Folarin Balogun will not be available for the next World Cup match against Belgium due to suspension, so the USMNT must find a solution to replace him.
Folarin Balogun has to serve a suspension and the USMNT has to find a new reference in attack.
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — The United States men's national team will prepare this week for their World Cup round of 16 match against Belgium without Folarin Balogun, their star forward and leading scorer.
Balogun, after giving the United States the lead in the match against Bosnia and Herzegovina, was sent off with a red card after a video check showed he had kicked the ankle of Bosnia's Tarik Muharemovic while fighting for a ball.
Much of the USMNT's best offensive play in this World Cup has come through Balogun, who has participated in both scoring and contributing in attacking actions. His ability to finish, his movement, his bank play and his physicality will be very difficult to replace.
Mauricio Pochettino and his staff will now have to evaluate the best options to replace Balogun, but immediately after the match against Bosnia the manager did not reveal much of his thoughts.
“We will have different options, we will see what decision we make,” Pochettino said.
Here are some of the possible solutions that the coach can consider.
Ricardo Pepi was forced to wait his turn in this tournament.
Ricardo Pepi A starting place for Pepi is the most likely solution for the USMNT. He is not an exact replacement for Balogun, as the two players have different strengths. But it would be the simplest change within the game system. It is also the option that Pochettino seemed to prefer when he had to make forced changes.
Pepi was a starter in the match against Australia, won 2-0 by the United States, replacing an injured Christian Pulisic, and kept his place as a starter in the match against Turkey, in the last round of the group, when practically the entire starting line-up was changed. On Wednesday, Pepi was one of the players who came on in the second half when Pochettino made some changes.
The 23-year-old striker has an impressive goalscoring record in the Netherlands, having scored 19 goals in 34 games (1,706 minutes) for PSV this season. He scored 13 goals in 41 appearances for the national team, but has not scored since 2024, when he scored a goal against Jamaica (8 appearances).
Haji Wright The other simple option would be to field Haji Wright. For him too it would be about having more minutes available, given that he has never played in this tournament as a starter until now. Wright was always behind Pepi in the hierarchy, but with Pepi's decline in scoring his turn may have come.
Like Pepi, Wright also occupies the center forward role, so it would be a natural change. The 28-year-old scored 17 goals in 40 games (2,594 minutes) in the English second division, helping his club Coventry City to promotion. In total he scored 7 goals in 21 appearances for the national team, including 2 goals in the 2022 World Cup.
Wright was little used in 2026: he played just 1 minute in 8 games, although he missed the March round due to injury.
Christian Pulisic This option is a little more complicated. If Pochettino is not convinced of fielding one of the two natural centre-forwards, he could decide to field Pulisic as a central striker. Although this solution appears less obvious, there are precedents, given that Pulisic was deployed as a central striker in the March match against Portugal.
This solution would also offer much more flexibility in other areas of the pitch. If Pulisic plays as a central striker, one of Gio Reyna, Tim Weah, Brenden Aaronson or Alejandro Zendejas could occupy a place in attack.
Weah, more than Reyna, Aaronson and Zendejas, could also play the central striker role if necessary. Indeed, Weah began his career as a striker at PSG and was often deployed as a centre-forward when he was on loan at Celtic.
There would also be the possibility that Pochettino decides to completely change the formation, to try to make up for the loss of Balogun's scoring power. A bold 3-5-2 pairing Pepi and Wright would be an interesting solution.
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