Balogun Played — But the USA Still Crashed Out 4-1 to Belgium at the World Cup

The off-pitch drama ended in the USA’s favour — and it made no difference. Folarin Balogun was cleared to play after FIFA suspended the one-match ban attached to his red card and the FIFA Appeal Committee threw out Belgium’s challenge as inadmissible, and he duly started at centre-forward. But the football went the other way: Belgium beat the USA 4-1 at Lumen Field in Seattle, and the co-hosts are out of their home World Cup. Here’s how the saga resolved, how the game unravelled, and what it all meant. This is analysis and opinion, not betting advice; details are current as of July 8, 2026.

What happened with Balogun’s red card?

Balogun was sent off in the 64th minute of the USA’s 2-0 Round of 32 win over Bosnia and Herzegovina, shown a straight red by referee Rafael Claus for a studs-up challenge that caught Bosnia’s Tarik Muharemović. It was a harsh-looking call — Balogun’s back was turned and it appeared accidental — and head coach Mauricio Pochettino argued it was never a red-card offence, a view echoed by his players. Balogun, who had scored in that very game, was hit with the automatic one-match suspension that comes with a World Cup red card.

At first it looked like the ban would simply stand: the automatic one-game suspension was confirmed, and an independent review even considered whether to extend it before deciding a single game was enough. Balogun himself took the high road: “I think a yellow card would have been fair… I have to accept it,” he said, calling the whole episode “a rollercoaster.” Then, on July 5, FIFA moved to defer the ban entirely under Article 27 of its Disciplinary Code — which allows the judicial body to “fully or partially suspend the implementation of a disciplinary measure,” placing it under a one-year probationary period. The closest precedent was Cristiano Ronaldo, whose two-game ban was suspended the same way heading into this tournament.

Was Balogun cleared to play against Belgium?

Yes — and definitively. The reprieve triggered a fierce off-pitch row: Belgium’s football federation (RBFA) said it was “astonished” and pushed to challenge the decision, UEFA condemned the move as “incomprehensible and unjustifiable,” and President Trump reportedly phoned FIFA president Gianni Infantino to ask for a review. But the FIFA Appeal Committee ruled Belgium’s challenge inadmissible, finding that the RBFA lacked standing to contest another association’s disciplinary matter. With that, the last obstacle fell away and Balogun was free to play. Pochettino picked him from the start, at centre-forward, as the USA’s leading scorer at the tournament.

So the story that had dominated the build-up — could the USA’s top scorer take the field? — ended as a win for the co-hosts. It just turned out to be the wrong battle to win.

How did USA vs Belgium play out?

Badly, from an American point of view. Belgium won 4-1 and were ahead almost from the whistle. Charles De Ketelaere struck twice, opening the scoring in the 9th minute and doubling the lead on 33 minutes. Malik Tillman briefly gave the USA hope with a reply on 31 minutes, but De Ketelaere’s second restored the two-goal cushion moments later. After the break Hans Vanaken made it 3-1 on 57 minutes, and Romelu Lukaku rounded it off in stoppage time on 90+3’ — his 93rd international goal. Balogun started but could not swing a game that Belgium controlled throughout.

It is the second time in 12 years Belgium have eliminated the USA at the World Cup Round of 16 — they also did it in 2014 — and the result stretched Belgium’s unbeaten run to 18 games. For the co-hosts, a home World Cup ends in the last 16.

Does Balogun’s clearance still matter now?

Only as a footnote. On the day, having their leading scorer available did not move the result: the USA were second best from the ninth minute, and no single attacker was going to overturn a 4-1. The reprieve, the Article 27 mechanism, the UEFA protest and the reported Trump–Infantino call all made for an extraordinary week of headlines, but the scoreboard rendered them moot. Balogun’s three goals (two against Paraguay, one against Bosnia) still made him the US’s outright top scorer at the tournament — a small consolation on a chastening night.

The wider point holds: the USA’s overall odds of lifting the trophy were always modest — supercomputer models had them at roughly 2% even after reaching the last 16 — and a Round-of-16 exit is broadly where the numbers pointed, however painful the manner of it.

The bottom line

Folarin Balogun won his off-pitch fight — cleared by FIFA, with Belgium’s appeal thrown out as inadmissible, he started at centre-forward. But the USA lost the one that counted, going down 4-1 to Belgium as De Ketelaere (two), Vanaken and Lukaku did the damage and Tillman’s goal proved a mere reply. The co-hosts are out of their own World Cup, while Belgium march on to a quarter-final against Spain. It was a rollercoaster to the end — it just stopped a stop too soon for the USMNT. Follow the rest of the knockouts on our World Cup 2026 bracket and results , and catch up on the other last-16 storylines with England’s 3-2 win over Mexico and Egypt’s shock win over Argentina .

This article is analysis and opinion, not betting advice. Details are as reported on July 8, 2026.