USA coach Bob Bradley has explained hooking Ricardo Clark for their World Cup defeat to Ghana.
Clark was substituted just on the half-hour mark for Rangers midfielder Maurice Edu in the round of 16 defeat.
Bradley said: "Whenever you take a player out in the first half, as a coach, it's important to know that's a tough spot for a player.
"We all know that Ricardo was part of a play early in the game where he lost the ball. I know Ricardo; I knew how badly he felt, but the decision was really based upon the fact that he had a yellow card.
"When you play that role deep in the midfield and you are counted on in certain situations to cover and put out fires, we were very worried that the yellow card was going to get in the way of his ability to do the job."
Bradley embraced Clark as he left the pitch and he explained yesterday: "I just wanted him to know that the decision was based on that, and as a team, we knew that we were going to get back into the game and I wanted him to know that we were all right there behind him."