Folarin Balogun will miss the United States' knockout match against Belgium on Monday after being sent off during Wednesday's 2-0 victory over Bosnia and Herzegovina. The straight red card issued by referee Raphael Claus in the 64th minute for a tackle on Tarik Muharemovic has locked Balogun out of the team's biggest game in modern memory, with no path to overturn the decision.
The automatic one-game suspension that accompanies a straight red card cannot be appealed under FIFA rules. US Soccer confirmed this to the Guardian, meaning Balogun, the team's leading scorer at this World Cup, will watch Monday's match from the stands rather than the bench.
The only recourse available to US Soccer would be if the FIFA disciplinary committee increased Balogun's ban beyond one game. In that scenario, the team could appeal the additional suspension, but only to reduce it. They could request a two-game ban be lowered to one game, for example, but could not eliminate the suspension entirely or reduce a two-game penalty below one game.
The disciplinary committee has shown restraint in recent cases, declining to add time to Paraguay's Miguel Almiron's suspension after he covered his mouth in a confrontational gesture during the group stage. However, the committee did increase Qatar's Assim Madibo's penalty from one game to five games following his red-card tackle that resulted in a broken leg for Canada's Ismael Kone.
Author James Rodriguez: "The rules are the rules, but it stings for the US to lose their best player in their most critical game when a straight red is almost always automatic."
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