Who benefits from this?
Any win by the USMNT tonight will have a giant asterisk next to it.
The Belgians are even more motivated.
For the past three days Poch and the American team have been preparing as if Balogun wouldn't be ready. Then 24 hours before the match he suddenly is?
The same holds true for Belgium. They had planned to face a USMNT without Balogun and now he's in the lineup.
And no, don't say this is the same as a player recovering from an injury because you know it's not.
Balogun can score as many goals and play as many games as he wants and he will always be THAT guy.
Ricardo Pepi now knows that no one has any faith in him whatsoever and people are willing to do whatever it takes to keep him from playing, Must do wonders for his confidence. Well, I guess it's a good thing that confidence isn't that important for a striker.
So...who benefits from this? Oh right...