00:08One man is very disappointed with the way VAR has been used at the World Cup after
00:12Polarun Balogun was given a red card for stepping on his opponent's ankle.
00:16The Americans went on to beat Bosnia and Herzegovina 2-0 to reach the round of 16.
00:21However, former USA player Hercules Gourmet says it was harsh.
00:25Was VAR misused for the red card against Flo Balogun?
00:29Absolutely. And it's been misused all tournament. That should never be a red card.
00:33There's a coming together of the legs. Football, soccer is a contact sport.
00:37When you see this, right, this is a problem here.
00:39When you see this play and you're like, how could this not be a red card?
00:42It looks terrible. It looks like he's breaking his ankle.
00:44But football isn't played in slow motion. You can't judge it by a still shot.
00:48And yet we are.
00:49Like Hercules, German legend Jürgen Klinsmann also questions Balogun's red card at the World Cup.
00:54In his comments, the name Lionel Messi comes up.
00:57It hurts the red card. I mean, rightfully, wrongfully. I thought it's a bit harsh to give a red card
01:03there.
01:04But he hit him from behind. He got him in his Achilles tendon there.
01:09It looks a little bit kind of unfortunate. But if you're Messi, you don't get it called.
01:15But if you're Balogun, you get it called.
01:19It doesn't end there, as ESPN host Dan Thomas is just as perplexed as the others.
01:25In fact, he's questioning the officiating at the tournament.
01:27We saw Lionel Messi in the first game with a tackle width as much worse than Balogun.
01:33Yet magically, it wasn't even reviewed. They didn't even go to the monitor.
01:36It wasn't even a yellow card.
01:39This is clear bias.
01:40And this is what's frustrating, people, because they're saying, look, if you're going to send off Balogun,
01:43you've got to send off Messi as well.
01:45There's got to be consistency from the officials.
01:47And clearly, there hasn't been in these two instances.
01:50And last but not least, former Trinidad and Tobago goalkeeper Shaka Hislop too has a say on the matter.
01:56And yes, to him, it's harsh on Balogun.
01:58I don't think it was a red card.
02:00I think when you have two players going for a ball in the air, there's contact.
02:04Inevitably, you have to come down at some point.
02:07And if you land, as Balogun did, on the ankle, I think that's a natural part of the game and
02:13has to be accepted as much.
02:14The difference between, while I thought, since we're talking about the Messi incident, I thought that was a red card.
02:19The difference is, Messi's not jumping.
02:21Messi's chasing somebody and comes down the back of his ankle.
02:24So I felt that those are two very different circumstances.
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