Once again, an angry outburst has cost a team at a World Cup.

Nigeria midfielder Sani Kaita's moment of madness falls far short of Zinedine Zidane's infamous head-butt in the 2006 final, but it still dealt a blow to his team's hopes in South Africa.

In the first half of Nigeria's Group B match Thursday against Greece, Kaita bumped into Vassilis Torosidis on the sideline as the ball rolled out of play. Kaita then squared up to the midfielder and gave him a studs-first kick in the thigh for no apparent reason.

Colombian referee Oscar Ruiz saw it all and showed Kaita a straight red card.

The sending off proved to be the turning point of the match at Free State Stadium. Trailing 1-0 at the time, the Greeks rallied to win 2-1 and stay in contention of advancing to the second round.

"The red card gave us heart to take the game," Greece forward Georgios Samaras said.

Nigeria was firmly in control after midfielder Kalu Uche's curling free kick from 35 metres put his team 1-0 up in the 16th minute.

Kaita's inexplicable foul came 17 minutes later, leaving his teammates stunned.

"I didn't expect Kaita ... to go like that," forward Chinedu Obasi said. "It wasn't really necessary. I wouldn't criticise him as well because he's my teammate, so all I can do is support him. But after that situation it was really difficult for us to get back."

While Kaita's dismissal lacks the drama of Zidane butting Marco Materazzi four years ago in Germany or Wayne Rooney stomping on Portugal defender Ricardo Carvalho in the 2006 quarterfinals, it may have derailed Nigeria's campaign.

The team played well in its opening 1-0 loss to Argentina - one of the tournament favourites - and looked well on its way to taking three points from Greece.

Now, Nigeria must beat South Korea in its final group match Tuesday and needs Argentina to defeat Greece to have any shot at reaching the knockout round.

"The positive thing is that we still have a chance of qualifying, although we need a helping hand from Argentina," Nigeria coach Lars Lagerback said. "We need a fresh start, and we'll do that by beating (South Korea)."

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