The final blow came when DaMarcus Beasley became the third straight American to fail to convert his penalty, as the United States fell to Panama 1-1 (3-2) in the Gold Cup’s third-place game on Saturday.
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The defeat saw Panama miss out on their second successive Gold Cup final.
Goalkeeper Jaime Penedo (LA Galaxy) and veteran striker Luis Tejada were both suspended by CONCANCAF for two matches.
How else but ridiculous and embarrassing would you describe a tournament in which one team, Mexico, made it to the final scoring all three of its goals in the knockout stage on penalty kicks – two of them in overtime?
“But like we have done for the tournament, we dug in together, everything’s been done as a team and that’s what has got us to the final”. But that won’t erase the controversy that continues to surround CONCACAF, which Sen. “Thankfully, we’re able to correct those errors while winning”. Webb and predecessor Jack Warner were named in a U.S. federal indictment charging soccer officials with racketeering, bribery and money laundering.
After the game Panama defender Adolfo Machado stated that that Concacaf got exactly “what they wanted”. Instead, the USMNT only made it worse.
Herrera’s men claimed a controversial 2-1 win over 10-man Panama after extra time in their semi-final in Atlanta. CONCACAF deciding to add the 3rd-place game to the 2015 Gold Cup isn’t a response to anybody demanding clarity on who finishes 3rd or 4th.
But that didn’t little to ease the doubts that something still isn’t right with CONCACAF. It’s as close to a guaranteed source of revenue as soccer provides in this part of the world. “There are maybe 1,000 very, very good players in Mexico“, he said, adding that the match-up is the equivalent of Germany against Luxembourg.
Penedo was punished for pushing an assistant referee during the semifinal against Mexico. They probably expected the U.S.in the final so they weren’t making the third place match a focus and put it on their network with smaller distribution, which could be problematic for some viewers.
CONCACAF also needs to take a firmer stand against unruly fans, who the confederation has tolerated for far too long.
But they enjoyed the better of the 120 minutes against a largely uninspired American side and had it not been for some incredibly wasteful finishing, would have won with plenty to spare.
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Getting a handle on the questionable officiating will be more challenging. The Mexicans had defeated Costa Rica in equally controversial fashion in the quarterfinals when Guardado scored a contentious 124th minute penalty to secure a 1-0 victory. The third place match will likely not prove anything one way or another, but there could be a shifting dynamic for the USMNT following its match against Panama this weekend. “We have now eight matches, everybody on this team knows what they have to do”, said Schäfer as he recounted that most of the Jamaican squad also played at the Copa AmÈrica last month in Chile.
