USA v Belgium tactical analysis: what’s Pochettino’s plan with Balogun available?

The brief

After a few days of preparing for the World Cup’s last 16 without their top scorer, the United States were dealt a surprise Sunday when Fifa rescinded Folarin Balogun’s red-card suspension for Monday’s match against Belgium. Belgium’s own preparations have now been scuppered as they go from planning to face an alternative – likely either Ricardo Pepi or Haji Wright – to trying to contain one of the World Cup’s most in-form forwards. Belgium While comparisons to the two most recent clashes between these teams are inevitable, neither of those matches is a terribly useful parallel. Belgium, remarkably, carry four holdovers from their 2-1 victory over the US at the…