World Cup AS IT HAPPENED: USA overcome ‘hero to zero’ moment to keep dreams alive

Well, that’s all from us in what was yet another chaotic day of World Cup action.

There are three more games tomorrow morning, although it’s not as early a start for Aussie fans.

Unless you’re in Perth.

Spain and Austria will kick things off at 5am (AEST), before Portugal play Croatia at 9am. Switzerland and Algeria wrap up the day from 1pm.

See you then!

The USA will be without Folarin Balogun for their clash against Belgium after he became the first player since Zinedine Zidane in the 2006 final to score a goal and be sent off in the same match at a World Cup.

Although to be fair to Balogun, his indiscretion wasn’t nearly as obvious as Zidane’s infamous headbutt.

Speaking on SBS’ post-match coverage, former Socceroo Tommy Oar said he didn’t think the contact was in any way intentional.

“I think it’s clumsy – you can see what he’s trying to do,” he said.

“It’s an awkward ball. He’s trying to get his body in front, and he’s using his legs to try and get the pole position, but when the defender is in front of you like that, you can’t do that.”

Oar said Tarik Muharemović could easily have suffered a serious ankle injury.

The collision drew comparisons with a similar collision involving Lionel Messi in Argentina’s opening group stage match against Algeria.

Messi was not sent off for that collision, but Oar believes he should have been.

Messi went on to score a hat trick to immediately put himself at the top of golden boot leaderboard.

“I think the difference between the two was probably the force of Balogun one, I think there was a lot more force and I think the likelihood of the opposition player getting much more seriously injured was greater,” Oar explained.

“But still … Messi should have been sent off.”

At full time, and the USA have joined fellow co-hosts Mexico and Canada in the round of 16.

The final result is a 2-0 victory over Bosnia and Herzegovina.

BH certainly swung the momentum in the dying minutes, and peppered the USA goal with several shots, but none were on target.

“It’s heartbreak for Bosnia and Herzegovina, but for the USA, the dream continues, and their World Cup ambitions are very much alive,” David Roder said in commentary on SBS.

The USA will play Belgium in Seattle next Tuesday morning.

There is still plenty of time for Bosnia and Herzegovina to do a Belgium and pull a rabbit out of the hat.

There will be a whopping 10 minutes of added time in this clash, but they’ll need turn around the USA’s domination of this match.

Despite the fact they’re a player down, the USA are all but through to the round of 16, having just taken a 2-0 lead.

Given a free-kick from just outside the box, Malik Tillman nailed shot into the top-left corner.

And didn’t the crowd go off.

“If this stadium had a roof it would have just lifted off,” David Roder said in commentary on SBS, echoing statements by yours truly earlier.

Moments earlier, the USA had their second goal of the match scrubbed for offside.

Christian Pulisic put the ball in the back of the net, but the flag was up for offside almost before it made it that far.

Bosnia and Herzegovina are starting to get even more aggressive in their challenges. There has just been a flurry of yellow cards – including one for the foul that led to the latest goal – and it wouldn’t surprise me if it’s 10 on 10 shortly.

Well things have just changed slightly!

The USA’s goalscorer Folarin Balogun has been given a red-card – via VAR intervention – for a foul on BH defender Tarik Muharemović.

Replays show Balogun’s foot landed on the back of Mugaremovic’s calf. It looks bad in a still image, but live it just looked like two players coming together.

“From hero to villain,” commentator John Roder quipped on SBS.

Co-commentator David Prutton suggested the call was a bit harsh on the hosts.

“It’s a challenge … and quite obviously a very, very, very painful one for the Bosnia-Herzegovina defender,” he said.

“However, there’s a lack of intent – I don’t know where his foot is meant to go there when he’s trying to find the turf again.”

It also means should the USA make it through to the round of 16, they will be without Balogun – their leading goalscorer for the tournament.

But before they do that, they need to make it through at least 20 minutes of play – if not more if the scores are level at full time – a player down.

The second half between the USA and Bosnia and Herzegovina is underway, but take couple of minutes to relive all the drama from the earlier match.

10 minutes into the five minutes of added time, the referee finally blows the half-time whistle and the USA head into the sheds with a 1-0 lead.

There was a bit of a brouhaha and another delay before the whistle and BH midfielder Kerim Alajbegović was forced off the field after another heavy collision with two USA players.

His head once again found a knee, and the medics were called onto the field.

The USA have finally taken the lead, and it’s Folarin Balogun again.

The circumstances were fairly similar to the disallowed goal, but this time Balogun managed to keep himself onside, and checked himself really well when the ball deflected off a defender, and again calmly slotted it past the ’keeper.

It was a little lucky for the USA – the through pass was massively overcooked and if the ball didn’t deflect off the defender, there was no chance Balogun was reeling it in.

Still, it’s a deserved goal, and the USA will take a lead into half-time.

When that comes though is anyone’s guess. There are officially five minutes of added time, but there has just been another check on a US player after heavy off-the-ball collision, except this time midfielder Tyler Adams has been directed off the field.

The USA has just had their first goal of the game scrubbed for offside.

Folarin Balogun received the cross and calmly slotted it past Vasilj, but the offside flag was up.

Replays show he was clearly offside and the score remains locked at 0-0.

The stadium has been absolutely pumping all match, and the roar dead set lifted the (proverbial) roof before they were collectively silenced by the realisation he was offside.