Mexico coach downplays late winner furor

More than 70,000 football fans flocked to the MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, for the 2015 CONCACAF Gold Cup quarterfinal match between the National Men’s Football Teams of Costa Rica and Mexico. Raging Costa Rica fans – heavily outnumbered by Mexico’s supporters in the crowd of 74,187 at MetLife Stadium – threw bottles toward the field in protest. Then the goal that finally came might not have been so well-deserved. Oribe Peralta went for a header in the dying minutes when he fell to the ground and the referee awarded a penalty kick.

And while Panama advanced, it took a save-or-lose situation in the seventh round of penalty kicks for them to escape.

After allowing four goals in its last match against Trinidad and Tobago, Mexico’s defense looked much improved against Costa Rica. Argentina will visit Belgium in the other semifinal, after the South Americans wrapped up a 4-1 victory over Serbia, and Belgium completed a clean sweep with a 5-0 win over Canada.

Costa Rica struggled to keep up with Mexico, which was denied by Alvarado after the shot-stopper pushed substitute Carlos Esquivel’s volley onto the crossbar and away for a corner in the 64th minute.

“They are human”, Costa Rica coach Paulo Wanchope said of the referees through a translator. “We are out, but we’ll go into the future now”.

Yesterday marked the fourth match in a row in which Panama took the lead only to surrender the equaliser in the second half, having advanced from the group stage on three 1-1 draws.

More than 80 percent of the seats remained empty at kickoff of the first quarterfinal, which matched Trinidad & Tobago and Panama.

Minutes later, Campbell made an awesome run from midfield that culminated in a shot that Ochoa barely got a glove on to deflect wide of the goal.

“We’ve lacked calmness to convert the scoring opportunities we’ve had in matches”, Gomez said. Just a few minutes earlier, Oribe Peralta was shown a yellow card after a shocking challenge. He beat Phillip with a low shot for his 10th career Gold Cup goal. Los Ticos captain, Bryan Ruiz started, but was substituted in the 79th minute for an extra defender in Roy Miller as Costa Rica tried to stop Mexico’s offense and prepare for extra time.