USA players slam Sergiño Dest for getting two yellow cards in 30 seconds in 2-1 loss | OneFootball

Highlights

Barcelona loanee Sergino Dest has been bashed by his teammates for his petulant display against Trinidad and Tobago in the USA’s second leg of the CONCACAF Nations League quarter-final. After picking up two yellow cards in the space of 30 seconds, he was forced to face the fury of his compatriots, led by captain and Fulham star Tim Ream.

Now on loan at PSV Eindhoven after a lacklustre season at AC Milan where he went viral for giving away a bizarre free-kick, the right-back turned his attention to helping his side reach the semi-finals of the competition and started out on the right foot after assisting Antonee Robinson, who duly headed Dest’s pinpoint cross in, in the 25th minute. His glory all came crashing down a mere 15 minutes later, however, as he received his marching orders from referee Walter Lopez.

Bemused by a decision, Dest acted angrily towards the man in the middle, much to the dismay of his international teammates. Following his dismissal, Trinidad and Tobago went on to win 2-1 as they took advantage of their extra man on the field. Thanks to the aggregate score, however, Gregg Berhalter’s outfit will be the team to progress, though Dest will be unavailable for selection thanks to his quarter-final exploits.

Sergino Dest’s 30 seconds of madness

Getting booked twice in 30 seconds takes some doing, but Dest managed to do so five minutes shy of the half-time whistle. Convinced that the ball had not crossed the line, the full-back picked up the ball and kicked it into the stands of the Hasely Crawford Stadium in frustration as Lopez issued him his first caution of the affair.

But Dest was not done there. Both Giovanni Reyna and Yunus Musah attempted to calm their teammate down to try and alleviate the ensuing chaos. It was to no avail, however, as the defender – still evidently furious with the official’s decision - continued to run his mouth and Lopez revealed his second yellow card in a matter of seconds.

Upon his sending off, Dest blew a kiss in the direction of Lopez and that’s when his teammates began to turn on him. Ream came over to confront the player angrily, while former Arsenal goalkeeper Matt Turner also got in on the act and visibly shared his frustrations with Dest as he made his way round the back of the net. The shot-stopper even pushed him off the field so that the game could resume.

Regretting his decision, he has since come out on Instagram and apologised for his actions, claiming his behaviour was ‘unacceptable, selfish and immature’. He wrote:

USA captain Tim Ream calls out Dest

Despite his on-field attempts to calm the situation, captain Ream, usually a cool and collected character, had some brutal words about the full-back’s demeanour, suggesting that 'there's no explanation' and that Dest showed a 'complete lack of respect' to his teammates, the referee and football as a whole. He also said that going down to ten men restricted Berhalter's ability to influence the game with changes.

“There’s no explanation. The best guess that we have is that he [Sergino Dest] felt there was a foul down in the attacking half and then felt that the ball didn’t go out of play from the ball I played over to him, but I don’t think either one of those warrant the reaction that he gave.

“There are not too many things that I can say here publicly that we said privately. Overall, it's a complete lack of respect for the guys that are playing, for the guys that are on the bench. The feeling is that it’s a lack of respect for the game itself, for the referees. We talk about it every time we come down here, every time we’re in a CONCACAF game that anything can happen so not to give an excuse for anything like that to happen.

"For me, it's just a feeling of disrespect to be completely honest with you and that’s something that he needs to understand because it completely changes the game and changes any type of potential plan of guys coming in, subs off the bench.”