They scared af to play America at full strength ! I get you don’t like the overturning, I’m not dense to the rarity of that happening and how it took place. But to ignore the fact it shouldn’t have been a red card in the first place is what annoys me. You can’t disguise your hope for beating America without their best player as you simply protecting the integrity of the game, because you’d then have to acknowledge the misusage of replay review and the bad call by the referee which also effects the integrity of the game!
To all the Europeans clutching their pearls over this after spending the last several days Eurosplaining the sport to us, let me explain it to you.
Even if Balogun deserved a red (he didn’t), the referee misused VAR under FIFA’s own rules. That resulted in a red card that couldn’t be appealed.
FIFA then correctly used Article 27 to review and suspend the ban because the initial VAR error led to an unappealable decision.
As a Canadian, I have no horse in this particular race… BUT, that’s never a red card on Balogun. And if it is, then how the hell did Messi not get sent off for the identical thing in the group stages?
As always, lack of consistency in VAR and Ref decisions.
Announcers should definitely be informing the audience that Balogun will miss next match, assuming we win tonight.
Massive, massive implications there.
Huge loss.
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