At the USA-Paraguay match, with the participation of VAR, an event unique to the World Cup took place

The national team of the United States of America beat Paraguay in the match of the first round of the 2026 World Cup in Los Angeles. One of the most interesting moments of this match was the situation in the 50th minute, when the main referee from the Netherlands, Danny Desmond McKelley, recorded a violation of the rules by the defender of the American national team, Tim Ream, against the forward of the Paraguayan team, Miguel Almiron, and warned the captain of the "stars and stripes". However, within a moment, the VAR team intervened in the situation, which pointed out the error of the primary decision of the head referee and invited to watch the episode. As a result, McKelley changed his mind about the episode and rightly chastised Almiron for the simulation. Such intervention by VAR to review the first warning for a player outside the penalty area happened for the first time in the history of World Cups and the first time since the update of the technology application protocol. The USA national team will play its next match against Australia.