Two nearly identical high-foot challenges at the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Two wildly different outcomes. One player, USMNT striker Folarin Balogun, got a straight red card during a round-of-32 match against Bosnia and Herzegovina. The other, Lionel Messi, got nothing for a similar incident against Algeria in the group stage. The Algerian Football Federation filed a formal complaint. It didn’t matter.
What happened on the pitch
During the USMNT’s knockout-round match on July 1-2, 2026, Balogun was dismissed for a high-foot challenge deemed dangerous enough for the referee to bypass a yellow card entirely. The decision was immediate and decisive.
The problem is that Messi had been involved in a strikingly similar incident during Argentina’s group-stage clash with Algeria. That challenge drew no card whatsoever.
Algeria’s football federation took the unusual step of filing a formal complaint with FIFA. The complaint went nowhere. Messi continued in the tournament without consequence.
