The England boss said in March that Balogun hadn’t yet earned a place on the national team
Folarin Balogun has said that Gareth Southgate’s comments on his England future did not have an impact on his decision to commit to the U.S. men’s national team.
The striker officially chose the USMNT over England and Nigeria last month, ending a lengthy period of recruitment by U.S. Soccer that included a visit to USMNT camp in Orlando in March.
“It is up to the player to weigh up where his heart feels. Is he prepared to wait a little bit for an opportunity if he backs himself and feels he can push his way into our squad?
“Because anybody who has followed us will know that we will give young players a chance.
“So, we cannot go and give first-team call-ups to someone just because we don’t want them to go somewhere else.
“We like Flo. He has obviously not had an opportunity in the Premier League yet, so we have to weigh up those goals to Ivan [Toney], for example, or Ollie Watkins. Or Eddie Nketiah, who has done really well with the opportunity he has had at Arsenal.”
Balogun was given the chance to respond to Southgate’s comments when speaking to reporters on Friday, but denied that the England coach’s words had any impact on his decision to represent the U.S.
“In terms of my decision to come here, it just really was an internal decision between myself, my family and my agent,” the 21-year-old said. “It wasn’t anything to do with the comments of Gareth Southgate or anything to do with noise that I heard from outside. It was something that I wanted to do, something my family supported, and at the end of the day, I just went with my heart and went with what I thought was best.”
Balogun played with the U.S. U-18 side in 2018 but from that point until he committed to the USMNT, he had only represented England at various youth international levels.
The Three Lions boss would like to see the striker prove himself in the Premier League
Gareth Southgate has insisted he won’t call Folarin Balogun up for England just to prevent him from committing to the United States.
Balogun’s international future has been a huge talking point over the past week after the striker seemed to indicate his disappointment at not getting an England senior call-up, was called in and then subsequently withdrew from England’s U-21 roster, and was then spotted in Orlando where the USMNT is based over the international break.
The 21-year-old, who is eligible for England, the USMNT and Nigeria, has seen his stock soar this season on loan at Reims, where he’s scored 17 league goals.
But Southgate indicated that the on-loan Arsenal man may get dinged in his book for not proving himself in the Premier League yet.
“It is up to the player to weigh up where his heart feels,” Southgate said at a press conference. “Is he prepared to wait a little bit for an opportunity if he backs himself and feels he can push his way into our squad?
“Because anybody who has followed us will know that we will give young players a chance.
“So, we cannot go and give first-team call-ups to someone just because we don’t want them to go somewhere else.
“We like Flo. He has obviously not had an opportunity in the Premier League yet, so we have to weigh up those goals to Ivan [Toney], for example, or Ollie Watkins. Or Eddie Nketiah, who has done really well with the opportunity he has had at Arsenal.”
Watkins and Nketiah, notably, did not make the cut for the current England squad.
The USMNT, meanwhile, continues to put on the full-court press to land the New York-born striker.
“It’s been an opportunity for us just to share about our program and who we are, and what we do,” interim coach Anthony Hudson said last week of Balogun’s trip to Florida. “And again, hope we get the chance to speak with him again. It’s been good to me, and I know a few of the guys have spoken to him as well.”
Some clever tactical tweaks helped the USMNT control much of the game in a 0-0 draw
AL KHOR, Qatar – While they’ve cooled things off for a while as they compete head-to-head at the World Cup, Gregg Berhalter and Gareth Southgate have developed a friendship in recent years, sharing ideas and fellowship as they implement youth-driven overhauls of their respective national teams.
“I’ve enjoyed my interactions with Gregg,” Southgate told reporters the day before his England side faced off against Berhalter’s United States in their Group B clash at Al-Bayt Stadium. “Over the last few years I’ve learned a lot from him.”
At the time that sounded mostly like politeness. Southgate led the Three Lions to the semifinal of World Cup 2018 and the final of Euro 2020, and they currently sit fifth in the FIFA World Rankings. Berhalter’s Gold Cup and Concacaf Nations League titles just don’t hold quite the same cachet for most observers.
Berhalter doesn’t seem like the sort to rub it in his face. But next time they link up out of range of the cameras and microphones, Southgate might just have to admit he got a lesson from his North American mate in the Qatari desert on Friday.
Berhalter made several tactical tweaks that blunted the threat posed by England’s talent-laden XI, starting with targeted pressing and an unexpected move to a 4-4-2 formation while defending. Christian Pulisic paired up top with surprise starter Haji Wright ahead of a mostly flat midfield shape with Tyler Adams and Yunus Musah central and Weston McKennie flared out to one flank while Tim Weah manned the other.
“Obviously it worked,” said McKennie, one of his side’s top performers in a scoreless draw. “You guys saw, we had the ball often, they weren’t able to really break through so many times, I don’t think we gave them a lot of chances to get in behind and to get goalscoring opportunities. And it worked for us as well, we were able to break them down, have space out wide.”
(AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
It continued with a number of subtle shape shifts as the game played out, keeping the English side guessing.
“We wanted to highlight our defensive shape that would change from a 4-4-2 to a 4-3-3. If we did that, effectively, we wanted to hit them in transition, offensive transition, and we think we gave them some problems in that,” explained Berhalter in his postgame press conference.
“We wanted to make it compact. We want to work from a compact block in the beginning of the game. And throughout the game, we switched it up a little bit just to keep giving them different looks. And give them credit, they kept adapting as well. They moved from, four on one to four on two to three on one and it was a handful for us, for sure.”
