United States coach, Mauricio Pochettino, praised his side’s resilience after they secured a 2-0 victory over Bosnia despite playing with 10 men, while insisting Folarin Balogun’s sending-off was an unfair decision in their World Cup Round of 32 clash on Wednesday.
The victory marked the United States’ first knockout-stage World Cup win since 2002 and booked a last-16 meeting with Belgium.
“It’s difficult to describe our feeling, because I think they were amazing, and (there is) no easy game in the World Cup,” he said.
“I think the maturity of the team is amazing in the way that we are growing in the last five-six weeks.”
Balogun had earlier given the Americans the breakthrough with his third goal of the tournament just before halftime.
However, the striker’s night ended on a sour note after he was shown a straight red card for stepping on Tarik Muharemovic’s ankle, ruling him out of the clash against Belgium.
Bosnia coach Sergej Barbarez supported the decision, which was upheld following a VAR review, but Pochettino strongly disagreed.
“Never was this a red card. Watching it on TV, never was there intention to step (on) the player,” he told the post-match press conference.
“That was a normal action in football. That happened by accident and it’s never intentional. That is why for me it was never a red card.”
The Argentine revealed Balogun was upset after the match but remained delighted that the team had advanced.
“But he’s also happy because we qualified… He needs to understand that this type of situation happens,” he said.
“I hope that, for sure, he is going to be able to help us again. I hope that we go to the next round.”
The win also saw Pochettino become the first coach of the U.S. men’s national team to record three World Cup victories.
After the final whistle, he celebrated with supporters by singing “Country Roads” before embracing his players and coaching staff.
With Christian Pulisic restored to the starting lineup, Pochettino named the same side that thrashed Paraguay 4-1 in the group stage.
Bosnia frustrated the Americans for much of the contest before Balogun capitalised on a fortunate deflection to score shortly before the break.
Despite being reduced to 10 men after Balogun’s dismissal, the United States sealed the result through Malik Tillman, whose superb free kick doubled the advantage.
“It was amazing, Malik is an amazing player, full of talent,” said Pochettino.
“We knew that he has that talent to do the free kick … to do what he did. So happy for him.”
