California, June 13 (IANS) Tim Ream found himself at the centre of a historic VAR moment as the United States launched their FIFA World Cup campaign with a commanding 4-1 victory over Paraguay in Group D at SoFi Stadium on Saturday.

The 38-year-old veteran defender was originally yellow-carded by Dutch referee Danny Makkelie, who appeared to have brought down Paraguay captain Miguel Almiron during the second half. However, in a completely unprecedented turn of events, the VAR intervened once the free kick had been taken and confusion ensued between both the fans, the players and officials for a spell.

After a lengthy review of the replay on the pitch-side monitor Makkelie reversed his decision and gave Almirón a yellow card for simulation and cancelled Ream’s card. The booking was the first time that VAR had been involved in a mistaken identity card at a FIFA World Cup since new laws for this tournament introduced a number of other options for the review process. The decision was approved by Pierluigi Collina who is head of refereeing and he recommended that reviews for second yellow cards and any wrongful dismissals due to mistakes in identities were also eligible for VAR reviews, while normally second bookings do receive review, but first ones do not.

The bizarre incident failed to derail the United States as Mauricio Pochettino’s side put on an encouraging display of football to entertain a lively home crowd.

The hosts went ahead in the early stages as Paraguay midfielder Damian Bobadilla was unfortunate enough to deflect an attempted cut-back by Weston McKennie into his own net. Folarin Balogun then doubled the lead before hitting a second goal before half-time to give the United States a 3-0 lead at the break, he also became only the second United States player to net more than one goal in one World Cup match.

–IANS

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