Even as his Manchester United debut draws near, Youri Tielemans is still fielding inquiries on the drama of the summer when he helped lead Belgium to a resounding 4-1 victory over the United States in a round-of-16 match at the World Cup.
Tielemans’ sentiment remains as it was then, that FIFA’s decision to rescind a one-game suspension to the United States’ Folarin Balogun lit a fire under the Belgium team and led to a victory that never was in question.
“The celebrations afterwards were nice and funny and it was all good,” Tielemans said from Ireland this week, where Manchester United was training ahead of their match on Wednesday against Leeds United at Dublin. “We were surprised by the decision to revert the red card and his suspension.”
Even as Belgium advanced, the controversy over FIFA’s decision lingered. Had the United States been able to pull off a victory with Balogun on the field, those “nice and funny” feelings would have been much different.
“Now, for us, it did not really change anything other than the preparation leading up to the game because it is a different type of player than the other player that was meant to play,” Tielemans said. “But other than that, we were very calm and we just accepted our fate and tried to have a good game.”
More than one month after the July 6 victory it was much easier to assess the mood of the Belgium team as “calm.” Tielemans was a bit more fiery in the aftermath of the victory.
“I’m not going to hide it: we had a meeting when we got the news (that Balogun would play), and we said we would have to respond on the pitch,” Tielemans said at the time. “We really had a lot of anger and a great desire to start the match well, something we had been lacking at the start of the tournament.”
Of primary concern to Tielemans now is his health. He did not play in the World Cup quarterfinal against eventual champion Spain because of injury. He also missed time over two stretches last season when he played for Aston Villa.
Manchester United is now his third English Premier League side after also playing for Leicester City from 2019-23.
“Unfortunately, my body is, when it does not go well, then I will know straight away and I will alert the manager, but it does not happen often,” the 29-year-old said.
–Field Level Media
