{"id":38980,"date":"2026-07-07T10:55:24","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T08:55:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=38980"},"modified":"2026-07-07T11:02:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T09:02:16","slug":"belgium-end-us-world-cup-dreams-with-4-1-rout-amid-balogun-row","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/belgium-end-us-world-cup-dreams-with-4-1-rout-amid-balogun-row\/","title":{"rendered":"Belgium end US World Cup dreams with 4-1 rout amid Balogun row"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>The United \u200bStates&#8217; (US) World Cup dreams came to a crashing halt in the last 16 against Belgium on Monday as Charles De Ketelaere scored twice \u200cin a 4-1 win overshadowed by International Federation of Association Football&#8217;s (FIFA) controversial decision to suspend US forward Folarin Balogun&#8217;s ban.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Balogan was permitted to play, despite receiving a red card against Bosnia and Herzegovina, after US President Donald Trump&#8217;s unprecedented intervention but he barely had an impact on the pitch.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The 25-year-old forward did win the free kick which led to a first-half equaliser, though Belgium&#8217;s Nicolas Raskin said \u200bthe perceived injustice had actually motivated Balogun&#8217;s opponents.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;I think there was always justice somewhere in life and the fact that something \u200bcan happen like that, but we don&#8217;t think that was fair,&#8221; Raskin said.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>US coach Mauricio Pochettino said the row had \u2060not affected his team and attributed their poor performance to an off day against a top side.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;We were not good enough today, we don&#8217;t need \u200bto find another excuse &#8230; I think it wasn&#8217;t a situation that affects us,&#8221; he told reporters.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>De Ketelaere gave Belgium the lead \u200bin the ninth minute with a simple tap-in, taking full advantage of a nervous start by the US to quickly deflate the partisan crowd.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Malik Tillman&#8217;s deflected free kick levelled the game in the 31st minute, but De Ketelaere restored Belgium&#8217;s lead almost immediately with a back-post header.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The US improved after the break until a calamitous error from goalkeeper Matt Freese allowed \u200bsubstitute Hans Vanaken to score in the 57th minute.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Romelu Lukaku then added a fourth in added time to send US fans streaming for the \u200bexits and Belgium into the quarter-finals for the third time in the last four World Cups. They will play European champions Spain in Los Angeles on Friday.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":38981,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[78,20],"class_list":["post-38980","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"US World Cup dreams came to a crashing halt in the last 16 against Belgium","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/38980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/38980\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38982,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/38980\/revisions\/38982"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=38980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}