559,264,4737,5416,15262,4525,5415,5417,15260,5400,3934,1176,13924,4975,7906,2031],"class_list":["post-26936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-belgium","tag-amadou-mvom-onana","tag-artur-teatre","tag-belgium","tag-belgium-national-soccer-team","tag-bosnia-and-herzegovina","tag-donald-trump","tag-fifa","tag-fifa-world-cup","tag-folarin-balogun","tag-general-news","tag-gianni-infantino","tag-hans-vanaken","tag-kevin-debruyne","tag-mauricio-pochettino","tag-nathan-ngoy","tag-nicolas-raskin","tag-raphael-claus","tag-romelu-lukaku","tag-soccer","tag-sports","tag-u-s-news","tag-united-states-national-soccer-team","tag-wa-state-wire","tag-washington"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@be\/116875808371186228","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26936\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}