The tweaks unsettled England, as the flowing moves forward that tore Iran apart occurred only in fits and starts. A managerial game of cat and mouse unfolded over the course of the match, and by the final whistle both the statistical data and the general run of play favored the USMNT.
“It was a really tough opponent. They defended incredibly well,” said Southgate after his side were largely outplayed and out-thought in a game that boosts U.S. confidence ahead of a must-win against Iran. “To come off the high of the performance the other day [a 6-2 win over Iran] and find that same energy, level of quality, was always going to be a challenge. Their front six make it so difficult to play through and get at their defense.”
Adams claimed that he and his teammates weren’t informed of the shape shift until the day before the match. The organization and fluidity with which they executed the plan — and the details shared by their coach — stretched the credibility of that statement, however.
(Photo by KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV/AFP via Getty Images)
“That was something that we saw with their defending in the last game and we wanted to key in on it. Basically triple-stacking the right side of the field, Serge [Sergiño Dest] getting the ball, being able to bypass his defender to find Weston free and then [English left back] Luke Shaw would have a decision to make,” Adams said.
“He’s either going to leave Timmy [Weah] and release to Weston or he’s going get held by Timmy, and that was a focus of ours. So glad to see that. England did that a little bit in the second half with Mason Mount also popping wide, and it’s difficult to deal with. You’ve got to be smart about it. You got to understand when to pressure, when not to pressure, but it definitely put us in some good positions to continue advancing the attack.”
Southgate shared a glimpse of his side of the chess match, which leaves both squads in need of a positive result on Group B’s final matchday in order to move on to the round of 16.
“We didn’t quite get our pressure right. [Yunus] Musah was dropping low and we got a little bit stretched without the ball, and McKennie pulling a little bit wider caused us a bit of a problem, which we needed to resolve at halftime,” he said. “So we needed to be more aggressive on our pressure, bit more compact as a team. Obviously Pulisic comes into clever areas with [Antonee] Robinson going outside him as well. So there’s lots of questions for the players to answer within the game.”
Musah: “I have a lot of respect for (England) for everything they’ve done for me”
The U.S. men’s national team won’t face anyone at this World Cup that they’re as connected to as England, their opponent in Friday’s much-anticipated Group B meeting.
There are the basic connections that most fans can rattle off: eight USMNT players ply their trade with English clubs, and several of them will be standing across from club teammates. Christian Pulisic will see three familiar faces from Chelsea, while Arsenal’s Matt Turner will see the same number of club colleagues suiting up for the Three Lions. At Borussia Dortmund, Gio Reyna often lines up right next to England playmaker Jude Bellingham.
The intertwined nature of these teams goes deeper on the USMNT side, though, as three players (Cameron Carter-Vickers, Yunus Musah, and Antonee Robinson) were raised in the UK, and speak with English accents.
Speaking at a press conference on Thursday, Carter-Vickers — born in England but eligible for the USMNT through his father, who hails from Baton Rouge, Louisiana — laughed as he noted that in his family, “half of them want us to win, and half want England to win.”
Sitting alongside the Celtic center back, Turner acknowledged another important factor: most USMNT fans are regularly watching the Premier League, boosting the desire to measure up to England on the field.
“There’s definitely a tremendous respect from the people of America of English soccer,” said Turner. “It’s the [league] that I grew up watching when I got a little bit older.”
“I think for me, it’s a game that I really want to win, just like any other game in the World Cup,” said Carter-Vickers. “To be honest, I’m not too sure how I’m gonna feel when when the game comes around, but you know, I do know that I’ll be doing everything I can to try and help the team win.”
(AP Photo/Ashley Landis)
Musah, who played for English youth national teams, shared a similar thought. “I don’t know how I’m gonna feel that day. But yeah, it’s a special game for sure, because I played on both sides, and to be able to be on the pitch with the same national team I used to play with is just special.”
Musah came up in Gareth Southgate’s pre-match remarks as well, as the England manager mischievously credited Gregg Berhalter for his “talent identification,” noting that the USMNT had successfully lobbied the Valencia midfielder to play for the United States despite his youth national team history with the Three Lions. “He obviously took [Musah], which we weren’t very happy about. Fair play.”
Musah called that choice “difficult,” adding that “it was a really nice time with [England]. I have a lot of respect for them for everything they’ve done for me.”
USMNT respects Saka, Kane, Bellingham
Turner, like Musah, is very familiar with England’s Bukayo Saka. Turner sees him with Arsenal on a regular basis, while Musah trained with him for years in the Gunners’ academy system. Both underlined the threat they know is coming from the 21-year-old, who had a brace against Iran.
“He’s one of the young stars of world football,” explained Turner. “He’s a top, top player, and I think you don’t need me to tell anybody on our team how much of a threat that he poses in the game. He’s scoring goals in a variety of ways.”
Musah agreed, and added that Bellingham — his teammate at the youth national team level — is in the same category. “You can see what they’re doing week-in, week-out, and they’re producing at the World Cup as well,” said Musah. “We’re gonna have to be on our game on Friday.”
“I think it’ll be difficult,” Carter-Vickers said of a reunion with the Spurs forward. “He’s a top player, you know, they’ve got a squad full of top players. So, I think we all know that we have to put in one of our best performances to beat them.”
