HOUSTON — U.S. men’s national team coach Mauricio Pochettino slammed the officiating in the Americans’ 2-1 loss to Mexico in Sunday’s Gold Cup final, saying his side should have been awarded a penalty kick in the second half.
Pochettino felt that Mexico defender Jorge Sánchez handled the ball inside his penalty area in the 67th minute, and replays clearly showed Sánchez put his hand on top of the ball.
“I want to tell the truth,” Pochettino said during his post-match press conference. “And the truth was that if that happened in the other box, for sure it’s a penalty. The player [had] a knee on the floor. He pushed the hand over the ball. It’s not that the hand was on the floor and the ball touched [Sánchez].”
The USMNT opened the scoring in the fourth minute, when defender Chris Richards headed Sebastian Berhalter’s free-kick past Mexican keeper Luis Malagon, off the underside of the crossbar and across the goal line. El Tri equalized before the half was over via its star striker Raul Jimenez.
Mexico captain Edson Alvarez scored the winner 10 minutes after the play involving Sánchez.
According to the International Football Association Board’s Laws of the Game, a penalty is not to be awarded when a defending player falls “and the ball hits their supporting arm, which is between their body and the ground.” Neither of those exceptions were present in this case, though: The ball did not hit Sanchez — he hit it with his hand, which didn’t touch the ground until after he palmed the ball.
U.S. midfielder Tyler Adams thought it was blown call, too.
“To me it looked like a handball,” Adams said. “I mean, when you land on the ball and move the ball towards you, it’s going to be a handball normally.”
Had the penalty been given, “maybe it’s 2-1 for us, and maybe we now are celebrating with the trophy,” Pochettino continued.
The former Chelsea, PSG and Tottenham Hotspur manager then suggested that the huge pro-Mexican crowd at sold-out NRG Stadium could have factored into the no-call by referee Mario Escobar.
“For me, it was embarrassing to see that situation…I understand that maybe with 70,000 people, giving this penalty is not easy.”
Still, it’s hard to say that El Tri didn’t deserve to win the match against a U.S. squad that was missing as many as eight regular starters, including headliner Christian Pulisic. Mexico out-shot the hosts 16-6 and controlled 60-percent of possession.
“If we lose, we lose. No problem,” Pochettino said. “I am the first to say we need to improve. I am not crying. I’m not saying nothing against Mexico, nothing. I respect Mexico, full respect. And I congratulate them.”
Doug McIntyre is a soccer reporter for FOX Sports who has covered United States men’s and women’s national teams at FIFA World Cups on five continents. Follow him @ByDougMcIntyre.
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