{"id":411032,"date":"2026-09-26T05:12:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-26T05:12:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/411032\/"},"modified":"2026-09-26T05:12:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-26T05:12:14","slug":"in-orlando-ahead-of-friendly-us-coach-pochettino-says-he-regrets-limited-role-in-balogun-red-card-appeal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/411032\/","title":{"rendered":"In Orlando ahead of friendly, US coach Pochettino says he regrets limited role in Balogun red-card appeal"},"content":{"rendered":"

U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino says he should have been more involved in the decision to appeal the red card given to star forward Folarin Balogun during the World Cup<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Balogun\u2019s suspension for the red card was lifted<\/a> after President Donald Trump spoke to FIFA leadership, allowing him to play against Belgium in the round of 16. Balogun was the top scorer for the Americans with three goals when he received the red card<\/a> in a 2-0 win over Bosnia-Herzegovina in the round of 32.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the time, I didn\u2019t fully understand the criticism,\u201d Pochettino said Friday ahead of the U.S. match Saturday against Peru at Inter.co Stadium. \u201dBut now, with the benefit of time and looking back on it, the truth is that you have to learn from things, from mistakes. And I think sometimes the things that happen during a tournament have to stay there.\u201d<\/p>\n

FIFA lifted the suspension<\/a>, allowing Balogun to play in the round of 16, an extraordinary move that triggered praise from Trump and outrage from Belgium. It appeared to be the first time since 1962 that a red card during a World Cup didn\u2019t result in a suspension.<\/p>\n

Pochettino said Friday that the entire energy changed after the suspension was lifted. Analyzing that game now is difficult considering \u201cit was not the best environment to go to compete in a World Cup,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Belgium beat the U.S.<\/a> 4-1 to reach the quarterfinals, and Balogun had little impact<\/a> in the loss.<\/p>\n

Pochettino signed a four-year contract<\/a> to remain as coach through the 2030 World Cup. The first roster of his second term as coach was announced last week. Balogun, who hasn\u2019t played for Monaco this season after a possible transfer to Everton fell through, is not on the current U.S. roster. Pochettino cited a leg injury.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

See AP\u2019s full soccer coverage here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino says he should have been more involved in the decision to appeal the red…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":411033,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[139,141,140,2062,110,24215],"class_list":["post-411032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-soccer","tag-sports","tag-world-cup-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=411032"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411032\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/411033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=411032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=411032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=411032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}