SEATTLE — Chris Richards said he first heard teammate Folarin Balogun had been cleared to play in Monday’s World Cup elimination game while on the team bus, heading to a morning training session at the University of Washington.

“We found out through social media,” Richards said Sunday. “There’s a lot of people posting a lot of stuff, so we weren’t sure if it was true or not.”

In this case, it was. FIFA announced Sunday morning, about 30 hours before the U.S. was scheduled to play Belgium in the Round of 16 game, that the one-game suspension Balogun had received for a dangerous challenge in last week’s win over Bosnia and Herzegovina is being held in abeyance, making him eligible to play in what is arguably the team’s most important game in at least a generation.

“Really excited, obviously, for him to have this opportunity,” Christian Pulisic said. “He’s our leading scorer in the tournament. He’s a big part of this team. So of course you want a guy like that around.”

President Trump celebrated the reversal on his social media platform while the New York Times, citing three unnamed people familiar with the conversation, reported that Trump spoke personally with FIFA President Gianni Infantino last week and asked him to rescind the red card. Balogun, born to Nigerian parents who live in England, is only eligible to play for the U.S. through birthright citizenship, a principle Trump unsuccessfully asked the Supreme Court to overturn last month.

The Belgium team was not as happy with the country’s soccer federation saying it was “astonished” by the ruling and “investigating all potential options” to block it and “safeguard the legitimate rights of all participating teams and to protect the fundamental principles of fair in our sport.” It was unclear what those options might be.

“I didn’t know the game was being played on April Fool’s Day rather than July 6,” Belgian coach Rudi Garcia said. “We’re not defending the national team or federation. We are defending football.”

No American since 1930 had scored three times in a World Cup before Balogun’s first-half goal in a 2-0 over Bosnia in the round of 32. That was the team’s first victory in a World Cup knockout game since 2002 and in the three U.S. wins in this tournament, Balogun has either scored or set up the game-winning goal.

But early in the second half of the Bosnia game, he collided with Tarik Muharemovic and when the Bosnian defender planted his right leg below Balogun’s right foot, the American inadvertently stomped on his right ankle, twisting it awkwardly.

Both players went down, but Brazilian referee Raphael Claus did not initially penalize either. After the video assistant referee urged him to watch a replay, however, Claus walked away from the monitor and flashed the red card at Balogun, a judgment many immediately deemed overly harsh.

FIFA ultimately agreed, suspending the disqualification Sunday.

“In line with article 27 of the FIFA Disciplinary Code, the implementation of the match suspension is suspended for a probationary period of one year,” it wrote in a statement. “If Folarin Balogun commits another infringement of a similar nature and gravity during the probationary period, the suspension shall be revoked and the sanction enforced without prejudice to any additional sanction imposed for the new infringement.”

For Pulisic, that was justice.

“It just feels right,” he said.

“If you look at the foul, it’s zero intent. There were much worse ones that went on this tournament.”

Balogun action’s after the questionable foul may also have inspired FIFA’s leniency. After the final whistle of the Bosnia game, he walked to the center of the field and shook hands with Claus, then politely took ownership of the incident in his first public remarks two days later.

“I think a yellow card would have been fair,” he said last Friday. “[But] it’s something that’s happened, so we have to move forward, and I have to accept it.”

Pulisic applauded his teammate’s humility.

“Balo handled it so well, and I think the team handled it well,” he said. “We weren’t here to complain. You have to handle it in a good way, and you know good things happen.”

U.S. Soccer, which had remained engaged with FIFA since the was suspension, issued its own statement.

“We accept the decision of the Disciplinary Committee and are pleased that Folarin Balogun is eligible to compete tomorrow,” it read in part. ”Our full attention is focused on the Round of 16 match against Belgium.”

Balogun is not the first person to have a penalty rescinded by FIFA. Portugal’s Crisitiano Ronaldo was given a straight red card and a three-game international ban after swinging an elbow at Irish defender Dara O’Shea during a World Cup qualifier last fall. But after Ronaldo sat out a qualifier with Armenia, FIFA converted the rest of the penalty into a one-year probation, clearing the Portuguese captain to play in the World Cup.

But it’s the first time FIFA has lifted a suspension during the World Cup since 1962, when Brazilian attacker Garrincha was allowed to play in the final after his nation’s government intervened. Garrincha, who tied for the scoring lead with four goals and was named the best player of that tournament, had been sent off in the semifinal after kicking Chile’s Eladio Rojas.

Brazil, with Garrincha, defeated Czechoslovakia 3-1 in the title game.

If Balogun had missed Monday’s game, the U.S. would likely have replaced him with Ricardo Pepi or Haji Wright, but the dropoff would have been significant. Balogun not only tops the U.S. in goals but he has has a team-leading 11 shots and four shots on target in 223 minutes. Pepi and Wright, who have combined for 186 minutes, do not have a goal or shot in the tournament.

