Mauricio Pochettino lauds Folarin Balogun's overturned suspension: 'We were punished enough'

SEATTLE — U.S. national team coach Mauricio Pochettino passionately defended the decision by FIFA to allow Folarin Balogun to play in the Round of 16 at the World Cup, saying his red card against Bosnia-Herzegovina was wrong to begin with.

“We celebrate that decision,” Pochettino said. “We were punished enough against Bosnia-Herzegovina to play with 10 men, 30 minutes, in a decision that was completely unfair. But it’s not only because I am the head coach of the U.S. men’s national team, I need to defend my side. It’s only because I think 100 or 99.9 percent, that we all agree it was an unfair red card.”

The decision to lift Balogun’s suspension, in essence letting him off with a warning, came as a complete shock to the world Sunday morning.

Though U.S. Soccer was involved in the process behind the scenes, Pochettino claimed he was completely uninvolved. He also said he had no idea that President Trump, who reportedly called Gianni Infantino to ask that Balogun be allowed to play, had been involved.

“I didn’t see it,” Pochettino said. “I was training, I was with your [media] colleagues and then traveling to the shower, eating too quick, I had a burrito. I was taking the coffee in the car. I didn’t have time to see social media.”

Seemingly referring to FIFA’s prior decision to suspend the last two games of a three-game ban for Cristiano Ronaldo — allowing him to play at the World Cup — Pochettino repeatedly cited precedent for the ruling.

“It’s not something extraordinary that has only happened for us. It has happened in the past,” Pochettino said. “And we’ve seen many plays in this World Cup that were not punished. I’m happy for this, because it would have been unfair. I have 12 different reactions of different players in different matches similar to Balogun’s and they were not punished. I celebrate this. Being at a World Cup and being punished like this is really sad.”

Though Pochettino did say he understood the reaction of Belgium coach Rudi Garcia, who compared it to April Fools’ Day, that was as much as he was willing to countenance on the other side of the debate.

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“Yellow card, I can accept that,” Pochettino said. “But red card, and punished in the way they punish us, play 35 minutes with 10 men? It’s not enough? Come on guys. If I am the opponent I say, ‘Yes, coach, you are right. You are right.’ That’s it.

“We are going to be punished in the next game, not to have one player available? For me it’s not a thing to debate. It’s to congratulate the decision that is fantastic, not only because we have another player available, if not for football, I think, to open the possibility to repair a little bit bad decisions.”