Tim Ream’s yellow card was wiped out after the first mistaken-identity VAR review used at the World Cup. Referee Danny Makkelie initially booked Ream for what looked like a trip on Miguel Almiron, then changed course after a video check and booked Almiron for simulation instead.
The intervention mattered because the law had only just been expanded ahead of the tournament. VAR now can help when the wrong player is shown a yellow or red card for an offence, as long as the error is clear and obvious. In this case, Carlos del Cerro Grande stepped in after the ball had been headed out of the United States’ penalty box, and Makkelie watched it again on the screen before cancelling Ream’s booking.
That made the incident the first time the World Cup’s mistaken-identity law had been used, and it came in a match the United States had already taken control of, leading Paraguay 3-0. Folarin Balogun scored two of those goals, and the United States also had an own goal in the first half at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California.
The change to the law is small on paper but broad in effect. Before the World Cup, mistaken identity could be reviewed only when the referee cautioned or sent off the wrong player from the offending team. Ahead of the tournament, IFAB rewrote the wording so a yellow or red card can be corrected when the referee has clearly penalised the wrong player of either team for the offence in question, but the offence itself cannot be reopened except in that narrow setting.
That leaves room for more reviews later in the tournament, including clearly incorrect second yellow cards and wrongly awarded corner kicks. It does not, however, extend to reversing a goal kick that should have been a corner, which keeps the reach of video review limited even as it expands. For Ream, the result was immediate and simple: one yellow card disappeared, and the World Cup’s new video powers got their first real test.
