Switzerland was clearly on the front foot and had the defending champions on the ropes.
Dan Ndoye had found an equalizer for the European side in the 67th minute in Saturday’s World Cup quarterfinal tilt against Lionel Messi and Argentina — a just reward for a strong second-half showing in which it controlled the majority of proceedings.
But five minutes later, it was all undone when striker Breel Embolo was shown a second yellow card for simulation, following a video (VAR) review under FIFA’s new “mistaken identity” protocol that overturned what was originally deemed to be a yellow card on Argentina’s Leandro Paredes.
“It’s just a disaster,” Swiss midfielder Remo Freuler said. “I don’t know what [referee João Pinheiro] was doing here. I don’t understand why they call him for a situation like this because there are many fouls during the first half where you could call [Argentina] for a yellow card. I don’t understand. How could VAR change a game in this situation? Just let the referee do his thing.”
“The rules are the rules,” star man Granit Xhaka added. “We can’t change the rules, but it’s a decision where you kill the game. I don’t know what else he can do, but just don’t kill the game. We were so good… If it were 11 vs. 11, we would’ve had them.”
It was only the second time that a yellow card was overturned using this “mistaken identity” protocol at the World Cup, which was put in place for VAR to intervene when an incorrect player is shown a card. The fact that it came to the aid of Argentina, further fuels the speculation that FIFA is favoring the defending champions
Following Argentina’s great escape in the Round of 16 against Egypt, in which it scored three times in the final 14 minutes to overturn a 2-0 deficit, the Egyptian Football Association said it “cannot remain silent” in its belief that the officiating was biased toward the South American powers.
Head coach Hossam Hassan bashed the officiating after a late penalty was not awarded to his side.
“We have been treated unfarily,” Hassan said. “We have suffered injustice.”
FIFA’s reputation has taken significant hits this tournament, specifically after the reversal of US forward Folarin Balogun’s one-game suspension that would have kept him out of the Round-of-16 clash against Belgium — a decision that was fueled by the intervention of United States President Donald Trump.
While FIFA’s chief of refereeing Pierluigi Collina came out with a swift response saying that “nobody can question the itnegrity of the FIFA World Cup match officials,” the optics remain poor, especially when decisions continuously reward one team, in particular.
“We were punished because of a rule that, in my opinion, is completely unacceptable,” Switzerland head coach Murat Yakin said. “I don’t understand. It’s very painful that we were eliminated that way. We didn’t deserve that today. In my opinion, we’re the real heroes. They put all their heart and their passion in their performance today. However, the referee makes that wrong decision, he interfered, it’s completely misunderstandable. That’s a situation that occurred many times previously, and he awarded a yellow card, and it was a harmless foul if it even was a foul. I know they will protect their referee, but this rule destroyed our game today. It’s incredibly painful. Unfortunately, we have to accept it.”
For more on Switzerland and the World Cup, visit AMNY.com
