Here are seven things that everyone can agree about on Wednesday night’s Gold Cup semi-finals between Mexico and Panama:
1.) Mexico played Panama.
2.) The match was played in Atlanta, Georgia.
3.) The match was at the Georgia Dome.
4.) The match started with 22 players on the pitch.
5.) There were people with green shirts on the pitch who were being compensated to officiate the match. Whether or not they were making accurate calls or paying attention is up for debate, but there is no question that there were green shirted referees on the pitch.
6.) People watched the game at the Georgia Dome, on television, on the internet (both via legal and illegal means,) radio and were following on social media. Smoke signals and carrier pigeons may have been used to relay scores but that is unconfirmed at this point.
7.) As of this moment, Mexico is advancing to the Gold Cup Final.
Beyond that, everything else is subject to interpretation. The reason for this is that because of a very controversial call by referee Mark Geiger, Mexico is going on to the Gold Cup final and Panama has been eliminated.
Mexico advanced off of two penalty kick goals from Andres Guardado, his fourth and fifth goals of the tournament. The first penalty was by far the more controversial of the two due to the nature of the infraction. In the 88th minute Panama defender Roman Torres fell down in the box after challenging Mexican midfielder Carlos Esquivel in his team’s penalty box. As he fell to the ground he appeared to unintentionally touch the ball with his arm. Geiger ruled that Torres handled the ball intentionally and thus awarded Guardado and Mexico a penalty.
You can see the situation in full below and judge for yourself. What is indisputable is that the call stoke passions on both sides. Benches cleared, fights broke out, and supporters in the stands began to pelt the players with objects. The match itself was also quite brutal with 12 cards and 41 fouls being issued during the game.
Guardado’s second penalty kick goal came under far less controversial circumstances. After tying Panama 1-1, Mexico forced the game into overtime. In the 110th minute, Mexican forward Javier Orozco was fouled from behind by Panamanian defender Harold Cummings. Cummings clipped Orozco from behind prior to the Santos Laguna man making contact with the ball inside of the box. On the ensuing kick, Guardado hit a low quick strike past Panamanain goalkeeper Jaime Penedo for the game-winning goal.
Despite losing forward Luis Tejada in the 25th minute because of a red card, Panama looked like Mexico’s equal during large portions of the match. Midfielder Valentin Pimentel put a scare into the very partisan Georgia Dome crowd with his header just before half-time. Mexican goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa though was able to push his chance over the bar and keep the score level at 0-0.
In the 57th minute Panama took the lead thanks to a Torres header off of a corner kick taken by. The goal was Torres’ ninth as part of Los Canaleros.
But despite taking the advantage late and keeping Mexico scoreless thanks to stout and sometimes illegal defending, Panama could not finish off El Tri. Barring a reversal by CONCACAF on the result of Wednesday night’s match, Panama will play the United States in the Gold Cup Third Place match on Saturday at PPL Park in Chester, Pa. The match will be at 430pm EST and be shown on FS1, Univision, and TSN.
Despite being called many things this past week, Mexican supporters will not care as long as they are called Gold Cup Champions on Sunday night when they play Jamaica at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia. The final will be played at 730pm EST on FS1, Univision, and TSN. Mexico will be playing in their seventh Gold Cup final.
