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USMNT captain speaks out on Folarin Balogun red card reversal ahead of Belgium showdown

Tim Ream the United States applauds fans after their FIFA World Cup 2026 Group D match against Turkey, June 25, 2026 in Los Angeles. (Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

(NEW YORK) — U.S. Men’s National Team captain Tim Ream says the reversal of forward Folarin Balogun’s red card ban is a “boost of positivity” for the team ahead of their World Cup showdown on Monday against Belgium in the Round of 16.

“I think he’s excited that he can actually contribute on the field and not just be a cheerleader, but Balo, he’s got a big smile, and he’s been beaming ear to ear since we all found out the news,” Ream told “Good Morning America,” in an interview that aired Monday.

Balogun is now eligible to play in Monday’s game following a red card he received during the team’s July 1 match with Bosnia-Herzegovina for landing on an opposing player’s ankle.

Balogun was ejected mid-match and subsequently received a one-game ban. FIFA told ABC News at the time that the referee’s call was final and not able to be overturned or appealed.

USMNT head coach Mauricio Pochettino told reporters after the match, which the U.S. won 2-0, that Balogun was “disappointed” by the call, claiming the clash was not intentional, according to ESPN.

Following the July 1 game, President Donald Trump called FIFA president Gianni Infantino and discussed the red card suspension, which would have forced Balogun to miss Monday’s game, a U.S. official told ABC News on Monday.

The official said Trump wanted to better understand the reason the red card was given and why there was a suspension.

On Sunday, FIFA reversed course, announcing that “the implementation of the match suspension is suspended for a probationary period of one year” and adding that if Balogun “commits another infringement of a similar nature and gravity during the probationary period, the suspension shall be revoked and the sanction enforced without prejudice to any additional sanction imposed for the new infringement.”

FIFA’s about-face has sparked outcry from other groups, including the European and Belgian soccer associations.

“The Royal Belgian Football Association (RBFA) is astonished by FIFA’s decision to declare suspended United States player Folarin Balogun eligible to play” in Monday’s match, the RBFA said in part in a statement Sunday.

“In order to safeguard the legitimate rights of all participating teams and to protect the fundamental principles of fair play in our sport, both at this FIFA World Cup and at future editions of the tournament, the RBFA is investigating all potential options,” the group added.

In a follow-up statement on Monday, the RBFA said it was challenging FIFA’s decision to dismiss its earlier red card ban and reinstate Balogun ahead of Monday’s match.

The organization said it was “deeply concerned by the course of events” and pledged to fight the decision.

But FIFA said Monday afternoon it was rejecting the RBFA’s appeal.

“The request was rendered inadmissible on the grounds that the RBFA is not a party to the proceedings and, as such, has no standing to appeal the decision,” FIFA said in part.

The Union of European Football Associations, or UEFA, also expressed “disbelief at such an unprecedented, incomprehensible and unjustifiable decision” in a statement Monday.

“A minimum automatic suspension of one match following a red card is not a discretionary option and does not require the decision of a competent body to be enacted. It is a principle embedded in regulations, which cannot be made subject to exceptions, let alone in the middle of a tournament where several other players have been in the same situation and regularly served their suspension,” it said in part.

“When the certainty of rules is no longer guaranteed by its guardians, the integrity of the game is at stake and the credibility of a competition is undermined. Equally, such decision creates a precedent in the ongoing tournament, where similar situations will now require an equal treatment, to the detriment of the competition.”

U.S. Soccer, meanwhile, welcomed FIFA’s decision in a statement on Sunday.

“We accept the decision of the Disciplinary Committee and are pleased that Folarin Balogun is eligible to compete tomorrow. Our full attention is focused on the Round of 16 match against Belgium in Seattle, and we look forward to the continued support of our amazing fans,” the group said.

The U.S. official who spoke to ABC News on Monday said the process for appealing a red card ban is run by an independent board, adding that the U.S. government provided additional evidence that was used in the appeal process and saying the “correct and proper outcome was achieved.”

Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

After a whisper saved baby and father from rubble, the search is on for mother in collapsed building in Colombia

