Belgian Soccer Stars Say Balogun Red Card Controversy Helped Fuel 4-1 Win Over USA
Belgium defeated the U.S. men’s national soccer team 4-1 in their Round of 16 game at the FIFA World Cup on Monday, knocking out the hosts from the tournament—as the team said they were fueled by the controversy over FIFA’s decision to overturn Folarin Balogun’s red card suspension after a push by President Donald Trump.
Belgian captain Youri Tielemans told the country’s public broadcaster RTBF that the team held a meeting after hearing about Balogun’s red card decision and decided “we needed to do our talking on the pitch.”
In a post-game interview, Belgium’s goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois said his team had been shown a “lack of respect” in the U.S. in recent days and heard that they could be beaten “easily.”
Belgian midfielder Nicolas Raskin told reporters that the game’s outcome showed there’s “always a justice somewhere in life,” and said the red card controversy was not fair to his team.
However, Belgium’s head coach, Rudi Garcia, who mocked FIFA on Sunday, downplayed the effect of the controversy, saying it wasn’t needed as a motivator for his team and “what really mattered to us is our game plan.”
Garcia said he spoke with Balogun and told the U.S. striker that the controversy was not his fault, “he’s not the one to blame.”
With their win Belgium move forward into the quarter finals where they will face Spain, while the American team’s exit means all three World Cup hosts—U.S., Canada and Mexico—are now out of the tournament.
The Belgian team’s official X account celebrated the team’s win with a pair of mocking posts. The first one read: “It’s called FOOTBALL,” with the word “soccer” struck through. The other one featured a photo of striker Romelu Lukaku after he scored Belgium’s fourth goal with the caption “Overturn this.” Some fans also pointed out that Lukaku and the team celebrated their final goal by mimicking Trump’s signature YMCA jig.
The U.S. men’s national team’s manager Mauricio Pochettino was asked about the effect the Balogun red card controversy had on his team. He said: “It’s difficult to make a comment. We were not good enough today, we don’t need to find another excuse. It wasn’t a situation that affected us in the group…Belgium were better than us. That’s it. It’s very clear.”