Easy, if he doesn't stab his leg out at a ball he has no chance of he completely removes any chance of coming down on the opponent's ankle and not only avoids the card but also avoids the foul call entirely.
It was shoulder to shoulder. The guy you're defending intentionally did not post the initial contact. This is the initial contact:
Your frames show that balogun was ball-side of the defender and had a right to move his right foot to meet the ball - the same type of play he makes 100 other times during a game when trying to receive a pass. In the second frame, his right foot, the one he was going to trap the ball with, was already in the air. Balo was contacted with little force to the shoulder, then a lot of force above his right hip as defender swung his left leg over Balos right thigh. All wall his floating foot was moving toward the ball, which is a normal/natural soccer play. Balo’s foot clips the bottom of defender’s boot, rendering him further incapable of coming down with any means of intentionality. Balo feels that he has landed on defender rather than turf and immediately recoils to the extent that is possible, which is extremely apparent in real time.
I think you're getting their feet mixed up. Balo's right foot is behind the defender, which is how he makes contact with the back of the defender's plant foot/ankle. If your contention is that he has a right to move his foot through the defender to meet the ball, yiu are just 100% wrong about that.
First contact is with shoulder, but the contact that displaces Balo is #4’s left elbow to Balo’s right oblique. It’s far more clear on the view from behind. If we are going SUPER letter of the law, it’s a foul on #4. I would never call it unless it was a situation in which I HAD to call something.
File this one under “worst-kept secret in world soccer.”…….,
