Former USMNT coach Bruce Arena approves of Folarin Balogun's red card: 'That's a dangerous play'
U.S. men’s national team head coach Mauricio Pochettino strongly disagreed with striker Folarin Balogun’s controversial red card. A former USMNT coach doesn’t see the problem.
Bruce Arena, who oversaw the USMNT for 10 years across two different tenures, became the rare American to publicly approve the red card, which will force Balogun to serve a one-game suspension, during an appearance on Fanduel’s “Coaches’ Corner.”
His analysis:
“Intent doesn’t matter. It’s a dangerous play. That foul, he could have broken the player’s ankle. You can see it there. Obviously, there’s no intent by Balogun. It’s unfortunate. You’ve got to take into account the safety of the player. That’s a dangerous play.
“If the referee issued a yellow card, I could see that, but with VAR calling the referee over and he sees that foul in slow motion, I think it’s conceivable that he’s going to issue a red card. Hopefully it’s just one game and he’s ready for the quarterfinals.”
The foul in question was seemingly accidental, with Balogun colliding with Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Tarek Muharemovic as they were playing the ball. The play didn’t immediately receive a card from referee Raphael Claus, but VAR official Juan Soto determined it to be worthy of a red card.
Balogun, who has scored three goals so far at the World Cup, will now sit out the USMNT’s Round of 32 match against Belgium on Monday, with no mechanism for appeal.
This play is being reviewed for a potential red card against the US pic.twitter.com/EdyPpgpycA
— FOX Sports (@FOXSports) July 2, 2026
Pochettino had this to say following the match:
“For me, never is it a red card,” Pochettino said. “It was a normal action in football that happened by accident. There was never any intention … and that is why, for me, it is never a red card.”
In addition to the play itself, there are questions on if slow-motion was improperly used during video replay.
Arena is the longest-tenured head coach in USMNT history, running the team from 1998 to 2006 and then again from 2016 to 2017. The first tenure included appearances at the 2002 and 2006 World Cup, with the USMNT reaching the quarterfinals in the former and going winless in the latter.
The second tenure saw the team fail to qualify for the 2018 World Cup, the only time it’s done so since 1990.
