A red card is a necessary evil in football, but it can ruin a match. Player goes off; it’s his fault he should, and then the matchups get thrown out the window. The game slows, and every positive action from the team down to ten men is seen as a triumph.

I had this same negative feeling after Manuel Neuer was sent off for Bayern Munich in their DFB Pokal Round of 16 match against Bayer Leverkusen on Tuesday. They lost 1-0 and are out. This was the first red card in Neuer’s illustrious career for club and country. 867 appearances, and today was the day. At least we got to say we witnessed history. What we did not witness was an exciting match.

Every interesting battle between different sets of players gets shifted. Attacking players retreat to the back ranks. The center-forward is left on an island, deserted in a sea of fearless midfielders and defenders. Fearless because they know they won’t need to worry about making a mistake, they have the numbers to quickly surround the center-forward.

You would get the same feeling if you were watching a high-level chess match, and the number one ranked grandmaster blundered their queen. The game then feels like an inevitability.

I went into the game looking forward to learning something about either team, but all I learned was how they attack or defend when Bayern Munich is down to ten men. And how often will we see either team play a game of this caliber down to ten men or up a man? Maybe once or twice a season, a handful of times at most.

At this level, it would take a massive mistake. And all the while we have to wait 50 minutes for Bayer Leverkusen to score. And then that moment of triumph almost happens for Bayern Munich in the final minutes when Michael Olise curls in one of his trademark shots as he steps confidently into the upper right-hand corner of the box.

This is not a petition to get rid of red cards because Neuer deserved to be sent off, but I would have preferred it was a yellow instead, for my sake.