USMNT defender Sergino Dest receives red card vs. Trinidad for kicking ball, arguing with referees

Sergiño Dest was red carded in the 39th minute after picking up back-to-back yellow cards inside of a minute against Trinidad and Tobago in the second leg of the CONCACAF Nations League quarterfinal on Monday.

Dest was yellow carded for picking up the ball and kicking it away after the ball was called out of bounds by the linesman. Dest then turned and started talking to the center referee, covering his mouth as he did so. Multiple teammates, including Gio Reyna and Tim Ream, tried to pull Dest away, but he continued talking to the referee and eventually blew a kiss. At that point he was shown a second yellow card and the red and was ejected.

Both Ream and goalkeeper Matt Turner were seen to be yelling at Dest as he walked off the field and eventually into the locker room. U.S. coach Gregg Berhalter immediately subbed right back Joe Scally into the game for Reyna, but four minutes after Dest was sent off, Trinidad equalized the game on a goal from Reon Moore.

The U.S. held a three-goal lead entering the away leg and after Antonee Robinson’s opening goal added to the advantage with an away goal, which means Trinidad would need to score five unanswered goals in order to knock the U.S. out of the Nations League.

The teams went into halftime tied, 1-1.

“It’s crazy, it’s unacceptable,” former USMNT star DaMarcus Beasley said on the TNT broadcast at halftime. “This is unacceptable. What he did just now to put his team, put the U.S. team under that kind of pressure going into the second half, going into a real game that matters. And now he misses the semifinal. I would love to know what made him that upset for him to kick a ball out of the stadium and then start yelling at his teammates as you’re going off the field.”

Beasley was asked what Dest’s teammates would say to him at halftime.

“I’m just going to my O.G.s. If this was Gregg Berhalter when he was a player and he was going to meet Sergiño Dest in the locker room, all hell would break loose,” Beasley said. “Same thing with Clint Dempsey. Same thing with Carlos Bocanegra. The captains of the national team. They are not going to let this slide.”

“I understand kicking the ball out of the stadium, you’re upset, but then you keep going and then you keep going, you blow kisses at the referee,” Beasley said. “For what? Because you didn’t get (a foul called on you). That’s baby behavior. I don’t understand that and I’m still upset about that.”

 (Photo: Carmen Mandato/USSF/Getty Images for USSF)