- Position
- F
- Pieces here
- 6
On the record
Called Shots →Folarin Balogun is not in the United States' starting eleven against Haiti in the first leg of the Concacaf Nations League quarterfinal on 2026-11-14 in Miami. Scored off the federation's published Starting XI. It resolves yes if he is not one of the eleven, including if he is withdrawn from the roster, not dressed, or comes on as a substitute; it resolves no if he starts.
Written about him
Pepi and Balogun were not 100 percent. Pochettino brought the one with no start
Mauricio Pochettino named 25 players on November 4 for the Concacaf Nations League quarterfinal against Haiti, November 14 in Miami and November 17 in Cincinnati. He said he did not want to bring both Ricardo Pepi and Folarin Balogun because neither is 100 percent, and he brought Balogun, who has 116 of 810 league minutes and no start. In four league matches since the fall window, Balogun played 102 of 360 minutes and Pepi 30 of 360. Julian Hall played 535 of 540. Mathis Albert (20 of 720) and Malik Tillman (242 of 720) are on the list; Mark McKenzie (810 of 810), Yunus Musah (671 of 900) and Aidan Morris (1,080 of 1,170) are not. Haiti is the designated home team in Miami, so a U.S. goal there is an away goal. Wilson Isidor returned for Sunderland with 33 minutes at Coventry on October 31.
The minutes explain why Pulisic is out, but not why Weah is
The first United States squad since the World Cup leaves out Christian Pulisic, Weston McKennie and Folarin Balogun, and Pochettino gave a reason for each of the three at his announcement on September 17. Measured against the September 14 pool snapshot, the club minutes back him up at the bottom of the ledger: eleven of the 25 covered players left out are under half their club's available league minutes, against one of the thirteen called. They do not back him up at the top. Six of those 25 are at 90 percent or more, including Timothy Weah, who has started all four of Marseille's league matches and started at Besiktas in the Europa League on the day the roster was named. The squad's average age is 22 years and nine months, more than four years younger than the World Cup roster, which is the selector the minutes actually reveal.