If the Mexicans lose to Panama it will be another disappointing Gold Cup and it might cost Herrera his job.
That victor earns a berth in next Sunday s final at Philadelphia against the victor of Wednesday s other semi-final between Jamaica and holders United States. Panama players confronted the ref, fans (we won’t point fingers here) threw trash on the field, and the team nearly walked off the field in protest.
Peralta was leaping to try to head in a cross in front of the goal and Miller appeared to make little contact with him. But assistant referee Eric Boria of the United States called it a foul.
Costa Rica’s coach Paulo Wanchope, though, sportingly refused to condemn Guatemalan referee Walter Lopez for the decision.
“We certainly have the most respect for Jamaica”, Bradley said. “They played a good game”. “They have about 14 players that went down to Chile as their core”.
John Degenkolb of the Giant-Alpecin team was second, Katusha’s Alexander Kristoff third and Peter Sagan of Tinkoff-Saxo fourth on the 114-mile stage from Mende to Valence. We don’t want to go down.
El Tri must finish their chances. Alvarado had five saves.
Mexico’s Diario Récord said: “The national team was willed into a 1-0 victory in the quartefinals with a horrible penalty given in favor of Miguel Herrera’s side”.
Peltier’s nerve then cracked, Penedo diving to his left to keep out the spot-kick and send Panama through to the last four, where they will face Mexico or Costa Rica. It beat Trinidad and Tobago 6-5 on penalty kicks to reach the semifinals. Kenwyne Jones is the only surviving member from that squad while Panama’s Luis Tejada, who netted a double in that match, is also in the current Panama team.
With its highest victory margin in the championship of soccer’s North and Central American and Caribbean region, the USA improved to 8-1 in Gold Cup quarterfinals, the only blemish a penalty-kicks loss to Colombia in 2000.
When asked after the match whether he considered deliberately missing the penalty, Guardado – as reported by CBS Sports – said: “I thought about it, but one has to be professional”.
In their second match, they faced Honduras and it was the same story for Panama as they had the lead early in the match and held on to it for 60 minutes before surrendering another late goal to their rivals. He joined Landon Donovan, Brian McBride and Chris Wondolowski as the only Americans to score three goals or more in a Gold Cup match.
The physical play continued in the second half as a frustrated Panama tried to pull ahead only to see Geiger whistle another penalty as Torres brought down Carlos Vela at the end of the first half of extra time.
Panama’s Blas Perez (7) reacts after missing a shot on the goal…
“We have not been as true as we should have been (with our aim), we’re well aware we must have better finishing to be calmer and be able to enjoy the match”, Herrera said. However, FOXSportsGo requires you to sign in with a valid cable subscription in order to access the Gold Cup semifinal live stream.
But once again, Panama couldn’t protect the lead.
