Alexi Lalas Named the One Player FIFA Let Do the Same Thing That Just Got an American Star Ejected
Folarin Balogun scored his third World Cup goal Wednesday night – then FIFA's refs tore his tournament apart.
The American striker was handed a straight red card in the 64th minute against Bosnia and Herzegovina after landing on a defender's ankle, a play his own coach called an accident.
Now Balogun misses the Round of 16 against Belgium – and Alexi Lalas just showed America exactly whose tournament FIFA is protecting.
The Play That Changed Everything
Alexi Lalas didn't hold back after the final whistle.
He was happy about the win for the US Men’s team.
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About that controversial red card, not so much.
"An absolute joke of a refereeing night," Lalas said on the Fox Sports broadcast.
He went further.
"If his name was Messi – as we have seen earlier in the tournament – he would still be on the field and he would still be able to play in Seattle on Monday."
Then someone dug up Lionel Messi digging his cleat into the back of an Algerian defender's calf during Argentina's opener.
No yellow card was issued on the field.
Messi scored a hat trick.
He's still in the tournament.
Balogun isn't watching Belgium from the sideline because he did something worse than Messi.
He's watching because he's not Messi.
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One Rule for Stars, Another Rule for America
The VAR review that ended Balogun's night broke FIFA's own rulebook to get there.
VAR used slow-motion replays – which FIFA's own protocols restrict to "point of contact purposes" only in red card reviews – to build the case that sent referee Raphael Claus to the monitor.
Once Claus reviewed what VAR had selected for him, the outcome was predetermined.
FIFA's officials assembled a procedurally illegal presentation, handed it to the referee, and then watched him pull the card.
Pochettino delivered the clearest verdict after the match: "It's never a red card. Never."
And unlike the Messi play – where the same VAR system reviewed the footage and did nothing – Balogun's ejection was triggered by a review that had no business happening under the rules FIFA itself wrote.
No Appeal. No Recourse. No Consistency.
FIFA's regulations lock in an automatic one-game suspension for any player sent off, with zero appeal rights on standard red cards.
So the same organization that cleared Messi after what its own broadcast analysts called a textbook ejection gets to ban America's leading scorer using a review process that violated its own standards – and there is nothing anyone can do about it.
The United States won anyway – 2-0 – and advanced to face Belgium in Seattle on July 6.
That's the answer to what FIFA tried to do Wednesday night.
An organization that protects its biggest star by looking the other way, then breaks its own rulebook to eject America's leading scorer, just showed you exactly who it works for.
It isn't us.
FIFA is counting on Balogun's absence being enough to stop this team in Seattle.
They're going to find out.
Sources:
- Scott Thompson, "Alexi Lalas rips referees after Folarin Balogun red card in Team USA win," Fox News, July 2, 2026.
- "Folarin Balogun suspended for USA vs Belgium after World Cup red card," Fox News, July 2, 2026.
- "Lionel Messi got away with it! Furious USMNT left baffled by Folarin Balogun World Cup red card," Goal.com, July 2, 2026.
