Terrible Night For Mexico In Their Gold Cup Opener
Mexico kicked off their participation in the CONCACAF Gold Cup today against Trinidad & Tobago. They played in front of a crowd of 41 thousand in Dallas, Texas. Unfortunately for Mexico and fans alike, the night was about as terrible as it could have possibly been.
El Tri jumped on the field with what looked like a decent squad. They had their best players up front and in the midfield but things just did not go their way. It was a combination of issues, but it seemed to all start in the 11th minute of play when Chucky Lozano was dramatically fouled inside the area and was subsequently knocked unconscious. In a typical Lozano run into the box, the Mexican player was fouled from behind and fell directly in the path of a sliding T&T goalie. The crash between Lozano’s head and the goalie’s knees left he Mexican player unconscious and bleeding on the field for various minutes. He would eventually be carted off the field and directly to the hospital. Surprisingly however, after all this the referee decided to not call a foul/ penalty in Mexico’s favor. He did, interestingly enough, give Mexico possession of the ball right after the foul. The referee’s strange calls, or lack of calls, would also plague the game. Trinidad & Tobago continued their defensive strategy and their strategy of playing hard ball and eventually before the second half also injured Carlos Salcedo. Salcedo however would not leave the game until just six minutes into the second half. For those of you that remember past El Tri tragedies, you might recall the famous Cuauhtémoc Blanco fracture that he received at the hands of, none other than, Trinidad & Tobago. In more recent memory as well, Dallas has been the site of unfortunate El Tri injuries, a major one having occurred when Luis Montes was injured in 2014. That fracture caused him to miss the 2014 World Cup.
The game continued with its rough play, with Mexico having total control of the ball. Yet they could not manage to score. Just as they seemed to be getting into rhythm however, misfortune struck once more for the Mexico team. The infamous “grito” could be heard from the stands and forced the referee to pause the game. This action had to be done twice as these so-called “fans” would not cease their abhorrent conduct. Of course, the referee went through the now embarrassingly standard procedure. First the stadium warned the fans after the first incident. When it occurred again, the referee paused the game. The most impactful for the Mexico team however was the third instance. It was nearing the end of the game, and Mexico was in desperate rhythm trying to score only to have to be stopped by the fans. After this, they struggled to get back in motion and the game ended in a draw. It should be mentioned that Mexico did have a disallowed goal before this, as the referee deemed it to be offsides.
The draw felt like a horrible loss for Mexico and fans. It left them with an injured Chucky, a display of mediocre soccer for all to view, and with possible further sanctions from FIFA and CONCACAF due to the fan’s homophobic chants. Mexico’s next game will be against Guatemala on Wednesday, July 14th.
