Switzerland's well-earned reward for acting is ejection from game and elimination from World Cup

The tears were real. Switzerland striker Breel Embolo no longer was acting by then. He covered his face in horror, aware everything he’d dreamed about at the start of the day, at the start of the 2026 World Cup, had been demolished in an instant.

First, referee Joao Pedro Silva Pinheiro held a yellow card toward the Kansas City sky; then he showed considerable dexterity by pulling a red card from his pocket and signaling to Embolo he no longer would be involved in Saturday's quarterfinal game against Argentina.

It was not a universally popular decision. Anything favoring Argentina against an underdog at this point in the 2026 World Cup is going to generate controversy.

Pinheiro got it right, though, after he’d gotten it wrong.

It was no surprise 11 members of this Argentina team eventually were able to produce a 3-1 victory over 10 members of this Switzerland team, even if they needed an extra 30 minutes to get there. The Argentines advanced to the World Cup semifinals and a game Wednesday against England, a nation that surely appreciates great theater.

The crew in the replay booth noticed there hadn’t been any particular reason for Embolo to go airborne; he’d not been contacted by Paredes. In the sporting parlance, he had flopped.

"In my opinion, that’s a harmless foul, if it even was a foul," Switzerland head coach Murat Yakin said in his postgame press conference. "I know they will protect their referee, but this rule destroyed our game today, and it was incredibly painful. To be eliminated in that way hurts a lot.

"There was no reason to award that yellow card. I don’t understand it. It was a harmless situation. I don’t understand that the decision was made and it was our player sent off the pitch."

The play was eligible for VAR review because of the “mistaken identity” protocol introduced for this World Cup. It rarely has been employed in this tournament, but we did see one in the opening game for the United States against Paraguay, when the referee watched the tape and reassigned a yellow card that had been shown to USMNT defender Tim Ream to opposing midfielder Miguel Almiron. It was relatively early, so Almiron was in no danger of being ejected.

Against Argentina, though, Embolo had been carded just before halftime for a harsh tackle, coincidentally against Paredes. So when he inexplicably chose to take flight in the 72nd minute, he was taking an extravagant risk (two yellow cards leads to ejection) for a meager reward. He wasn't anywhere near drawing a penalty. He wasn’t in a position that would have generated a dangerous free kick for Switzerland. He was 30 yards up the right sideline and moving away from goal when his moment arrived. And it was more than just the aeronautics; he rolled three times on the ground after landing and groaned as if in agonizing pain.

After a VAR review, Embolo is sent off with his second yellow for simulation 🟥 pic.twitter.com/1ljSIAtVRj

All of this happened just 2 minutes after Switzerland had tied the game on winger Dan Ndoye's beautiful strike.

The Fox television crew were sympathetic to Embolo, arguing it was too harsh to reverse the yellow given the awareness it would end his night and quite possibly his World Cup. Former USMNT star Landon Donovan advocated for this, and even former Premier League referee Mark Clattenburg, serving as rules analyst, took this position.

One must admit there was a sinister sort of poetry in Argentina receiving another favorable ruling there at the home of the Kansas City Chiefs, the team NFL fans claimed for years were the beneficiaries of game official gift-giving.

Already in this World Cup, superstar Lionel Messi escaped any punishment whatsoever after scraping his cleats against the right calf of Algeria defender Aissa Mandi during the first half of their group game. It might have been worthy of a red card dismissal; Messi didn’t even see yellow.

In Argentina’s most recent game, Egypt had a goal rescinded because the VAR detected a foul at the very beginning of the build toward that score roughly 100 yards away from goal. It’s within the purview of the replay system to punish such offenses, but who had seen such a thing before this week?

After review, Egypt is called for a foul and the goal is disallowed. pic.twitter.com/9KJiFgVjMI

There are two reasons the Embolo red card made sense, though.

The first is the sport needs to do as much as possible to eliminate this sort of behavior. Some will contend that’s an American viewpoint, but clearly it’s not. How do we know? Just remember what they call it: simulation. Please. We’d never use that word. Even hockey calls it “embellishment”. We’d obviously prefer the simplest label: diving. Those in charge at FIFA conceived the rule because it’s bad for the game.

The World Cup referees were tasked with attempting to remove any sort of fakery from the tournament. There have been myriad occasions when players have gone down after minor collisions with opponents and refs either ignored their pleas for foul calls or admonished them to get off the ground. Embolo ought to have understood this before Switzerland’s first game, but certainly after he’d been playing in this event for a month.

In television, one might get an Emmy for a performance such as Embolo’s. On television, playing the world’s most popular sport in the biggest sporting event on the planet, it produced a far less desirable award.