{"id":384465,"date":"2026-07-03T01:56:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T01:56:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/384465\/"},"modified":"2026-07-03T01:56:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T01:56:14","slug":"3-thoughts-usa-2-bosnia-0-was-it-a-red-card-fifas-hypocrisy-and-the-road-ahead-for-the-co-hosts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/384465\/","title":{"rendered":"3 thoughts: USA 2, Bosnia 0 … was it a red card, FIFA’s hypocrisy and the road ahead for the co-hosts"},"content":{"rendered":"

SANTA CLARA \u2013 Three thoughts on the U.S. national team\u2019s 2-0 win against Bosnia and Herzegovina<\/a> in the round of 32 on Wednesday night at Levi\u2019s Stadium:<\/p>\n

1. Seething red<\/p>\n

The first question: Was it a red card?<\/p>\n

The short answer: Yes and no.<\/p>\n

The Video Assistant Referee booth did what it\u2019s supposed to do and what it has been criticized in this World Cup for not always doing. It sent Brazilian referee Rafael Claus to the sideline monitor to review what he had missed on the field, the cleats of U.S. striker Folarin Balogun\u2019s right boot plunging into the calf and Achilles tendon of Bosnian defender Tarik Muharemovic, then gruesomely rolling his ankle upon impact.<\/p>\n

The slow motion and stills looked worse than live action. And video doesn\u2019t always reveal intent.<\/p>\n

But Claus judged it worthy of expulsion, and the U.S. was soon seeing red, literally and figuratively.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me? Never a red card,\u201d coach Mauricio Pochettino said. \u201cNever an intention to step on the player. It was a normal action in football that happened by accident.\u201d<\/p>\n

By the letter of the law, it certainly qualifies. The law: \u201cAny player who lunges at an opponent in challenging for the ball from the front, from the side or from behind using one or both legs, with excessive force or endangers the safety of an opponent is guilty of serious foul play.\u201d<\/p>\n

If there\u2019s a lesson in this, it\u2019s that exposing your studs with an opponent\u2019s flesh in the vicinity, as innocent as it might seem, thrusts your fate in the hands of the three people in the VAR booth and, ultimately, one person on the field.<\/p>\n

Balogun and the Americans, though, do have a legitimate gripe on a couple fronts.<\/p>\n

First, VAR is supposed to use regular-speed replays, and not slow-motion, to determine the \u201cintensity\u201d of a foul. And Claus was shown frame-by-frame shots of Balogun\u2019s cleats colliding with Muharemovic\u2019s leg.<\/p>\n

Second, consistency.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere have been many other plays like that throughout the tournament on other players that a card wasn\u2019t given at all,\u201d midfielder Weston McKennie said. \u201cI don\u2019t know the protocol of how they come to the conclusion.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s referring, no doubt, to Lionel Messi. Photos of the Argentine\u2019s cleat in a similar place on the back of an Algerian player\u2019s leg began immediately circulating on social media Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

No card, no sideline video review, nothing.<\/p>\n

\"U.S.U.S. striker Folarin Balogun (20) gets a pat on the head from Bosnia\u2019s Sead Kolasinac (5) and words of encouragement from Christian Pulisic (right) after getting a red card in their World Cup match on Wednesday in Santa Clara. (AP Photo\/Martin Meissner)
\n2. Seething red, part II<\/p>\n

Second question: Can they appeal Balogun\u2019s automatic one-match suspension for the round of 16 against Belgium?<\/p>\n

The short answer: No.<\/p>\n

This has been FIFA\u2019s longtime policy in World Cups, accepting the referee\u2019s decision without reproach. The only internal review can lengthen a ban, not shorten it, as Qatar\u2019s Assim Madibo learned after he broke the leg of Canadian striker Ismael Kone and had his suspension extended from one to five matches.<\/p>\n

England\u2019s Premier League mandates a one-match suspension for a red from two yellow cards, two matches for a straight red and three for a particularly excessive offense. However, that can be reduced \u2014 and regularly is \u2014 upon appeal.<\/p>\n

Major League Soccer and Liga MX issue one-match suspensions for all red cards that also can be appealed.<\/p>\n

Not in the World Cup. FIFA regulations state: \u201cNo protests may be made about the referee\u2019s decisions regarding facts connected with play. Such decisions are final and not subject to appeal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTypical FIFA,\u201d midfielder Tyler Adams said afterward, shaking his head.<\/p>\n

\u201cA bit bogus,\u201d midfielder Weston McKennie said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat should be fair,\u201d Pochettino said, \u201cto appeal and demonstrate that it wasn\u2019t a red card.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pochettino then added the obligatory qualifier: \u201cThis is soccer, this is football.\u201d<\/p>\n

