National coach Dest and Pepi speak out: "Who knows?"
1 min readPSV'ers Sergino Dest and Ricardo Pepi are getting ready with Team USA for the round of 16 in Seattle against Belgium. Despite a red card for striker Folarin Balogun against Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Americans can still call on the striker.
This decision led worldwide to a great deal of bafflement and, in particular, a lot of criticism has been directed at FIFA. Among others, the Belgian camp was not at all pleased with this decision and national coach Rudi Garcia spoke of an April Fools’ prank.
According to Mauricio Pochettino, the head coach of the United States, the decision to rescind the red card is entirely correct. Pochettino tells this during the press conference ahead of the match against the Red Devils.
''I think that everyone who really loves sport and values ethics and integrity, will applaud that decision'', says the coach to the attending press.
After that, the head coach addresses the words of colleague Rudi Garcia. ''Maybe tomorrow I’ll decide to put Balogun on the bench. Who knows? We’ve already been punished enough against Bosnia and Herzegovina, having to play for thirty minutes with ten men because of a decision that was completely unjust. 99.9 percent of people agree that it was an unjust red card. It’s difficult when you’re in a room with three or four screens and you see things in slow motion that seem to be enlarged or made to look bigger'', according to Pochettino.
The coach also addresses the stories about interference by U.S. President Donald Trump. ''No, we shouldn’t mix those things up. I repeat: it is a fair decision that has been made by FIFA. I don’t understand how people could be surprised by this. This has happened before on several occasions in the past. It’s nothing special that it only happened to us. During this World Cup, we saw any number of situations that – thankfully, and I’m glad about that – did not lead to the kind of punishment that we received, because that would also have been unfair,'' concludes the Argentinian.
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Comments3
The part that got me: Pochettino calling it "terecht" while the whole situation started with a clearly wrong-looking red. If it's truly correct, why the 1 aprilgrap-stampede and all the TV-screen conspiracies? Either way, i just want Dest and Pepi sharp vs Belgium, no distractions please. 🔥⚽
"Wie weet?" lol Rudi Garcia zei ook al iets en nu gaat Pochettino draaien alsof iedereen maar moeten slikken. Ik snap de sportkant wel, maar die slow motion argumenten blijven gewoon raar. Balogun wordt gestraft door 10 man spelen en dan trekken ze het later terug, hoe eerlijk is dat precies?
tbh die hele rode kaart discussie is echt walgelijk gedoe. maar als Pochettino zegt dat iedereen met ethiek dit toejuicht dan vraag ik me toch af of FIFA weer met dezelfde slapheid bezig was. Dest en Pepi gaan nu tenminste wél door, hopelijk pakt die kans momentum voor hun.