Folarin Balogun deserves to be on the field for the biggest match in United States soccer history.Which means that FIFA and VAR got it horribly wrong again in the 2026 World Cup.Folarin Balogun couldn’t believe his red card and World Cup suspensiongettyAnother tip of the cap to Mauricio Pochettino and the United States Men’s National Team, who put up a 2-0 clean sheet vs Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Round of 32 on Wednesday at San Francisco Bay Area Stadium.The buzzing Summer of Soccer continues in the USA, with another knockout match waiting — Round of 16 vs comeback-king Belgium on Monday at Seattle Stadium — and the 250th anniversary of America declaring its independence from England on the weekend calendar.But this Balogun red card controversy shadows everything.The United States is suddenly feeling Germany‘s VAR pain. The Americanized-Pochettino barely had time to joyously sing ‘Take Me Home, Country Roads’ inside a roaring NFL stadium and pronounce ‘Why not us?’ before he had to deal with the reality that USMNT’s best scorer and most dangerous attacker has been suspended for the Round of 16. “That was a normal action in football,” Pochettino said. “That happened by accident and it’s never intentional. That is why for me it was never a red card.”While social media instantly pointed toward a non-red card for Argentina’s Lionel Messi and insisted that there are different FIFA rules for the world’s top players, USMNT fans saw the same thing as Pochettino. “Fully agree with Poch!” one fan tweeted. “That was never a red. Flo’s been electric this tournament. Accidental contact doesn’t deserve to sideline our top scorer. Ref needs to get it right.”“Poch is spitting straight facts,” a second fan wrote. “Seeing how the VAR manipulated the referee with still frames, calling it ‘never a red card’ is the absolute truth.”Balogun will be suspended for USMNT’s next World Cup matchgettyThe red card seen across AmericaGettyView Tweet: https://t.co/C1eMdLU4F3It was obvious upon replay after replay that Balogun didn’t intentionally catch Bosnia defender Tarik Muharemovic on the back of the ankle in a challenge for the ball near the 64th minute.USMNT already held a strong 1-0 lead and was in control of a match that saw the USA hold the advantage in duels won and big changes.Bosnia also committed 13 fouls compared to seven for the USA.Balogun wasn’t instantly ejected, either, while TV announcers were highly skeptical that he deserved a red card.But there was an eerie feeling as VAR rolled through its still images that something weird was about to happen.Then, poof, it did. A red card was held up, Balogun was pictured in stunned disbelief, and USMNT went down to 10 men while already knowing that No. 20 — born in Brooklyn, raised in London, an Arsenal reject thriving in his first World Cup — was lost for the Round of 16 vs Belgium. “The keeper falls to the ground on a slight touch and it’s very soft,” Alan Shearer said on the BBC, after Germany watched an extra-time 2-1 lead vs Paraguay disappear via a VAR review. Not even the loss of Balogun could hold USMNT back from the Round of 16GettytalkSPORT's Inside View on Balogun redtalkSPORT USMNT correspondent Ben Jacobs: “There’s real sympathy and sadness for Flo Balogun. A very harsh red card, especially when you consider other similar incidents, including Messi against Algeria.“FIFA regulations say that there is no appeal process. Some sources say that there is a creative route through the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS). But, basically, the FIFA regulations don’t allow for an appeal, so he is expected to miss the Belgium game.” “I thought it was a terrible decision. You have to understand, it is a contact sport. The goalkeeper has conned the referee and the VAR. The way he went down was pathetic.”So was handing a red card to Balogun and removing him from the biggest match that USMNT has ever played, five days before kickoff. “Never was this a red card,” Pochettino said. “Watching it on TV, never was there intention to step (on) the player.”We could all see what was obvious.The problem is that VAR froze a super-fast game and took the challenge out of context, then removed Balogun from two games at once.Christian Pulisic, Chris Richards, Antonee Robinson and all the echoing ‘USA, USA, USA!’ chants in Seattle can carry USMNT into the quarterfinals.Balogun deserves another World Cup game after VAR took his Round of 16 away.