PANAMA HAVE LASHED OUT at CONCACAF following their controversial exit from the 2015 Gold Cup at the hands of Mexico.
Having been reduced to 10 players in the first half, Panama found themselves leading their semi-final 1-0 in the 89th minute only for American referee Mark Geiger to point to the spot for a supposed handball foul committed by captain and goal-scorer Roman Torres.
Mexico captain Andres Guardado converted the penalty – and another in extra time – as they triumphed 2-1 in Atlanta and eliminated Panama from the tournament, prompting Hernan Dario Gomez’s Panamanians to pose with a banner labelling CONCACAF “corrupt thieves” and post the photo on social media.
Panama defender Adolfo Machado said CONCACAF got exactly “what they wanted” and can now celebrate.
“Now play the final and… CONCACAF fill their pockets,” he said following the match.
Replays suggested Torres’ side made contact with the ball as he fell in the box, and any contact with his arm was incidental.
But despite Panama’s lengthy protestations – it took over 10 minutes for Gomez’s men to return to their positions – Geiger did not budge, with Guardado slotting his spot-kick even though he had his own concerns about the decision.
“I didn’t celebrate, because that penalty call left me with a bad taste,” Guardado told Fox Sports 2.
When asked after the match whether he considered deliberately missing the penalty, Guardado – according to CBS Sports – said: “I thought about it, but one has to be professional.
“We’ve been on the other side.”
Panama coach Gomez praised Mexico but called the loss “a robbery.”
Mexico will face Jamaica in the Gold Cup final on Sunday, while Panama are set to play United States in the third-place play-off on Saturday.
A very sick season os Soccer/ Football continues…
After all that it doesn’t even shoe the pen.
No surprise there, that competition makes most of its income from bribes. That’s the reason there are doubts over next year’s Copa America in the USA as most of the money already spent on it has been in bribes.
Feel bad for Panama but it’s the same deal with UEFA seeding play-offs at the last minute to those countries with a bigger TV audience make the big tournaments. Ireland know all about how bad that feels.
Shocking scenes it’s far more aggressive in Central American football I think.Watched Club America v San Jose last week and the Club American lads reacted to everything but horribly aggressively,they always seem to feel the need to put their hands on the opposition for any foul commited ,in fact after one tackle a San Jose player went down injured and the Club A captain raced from one side of the pitch to push him while he was down and was red carded.After the game a fan invaded the pitch and the San Jose mascot which was no more than 5’5 was escorting the man off behind police and a player shoved the mascot full force from behind despite the fan doing nothing to him/the game being over and his team had just won.Completely unnecessary and could see this last night too.More protection is needed for players/refs and fans from these sort of teams.On the other hand Jamaica are in the final which is pretty sweet!managed by the lad who managed Cameroon in the 2002 WC against us.
Ay caramba!
Anyone else think this was a stonewall penalty?
ya he pretty much dived on the ball
It’s like an anti-Thierry Henry incident.
More than enough time with all that going on to check a replay