And this was not Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo.<\/p>\n

The Portuguese star was sent off for violently elbowing an Irish player in their penultimate World Cup qualifier last fall. Such an offense usually carries a three-match suspension, which would have covered the final qualifier and the first two matches of the World Cup.<\/p>\n

And FIFA did indeed elevate it to three matches but noted in the fine print that the last two would be deferred for a one-year \u201cprobationary period\u201d given Ronaldo\u2019s exemplary behavior record (it was his first red card in 226 international appearances). In two other red card cases reviewed by FIFA on the same day, players from Armenia and Burundi were both handed three-match bans without deferment.<\/p>\n

Ronaldo sat out Portugal\u2019s final qualifier, a 9-1 win against Armenia, and was free to play in the World Cup.<\/p>\n

\"Mexico'sMexico\u2019s Raul Jimenez (9) celebrates with teammates after scoring their second goal during the World Cup round of 32 soccer match against Ecuador in Mexico City on Tuesday. (AP Photo\/Silvia Izquierdo)
\n3. The host bump<\/p>\n

Host nations historically experience a healthy performance \u201cbump\u201d at World Cups.<\/p>\n

A Dutch professor quantified it, examining 4,091 matches played in the World Cup or continental championships and finding that home soil improves chances of victory by 22%. Or put another way: Say a team has a 40% chance of winning against a superior opponent at a neutral site; now it becomes a slight favorite.<\/p>\n

Over 19 World Cups, the host nation has outperformed its typical World Cup run in 16.<\/p>\n

So far, that form is holding true in 2026. All three co-hosts are in the round of 16.<\/p>\n

But that was expected, given the advantages the host nation is accorded in the draw and geographical placement. The real test comes now.<\/p>\n

Canada vs. Morocco (Saturday at 10 a.m. in Houston): Canada screwed itself with a 2-1 loss against Switzerland in the group stage finale, bumping it to second place and south of the border for the knockout round. And into the (far) more difficult side of the bracket.<\/p>\n

Instead of staying in Vancouver, it was shipped to Southern California for a 1-0 round of 32 victory against South Africa and now to Houston, not exactly a city with a bunch of expats. If the road doesn\u2019t end there, it almost certainly will in the quarterfinals against France.<\/p>\n

Mexico vs. England (Sunday at 5 p.m. in Mexico City): At No. 4, the English are the highest ranked of the co-host\u2019s round of 16 opponents yet, as former center back Sol Campbell told Sky Sports: \u201cNo Mexico player gets in the England team \u2013 we\u2019re by far the better team. But at 7,000 feet?\u201d<\/p>\n

If the England coach Thomas Tuchel were smart, he would have moved his team\u2019s base camp to Denver or another high-altitude locale, knowing there was an excellent chance they were headed to Estadio Azteca for the round of 16.<\/p>\n

Short of the two weeks required for full acclimatization, his team will find out what San Diego State basketball teams have for years playing in the Mountain West at 7,000-plus feet: They\u2019re gonna feel like they\u2019re running in quicksand. (Ask Ecuador, which was based in Columbus, Ohio, and was chasing shadows all night in a 2-0 loss in the round of 32.)<\/p>\n

Mexico has never lost in 10 all-time World Cup matches at the Azteca, outscoring opponents 18-2. If they make it 11 straight, though, they head to Miami and sea level for the quarterfinals, likely against Brazil.<\/p>\n

USA vs Belgium (Monday at 5 p.m., Seattle): On paper, the Red Devils are a tough draw \u2014a team that embarrassed them 5-2 in a March friendly and probably would have beat them 12-1 instead of 2-1 in the 2014 round of 16 in Brazil had it not been for goalkeeper Tim Howard\u2019s record 16 saves.<\/p>\n

In reality, it might not be so bad. Belgium\u2019s aging golden generation has looked pedestrian for much of this World Cup, getting excoriated by media back home and needing a miraculous escape after trailing Senegal 2-0 on Wednesday. The lopsided March win could breed complacency among the Belgians and vengeance among the Yanks. And the crowd in Seattle is the loudest in America.<\/p>\n

It gets significantly bumpier from there, with Spain looming in the quarterfinals and France in the semis \u2014 arguably the two best teams in the tournament so far.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SANTA CLARA \u2013 Three thoughts on the U.S. national team\u2019s 2-0 win against Bosnia and Herzegovina in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":384466,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[181,74,76,75,1083,127],"class_list":["post-384465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-latest-headlines","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384465\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/384466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}