Folarin Balogun has been called up to the U.S. men’s national team for September’s friendlies, making his return after a year away from the team.
Mauricio Pochettino added Balogun to the roster on Wednesday, just three days after Balogun made his season debut for Monaco following his recovering from the same ankle injury that kept him out of this summer’s Concacaf Gold Cup.
Balogun joins Josh Sargent and Damion Downs as the strikers on the 23-man USMNT roster for September’s friendlies. The Vancouver Whitecaps revealed that Brian White had also been initially called up up for September before suffering a hamstring injury in Vancouver’s win over St. Louis City.
Balogun played 90 minutes in Monaco’s 1-0 loss to Lille over the weekend, one of several USMNT players to return to club action after recent injuries. Unlike Antonee Robinson and Ricardo Pepi, who were left off the September USMNT squad despite their returns to club action, Balogun was called up and will be battling Sargent for the starting role in the upcoming friendlies.
What do you think of Balogun being called up? Would you start him against South Korea?
Share your thoughts below.
Balogun the replacement for Brian White…
Mauricio Pochettino, ladies and gentleman!
If only Arfsten pulled up lame we could have had Jedi…
Anyone remember that time Pochettino use a method called “time management” with Tyler Adams as he was working his way back to full match fitness with his club. That was cool.
One can be perceived as fair…even when the fix is in. White went out August 23rd with a hamstring injury. The September roster dropped two days ago. That means Pochettino knew perfectly well Brian White was injured…but it costs him nothing to claim injury is the reason White wasn’t selected, and it also leaves whoever his replacement is in the position of feeling like they have to prove something, which is exactly how you want all your players to feel.
I guarantee you Josh Sargent ain’t feeling comfie right now. Balogun absolutely isn’t feeling comfie. Pepi’s still on the outside looking in. Anybody who knows our pool knows those three are our top strikers, with Haji Wright being the only one who MAYBE could make a counter-argument to the contrary, but make ’em prove it.
That’s how I think, anyhow. And I’m just a youth coach. Poch makes millions to coach. I’ve done more than enough tours in USSF coaching clinics to know there’s coaches out there miles more knowledgeable and capable than me, and Pochettino is on a hallowed strata well above any of those. Hell, I’d personally kill to get into one of Wilfried Nancy’s coaching sessions and pick his brain for a minute. Poch would be almost up there with Klopp or Guardiola.
As Ives, wrote above:
“The Vancouver Whitecaps revealed that Brian White had also been initially called up up for September before suffering a hamstring injury in Vancouver’s win over St. Louis City.”
He was selected ahead of Balogun. Balogun is his replacement.
Pochettino is a genius. Pochettino should not be coaching the USMNT. Two things can be true at the same time.
I think you seem to be saying that Pochettino made certain moves in order to motivate the player. I remember before the Women’s World Cup when someone asked one of the Americans if they felt fired up because they were playing a team that beat them recently, or similar. Can’t remember the details, but the answer is what is important. She said, ‘If you can’t get fired up playing for your country, you shouldn’t be playing.” A lot of people died for our country, the least a soccer player can do is play their hardest; you shouldn’t have to employ special measures to encourage them. If it is necessary, they shouldn’t be called in and they should know that from the start.
Yep Balogun was the replacement. Balo has barely played since recovering over the summer, barely played preseason and finally got a 90 mins. in with a decent performance with zero goals. Of course he wasnt an automatic call up.
repeating myself but prior US regimes, klinsi or before, might have seen getting balogun (and perhaps reyna and others) minutes as doing our part to get a leading player fitter and some same playing time. they can then go back to their club and say, dude, i played 120 minutes or whatever, i had an assist, put me in coach. it provides training fitness, game fitness, and anything they do can be used to “boomerang” their club coach into treating them like the US sees them. we give our best players a push.
or we can call in the useless white and play mind games. let’s try and hold our best players’ heads under water.
do we actually believe that even an out of shape balogun would be worse than white. if you really believe “club form” that far you’re crazy. there are things like talent and productivity. one guy is just better than the other. particularly with the nats.
the real concern is exactly how much playing time and injury management. that maybe a less used balogun, like adams, should be pitch counted to limit injury risk.
Pochettino said this is an experimental camp and didn’t bother to call in a player on a Champions League team that he has *never* worked with before. Seeing a player you haven’t seen before could be considered experimental. Especially with three more windows to the World Cup after this one.
But he DID want to call in a guy who he has very recently had in camp for a month. And during that month Pochettino also didn’t even bother to give that guy any Gold Cup minutes. Ok he did start versus Switzerland… and was yanked at halftime.
Which one would you think is the most prudent call up? Be honest.
Pochettinon left McKennie off the team because he needed to get settled in his club team and rest due to playing the CWC but he called in Tim Weah who actually switch entire clubs and was on the exact same CWC team. Also, he “knows” McKennie. Has he seen McKennie play vs nonCONCACAF World Cup caliber teams? The answer is no. Why? Because Pochettino said he needed to stay with his club for the CWC. Meanwhile both Switzerland and Turkey had players play against the US who later played in the CWC. Yildiz – McKennie’s (and Weah’s) teammate lit it up during CWC…and is continuing to light it up as the Serie A starts.
Who do you think Pochettino knows better? A player he had for a month straight and seen play against a good European team and he chose not to play against CONCACAF teams…or…McKennie who he has only see play CONCACAF opposition? Who does Pochettino have enough data on?
I’d say Pochettino wouldn’t need any more info any player that he had in the last camp. They were there under his eyes for a dang month. They were exposed to European competition and CONCACAF competition. If he’s only calling in players he needs more info on then why are ANY of those players in this camp. Adams? Leave him in England…know what he brings. You get the point.
In the past Adams was brought in with an agreement on time management with his club. Put Jedi, Balogun and maybe even Pepi on this type of agreement with their club. Remember Balogun just started and has another game before this camp begins.
Also – according the Charlie Davies – leaving a player at their club during an international break to connect more with the team is an odd choice. Everyone is released during these breaks. Other players travel during these dates as well as some coaches. It’s very likely they would be training with a bunch of academy players. This isn’t constructive in getting a player more connected with their team.
I mean Balogun had been injured and missed several weeks so it would be reasonable that they were just going to let him gain full fitness. Which also would explain why they didn’t have it ready for the roster announcement, as they had to see how he recovered from his match on Sunday. Now with the info we have you could surmise that they picked White over Wright which is pretty much as baffling.