Washington (United States) (AFP) – Folarin Balogun admitted Tuesday that the suspension of his red card in the World Cup after President Donald Trump intervened put added pressure on the US team. Balogun said in an interview with CBS he was “definitely in shock” when he was sent off for treading on the foot of a Bosnia-Herzegovina defender in his side’s 2-0 group-stage win.
“When something is not intentional it should never be a red card,” he said. But days before the next match, the last-16 knockout game against Belgium, world football’s governing body FIFA announced the red card had been suspended, clearing the way for Balogun to play. Trump then admitted he had called FIFA president Gianni Infantino to ask for the card to be reviewed.
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The US went on to lose 4-1 to Belgium and Balogun made little impact despite starting the game. “It was just an unfortunate situation and it put a lot more pressure on us than we needed,” said Balogun, 25. “My initial reaction was I was happy to be back in the team but when I kind of started to reflect on it, I knew it was going to cause a lot of controversy.”
He added: “I could almost see within my teammates a bit of nerves because it’s something that’s so unique. The closer it got to the game I just tried to focus as best as I could. It was difficult, a lot of outside noise, and that’s hard to avoid.”
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