All the talk before the match was about Folarin Balogun and how his red card had been rescinded with the help of US President Donald Trump. But that seemed to light a fire within the Belgian players as they dismantled the US team and won 4-1. There were two goals from Charles De Ketelaere, a goal from Hans Vanaken, and one from Romelu Lukaku.
Did The Balogun Saga Affect the US Team?
Even though the scoreline was emphatic, there was something different about the US performance. The US had played with a little swagger earlier in the tournament, but against Belgium it was different. Balogun had been given a straight red card against Bosnia-Herzegovina in the previous round.
It should have meant Balogun would miss the game against Belgium. But Fifa decided to make a shock decision and suspend the automatic one-match ban for 12 months. This led to big criticism from Uefa, Belgium coach, England manager Tuchel, and many others.
This unprecedented decision got to the top of politics as Donald Trump said he had asked Fifa to review the decision because he “didn’t think it was a foul”. With so much attention on the Balogun decision, it seemed the US team got distracted by how they were perceived around the world.
