Right at the end of the USA v Algeria match, the Algerian captain Antar Yahia was sent off for a second bookable offence. But it was a classic case of mistaken identity by the Belgian referee Frank de Bleeckere.
In the replays you can see it is 2 or 3 others that is shouting at the referee, one which looks similar to Yahia but you can see by his name it is a different player. The referee turns around and walks away as he has decided they have overstepped the mark.
Yahia then arrives and does what a captain should and pulls his players away. He is then the only player left when the referee turns back around this time with his yellow card and shows it to Yahia by mistake. This was his 2nd card and he was sent off.
Yahia is baffled but walks straight off the pitch to his credit. (This is not to say Yahia perhaps deserved another yellow card earlier in the match even red)
As this was in 90+ m, in injury time, it did not really affect the result nor did Algeria have any chance of progression, but it affects Algeria's reputation as again they have had a player sent off instead of a simple yellow card.
What is remarkable is that this has barely been mentioned in the media afterwards. Any Google searches only reveals match reports and comments again about Algeria failing to control their tempers. Yahia is stated as deserving his 2nd card due to abuse of the referee. [1] [2] [3] Had this been England, US, Italy etc the referee would be ridiculed in the papers, but Algeria.. no mention.
