The World Cup is supposed to bring the best in soccer from the around the world together in the ultimate championship. It's held only every four years, and to the fans it can be very exciting. Some of that excitement has really splashed onto the players. They are playing harder, dirtier and floppier than before.

 

In the second round match that pitted Portugal against the Netherlands, there was a record setting four red cards in one match. Let me repeat that. The new record for red cards in world cup matches games is four red cards. Amazing.

A red card occurs when a player receives either two yellow cards or commits a foul so outrageous they are sent off. They should be rare occurrences, but in this game it was outrageous. Sometimes a referee will pull out a red card too quickly, but the referee in this match couldn't pull them quick enough.

The referee was Valentin Ivanov and he was almost powerless to stop the grubby players from becoming too physical. He doled out a total of 16 yellow cards and 4 red cards. An amazing amount.