Video replay was key to overturning a yellow card against the USMNT's Tim Ream. Here's what VAR is all about and why you'll see it a lot more in the 2026 World Cup

It didn’t take long for the first significant VAR review of the 2026 World Cup. And it definitely won’t be the last.

USMNT defender Tim Ream was given a yellow card early in the second half of the team’s game against Paraguay on Friday night. Ream was carded for a tackle on Paraguay’s Miguel Almirón.

However, Ream never touched Almirón with his feet.

After a slight delay for a video check, referee Danny Makkelie was alerted by video referee Carlos Del Cerro Grande to a potential dive by Almirón. He brought the two players together and went to a pitchside monitor to confirm that Almirón had dived to the ground after Ream’s attempted tackle in the hope of drawing a foul.

The replay review process has been expanded for the 48-team tournament this year. While hardcore soccer fans are very familiar — and sometimes infuriated — by the use of VAR during matches, many casual fans are unfamiliar with soccer’s still relatively new replay process. If you’re one of those fans, here’s what you need to know about the game’s attempt to get more big calls right.

First trialed in professional soccer in the Dutch Eredivisie in 2012, the video review process has expanded over the past 14 seasons after its official implementation in FIFA competition at the 2016 Club World Cup. The 2026 World Cup is the third World Cup with VAR.

In simple terms, a replay official is assigned before each match and monitors all all “reviewable” decisions made by the referee on the field. If a potential “clear and obvious” error has been made, the on-field referee is alerted and may be asked to review the incident on a pitch-side monitor.

If the on-field referee determines that the call was incorrect, he or she has the ability to change the call on the field. In certain instances that are deemed to be black and white — like if a foul occurred inside the penalty area or outside of it — the replay official can make the sole determination.

As mentioned above, VAR can assess the location of a foul called by the referee on the field, review all fouls for potential “violent acts” worthy of a straight red card, if a handball has been committed, or if the referee has called a foul on the wrong player in a situation similar to what unfolded on Friday night.

In 2026, replay can award a goal kick if the on-field decision for a corner kick was made incorrectly and it can also now be used to determine if a second yellow card (and subsequent red card) was correctly awarded.

All offside calls — both called and uncalled — are also subject to an automatic review system that is slightly different from the VAR process. The “semi-automatic offside technology” uses cameras all across the stadium to determine if a player was offside. If a goal is scored and there is even the slightest possibility that a player was offside in the buildup to the goal, the goal is reviewed before the ensuing kickoff to make sure it should be allowed.

You’ll also notice that we used the phrase “clear and obvious error” above. That is the standard that all reviewed calls are held to.

However, that can be highly subjective. And a major source of soccer fans. What’s clear and obvious to one replay official may not be clear and obvious to another. The same goes for officials on the field.

A major source of consternation is the interpretation of the handball rule. According to the official rules of soccer, a handball happens when a player either deliberately touches the ball with their hand or arm, touches the ball with their hand or arm when it’s in an “unnatural” position “and that position is not the result of their body moving fairly as part of play or when a ball has gone off a player’s hand or arm either directly for a goal or immediately off another body part for a goal.

Determining what is and isn’t an “unnatural” position is also subjective — and gets even more complicated with slow-motion replay. There will assuredly be multiple instances throughout this World Cup of drawn-out replay reviews over a handball in the penalty box. And a game or two may even be decided by a much-debated penalty kick from a handball awarded after a video review.