By CNN
(CNN) — Emergency teams are racing to find the mother of a baby who was rescued from the rubble of a collapsed building following the deadly 7.4 magnitude earthquake that struck Colombia on Monday.Three-month-old Salomón was pulled alive from the five-story residential building in Cali after a bystander heard his father’s faint voice rising from the debris: “I’m here. I’m with a baby.”Video of the remarkable rescue shows the infant in a dust-covered bodysuit being carefully pulled out of the wreckage. His father, Juan David Gómez, can be seen lying awkwardly on his side with his arm bloodied, still half-trapped beneath a concrete plank.Now, as Salomón and his father recover in hospital, a desperate search is on for the baby’s mother, Valentina Vanegas Galiano, a 29-year-old architect, who remains trapped under the rubble of the same building, the Torres del Limonar, alongside her younger brother.Valentina’s friends and colleagues — including architects, engineers and construction workers — have joined emergency crews and firefighters in the search.“We do not have an exact confirmed location for Valentina, nor any indication that there is life,” her friend Alejandra Montoya told CNN Wednesday.As the critical 72-hour window for rescuing survivors closes, Valentina’s friends are urgently calling for the help of specialist teams, such as the Topos Tlatelolco Rescue Brigade, a Mexican group with extensive experience responding to natural disasters.But Colombia has only just begun receiving international aid and rescuers after initially refusing some offers in the crucial hours following the devastating earthquake, the strongest to hit the country in more than a decade. The delay is considered the first controversy of the country’s new government, led by conservative President Abelardo de la Espriella, who took office only last Friday.The quake struck western Colombia at 7:34 a.m. on Monday, killing at least 265 people and destroying thousands of homes, according to De la Espriella, who said almost 500 people remain missing.Outside the Torres del Limonar, Montoya said she has barely left the site since Monday.She said the baby’s father was able to provide a reference point for where he believes Valentina became trapped, and rescue teams are working with that information and technical analysis of the structure, prioritizing areas where other signs of life have been heard.“Juan David says she was about 3 or 4 meters ahead of him, meaning a little closer to the entrance, so she ended up inside the structure, and it has been very difficult to find her,” Montoya said.Videos Montoya shared with CNN show dozens of volunteers and rescuers working through the rubble. More than 20 people were rescued alive from the complex during the first 12 hours after the earthquake, according to Reuters. Since then, three more people and a dog have also been found alive.An extraordinary rescueBaby Salomón and his father Juan David are stable and under observation. The baby suffered a few scrapes and a minor blow to the head, while his father is recovering after undergoing surgery, Montoya said.They were found under the rubble after bystander Brian Osorio Zuluaga heard Juan David’s call for help.When the deadly quake struck, Osorio ran out of his office in Cali and rushed home on his motorbike. But the sight of the collapsed five-story residential building forced him to stop.“It was a large complex, covering an entire block,” Osorio told CNN.Residents and neighbors of the building had fled into the street, “some in sleepwear or pajamas; some crying, others in shock,” Osorio said.He approached the rubble and began shouting into the wreckage for survivors, despite warnings about a possible gas leak.He suddenly asked those around him for silence, and heard a faint voice rise out of the debris — barely a whisper.Osorio described how he and several others began moving debris with their hands to reach the pair, carefully holding a large concrete slab aloft as other volunteers cleared a path to the baby.“You can see the baby’s little head there — which, at the time, looked sort of purplish because he couldn’t breathe,” Osorio said. “Once we started removing the rubble, the baby began to… breathe, and his color started to come back.”Osorio said he was handed the baby, and gave him to a police officer, who took him to an ambulance. They then turned their attention to freeing the father.In the rubble, Osorio said he saw clothes, shoes, and a stuffed animal covered in dust. He thought about the people who might still be trapped.The bravery of everyone who rushed to help was what saved the lives of both man and baby.“Unity is strength, because no one person alone could have lifted that piece of rubble; it was so large and so heavy,” he said.“It’s better to act than to stand still,” Osorio added. “Every bit helps.”Rescue efforts enter fourth dayThe quake struck at the heart of the country’s coffee-growing region and catapulted communities into a state of national disaster as world leaders offered aid and assistance.In Cali, a woman was pulled from under a mountain of rubble on Tuesday to cheers as firemen carried her out on a stretcher following a complex, multinational rescue operation.And in Pereira, a CNN team on the ground saw rescue workers and volunteers form a human chain to remove debris and help save those trapped from an apartment building.“There’s folks who have jumped in and you can see they’re wearing everything from athleisure wear to shorts, tennis shoes — they’re not prepared for this,” CNN’s senior national correspondent David Culver said from the site. “We have seen scenes like this scattered throughout Pereira. This is one of the hardest-hit areas.”But in the epicenter of Monday’s earthquake, Chocó, an indigenous leader told CNN that help has yet to reach the area, Colombia’s poorest region.Victor Chamapuro, leader of the Wounaan Indigenous Reserve “Buenavista” in Chocó’s Litoral del San Juan, said “all our houses are on the ground.”“Where are we going to sleep now? We have to be alert now, we’re sleeping outside,” he said.Chamapuro called on authorities to send food and medicine, but the “Buenavista” reserve can only be reached by boat on a five-hour journey from the port of Buenaventura, on Colombia’s Pacific coast.Video sent by Chamapuro from the reserve shows flattened buildings that appear to be built from timber and corrugated iron sheets. Others are still standing but with varying levels of damage.The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
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