Balogun is also good at holding up the ball, buying time to let his teammates join the attack. That’s a skill the U.S. will need against a smart, veteran Belgium team that has warmed into the World Cup, scoring eight times in its last two games.

The U.S. has beaten Belgium just once, in the 1930 World Cup. The last meeting was a March friendly that Belgium won 5-2 and the last time they faced off in the World Cup, in the round of 16 in 2014, Belgium won in extra time in a game in which American keeper Tim Howard made a tournament-record 16 saves.

Kevin DeBruyne and Romelu Lukaku scored while Thibaut Courtois nine saves in goal for Belgium that day. All three are still on the team and played in Belgium’s Round-of-32 win over Senegal in this World Cup last week. No one on the U.S. roster for that 2014 game has played internationally since 2023.

Toronto Maple Leafs No. 1 draft pick Gavin McKenna has already been on the ice with the team as it held its development camp this week, but the highly-touted rookie is going to have to make a big change for this fall.

His number.

When he was playing for the Western Hockey League’s Medicine Hat Tigers and then again at Penn State this past season, McKenna wore the No. 72.

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The expectation was that McKenna would wear No. 72 with the Maple Leafs, and he did so this week at development camp. Plenty of fans have also already ordered No. 72 jerseys with his name on the back.

On most rosters, No. 72 is unique enough that he wouldn’t run into any issues wearing it. However, on July 1, the Leafs signed two-time Stanley Cup champion goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky, who has worn No. 72 for most of his career, except during his first two seasons with the Philadelphia Flyers, when he wore No. 35.

So, some were wondering how this would work out. Would the Leafs want their new franchise player to get his pick of the number litter, or would they defer to a two-time Vezina winner?

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Well, it turns out that McKenna will be the one swapping numbers, and he’ll be switching to No. 92 this season.

McKenna had to get creative here because the obvious number changes were a no-go in Toronto. Adding 7 and 2 would be 9, but that was retired in honor of Charlie Conacher and Ted Kennedy.

Another option would’ve been to flip the digits and go with No. 27, but that was retired in honor of Frank Mahovlich and Darryl Sittler.

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So, 92 it is.

However, McKenna reached out to one of the three previous players to wear the number, Jeff O’Neill, to ask whether he was comfortable with him using it.

It’s fair to say he was down with the idea.

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McKenna will be a key piece of a Maple Leafs team that is looking to bounce back after a nightmare 2025-26 campaign that saw them finish last in the Atlantic Division.

It’ll be the culmination of nine minor-league seasons. But Eliezer Alfonzo‘s major-league debut on Sunday won’t include his family watching from Dodger Stadium.

Alfonzo’s younger sister, Eliana, and stepmother, Patricia, have been missing since last month when earthquakes caused widespread devastation in his home country of Venezuela.

“I’ve been trying to support my dad a lot, every day talking to him, trying to be with him,” Alfonzo said of the elder Eliezer Alfonzo, a retired major-league catcher. “It’s a little tough from here because I would like to be there with him, supporting him every day.”

His father, of course, would love to be in attendance for his son’s debut. He told him as much when he heard the Dodgers were calling him up.

The Dodgers switched their backup catchers Saturday, optioning Chuckie Robinson. They saw an opportunity to give Alfonzo some runway behind Dalton Rushing, with starting catcher Will Smith’s stay on the injured list expected to extend through the All-Star break.

The elder Eliezer Alfonzo, however, is doing whatever he can to locate his wife and daughter. Their dog was found alive, which gave the younger Eliezer Alfonzo hope.

“We’ve just gotta stay together as a family, as a country,” Alfonzo said. “Because I feel like we’re a beautiful country, we’re a really beautiful people over there. It’s not just about my family, it’s all families that have lost people already. But we’ve got hope. We just pray, we ask God to give them back to us alive.”

Alfonzo’s locker in the clubhouse is next to countryman Miguel Rojas’ stall. Rojas’ wife, Mariana, and their two children were in Venezuela, planning to renew Mariana’s passport and seek Venezuelan citizenship for their children, when the earthquakes hit. They managed to stay safe and have returned to the U.S.

“I just want to be here for him,” Rojas said. “At the end of the day, that’s the best thing I can do for him, is being a good teammate and being a friend for him. Because I know there’s going to be ups and downs. He’s going to have a lot of time to be caught [up] in baseball, and that’s going to probably take his mind away from stuff. But sometimes he’s probably going to feel weak, and he’s going to start thinking about his family. So I’m going to be here, I’m right next to him. And that’s what I told him.”

Rojas, who played against the elder Eliezer Alfonzo for years in Venezuela, reached out Saturday morning and promised him he’d save the ball from his son’s first major-league hit.