After its biggest World Cup win in decades, the U.S. will have to do it all again without its top scorer after Folarin Balogun received a controversial red card. Elsewhere, two European powerhouses in England and Belgium survived major scares to advance.
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World Cup Recap
Garrincha. Ronaldinho. Zinedine Zidane. To that list of players to score a goal and receive a red card in a World Cup match we can now add Folarin Balogun.
The United States’ top goal scorer at this tournament can consider himself unlucky. His sending off yesterday after opening the scoring in an impressive, if scrappy, round of 32 win against Bosnia-Herzegovina was arguably less forceful than Lionel Messi’s unpunished challenge in Argentina’s opening match. Balogun’s dismissal caused feverish debate online.
Despite the setback, meaning the Stars and Stripes had to play the last 35 minutes in San Francisco with 10 men, the team went on to score again through a late Malik Tillman free kick, to make it 2-0. It’s the first win in a men’s World Cup knockout game since 2002 and the first against a European team in the knockouts.
The U.S. faces Belgium on Monday in Seattle and will have to reach greater heights against a team ranked ninth in the world — this time without Balogun, who must serve a one-match suspension.
But even before yesterday, the U.S. has shown it’s capable of winning without key players, namely Christian Pulisic in the group stage. Hopes are high that the U.S. bandwagon keeps rolling. Beat Belgium and it would be only the second time in the modern era that the U.S. has reached the World Cup quarterfinals.
Elsewhere, Youri Tielemans was Belgium’s hero in a dramatic 3-2 comeback win against Senegal, whose Ismaïla Sarr ended up scoring four goals in four appearances at this World Cup. At 124 minutes and 44 seconds, Tielemans’ winner — a penalty kick — was the latest goal scored in World Cup history.
A clunky England also came from behind to defeat the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with captain Harry Kane scoring a brace in a 2-1 win. England next faces Mexico at Mexico City Stadium (Estadio Azteca), where the co-host boasts an undefeated record across 10 World Cup matches. The Three Lions will need to acclimate quickly to the 7,300-foot (2,200-meter) elevation at the stadium.
World Cup Preview
Only six spots remain in the round of 16 — half of those will be determined today.
Two veterans go face-to-face in Portugal’s match against Croatia in Toronto. Neither has won the World Cup. Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo, 41, is the country’s all-time leading men’s goal scorer at the World Cup. Ronaldo’s onetime Real Madrid teammate Luka Modrić, 40, of Croatia won player of the tournament at the 2018 World Cup, although his ability to hold sway over the midfield for 90 minutes is inevitably on the wane. For one of these greats, their World Cup career will come to an end.
Croatia is no longer near the top of the world rankings and isn’t fancied to finish in the top three, as it did at the previous two World Cups. With the know-how of Bernardo Silva and Bruno Fernandes behind Ronaldo, Portugal is the favorite to advance, even if it had to settle for the second spot in Group K with unimpressive draws against the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Colombia.
Among the other round of 32 games today, Spain takes on Austria in Inglewood, California. Remarkably, La Roja have failed to win a knockout round match in their last three World Cups, but expect Lamine Yamal and company to end that miserable run today.
Switzerland will face Algeria and its former coach, Vladimir Petkovic, in Vancouver. The Bosnian took Switzerland to the round of 16 at the 2018 World Cup in Russia. Now he’s hoping to do the same with Algeria.
Men In Blazers
The main event of the evening then arrived, and delivered. It wasn’t how Mauricio Pochettino pictured it, but the U.S. men’s national team is off to the round of 16. Folarin Balogun was the story of the match, first scoring a goal so nice, we could’ve sworn we heard André 3000 yell, “How cold?” with the crowd responding, “Ice cold!” But then, he was sent off for a harsh, but incredibly controversial challenge in the second half. Down a man, the U.S.needed someone to step up, and Malik Tillman did just that, burying a late free kick that sent the crowd into a frenzy. Next up: Revenge match vs. Belgium.
Meanwhile, Thomas Tuchel’s Three Lions got the job done, but it wasn’t pretty. Thankfully, they have both the forehead and right boot of Harry Kane, who scored a late brace to avoid a shocking early exit at the hands of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. A tough day for African teams, with five minutes to play, Senegal was up 2-0 over Belgium and the next round was within reach — then chaos happened. The Red Devils pushed it to extra time and scored a controversial penalty to eliminate the Lions of Teranga.
Today, Lamine Yamal’s Spain takes on Austria at 3 p.m. ET in Los Angeles as La Roja look to show why they’re tournament favorites. Then, Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal will tango with his former Real Madrid teammate Luka Modrić and Croatia at 7 p.m. ET in Toronto. Like Rocky Balboa and Apollo Creed fighting to exhaustion, the two aging legends will look to do the same with a round-of-16 spot on the line.
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What We’re Watching
World Cup! All the games are on Telemundo and Peacock, and all times are Eastern:
- 3 p.m.: Spain vs. Austria
- 7 p.m.: Portugal vs. Croatia
- 11 p.m.: Switzerland vs. Algeria
That’s it for now! We’ll be back tomorrow.
