FIFA's investigation was already underway when Temu Caligula waddled in. The US federation had already filed an appeal before that. Moreover, their appeal was always going to succeed. Here's why:

When the play on the field that started this whole fiasco happened, the center referee didn't call a foul at the time, seeing it as a normal "50/50" coming-together of players that happened to result in a lot of contact when they both fell. That's pretty normal when it's not a clear case of one player charging into another. The Video Assistant Referee (VAR) then alerted the center ref that there may have been a red card offense and asking for further review. All normal to this point.

But then, when the center ref came over to the pitch-side monitor, the VAR first showed him a slo-mo replay...and that's a direct violation of VAR protocol. Slo-mo always makes a contact look worse than it looks in real-time. Protocol requires the VAR present the play in real time to adjudge the severity of impact, etc., then possibly use slow-mo and freeze-frames to make certain of the point of contact and other critical details. When the VAR broke the review protocol, that invalidated any decision that arose from the review; it's basically the "fruit of the poisonous tree" principle that exists in the legal system.

At that point, the decision has to revert to the call on the field...which in this case was no call. Balogun should never have been sent off. Of course, this is one of those "got off on a technicality" situations for many...but it was still the only outcome that would have abided by the rules. Terrible optics, particularly after Trump blundered his way in...but correct.

It also ruined the team's already underdog chances against Belgium. The entire fiasco was a massive distraction that killed stone cold dead the considerable momentum the team had going. The reversal of Balogun's suspension happened about half way through the team's prep time for the next match, prep time that's already in short supply in a tournament, with the shorter than usual gap between games. Absent all this nonsense, I have zero doubt the team wouldn't have looked as utterly awful as they did. Enough better to beat a sharp, focused Belgian side? Probably not, but they'd have offered some real fight.

There's been SO much misinformation about this incident floating around out there, and as someone who's been watching this World Cup very intently (and who knows the rules), I wanted to clear some of that up. The US team only possibly deserves hate for this because of the initial decision to appeal the sending-off. Appealing on the basis of a technicality always looks terrible (although the contact that eventually got the ref to show the card was completely accidental and possibly unavoidable, given how the two players were falling to the pitch). I realize it's the most important tournament a team can play in, but they should have just accepted the error by the ref/VAR and tried to win without Flo Balogun. Balogun himself was a model of grace and humility throughout...classy guy.