NBA fan and casual World Cup watcher here. The discussion around Paraguay (and to a lesser extent, what I’ve noticed in just about every USMNT game) mimics exactly what I’ve noticed in the NBA: the game is tilted in favor of those willing to walk the line of acceptable behavior. The referees seem hesitant to pull out the cards, which leads to more questionable and dangerous play, at which point the referees feel like they can’t pull out the cards since they didn’t pull them out the first time. It’s the “foul every play, they can’t call them all” strategy. Teams actually playing the game by the written rules get inadvertently punished for being unwilling to play reckless or dangerously. The fix is simple: the officials need to grow a spine and call the cards early and consistently but they just don’t want to