Heartbreaker for Panama; Mexico Advances to Gold Cup Final in Controversial Game

By Francisco Romero

Mexico beat Panama 2-1 in the semifinals of the Gold Cup Wednesday night for the right to advance to the finals and meet Jamaica.  Jamaica beat the U.S. Men’s national team 2-1.

Panama was minutes from eliminating Mexico, but a controversial call by the referees sent Mexico’s Andres Guardado to score on a penalty kick.

The referees called a handball on Roman Torres inside the box.

The controversy started there as everyone at the stadium (Georgia Dome) including Mexican players and coaches agreed that the call was the wrong one.

“The first penalty was not a penalty, I know that,” said Mexico’s head coach Miguel Herrera during a post game press conference, “I feel for the Panamenian team, we already went through that, I have felt that before,” he added.

Guardado scored a second penalty kick in overtime for the win.

Mexico played poorly, it had very few opportunities to score during the whole game and “El Piojo” Herrera is worried about his team’s performance.

“I am very worried that our team is not playing well, we had been playing good so far, but tonight we didn’t, we will face a very good Jamaican team in the finals.”

Torres scored Panama’s only goat at the 57^th minute of play.

After the handball was called the Panamanian team protested, the players wanted to leave the field, but decided to complete the game.

Hernan “El Bolillo” Gomez, Panama’s head coach was obviously heart broken, “This is sad, the game was stolen from us, situations like this make me question my stay in the sport, it makes me want to quit,” He said.

The Panamanian players were asking Mexico for fair play and hoping that Andres Guardado would not score.

“I don’t understand why everyone wants Mexico to show fair play, where was everyone when we deserved fair play in the World Cup?” Asked Herrera after the game.

Panama players took a picture after the game with the following message: “CONCACAF Thieves”

Mexico will face Jamaica for the championship on Sunday.