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FROM HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Soccer
Brett Coomer Chronicle
Items are thrown from the stands as Panama's Ricardo Phillips is escorted from the field after being ejected during the second half.
If Thursday night’s CONCACAF Gold Cup doubleheader at Reliant Stadium was about meeting expectations, organizers, fans, players and coaches all did a heck of a job — to a point.
As expected, a colorful and vocal crowd of more than 47,000 — the largest for the tournament thus far — showed up and made itself heard.
As expected, the tiny French-speaking Caribbean island of Guadeloupe reasserted itself as an emerging regional threat with an easy victory over a humble opponent.
And, as expected, Mexico suffered on the field to squeeze out a result in a match marred by violent play, ejections and a benches-clearing brawl that halted play for almost 10 minutes.
Just your typical hotly contested match involving a frustrated Mexican team that appears incapable of handling the pressure it is under.Until, that is, things got unexpectedly ugly, with fans tossing objects onto the field and at least one fight breaking out in the stands.
In what began as a soccer spectacle, the hot ticket that was the Mexico-Panama Group C showdown deteriorated into a classless charade, with three players, including two Panamanians, and Mexico coach Javier Aguirre ejected and the teams settling for a 1-1 tie.
"The way the game ended was a disgrace," Panama coach Gary Stempel said afterward.
The few who showed up for the early match were treated to a decidedly more civil and entertaining affair. Out to prove its 2007 semifinal showing was no fluke, Guadeloupe remained perfect in Group C with a 2-0 victory over Nicaragua.
Stephane Auvray and Ludovic Gotin scored a minute apart in the second half off assists by Aurelien Capoue, and the Gwada Boys booked their ticket to the quarterfinals with a match to go in group play of the biennial tournament that crowns the champion of the North and Central American and Caribbean
“Our objective coming into this tournament was to at least, at the very minimum, reach the semifinal stage,” Gwada Boys coach Roger Salnot said.
With El Tri drawing Panama, Guadeloupe, a French overseas department in the Caribbean playing in its second Gold Cup, took sole command of Group C with six points. Mexico (1-0-1) is second with four points, Panama is third (0-1-1) with one and Nicaragua is last after two losses.
In the highly anticipated nightcap, Miguel Sabah first put Mexico ahead off an assist by Giovanni Dos Santos, collecting the dish in front of the goal and placing a 10-yarder low and to the right of Panama keeper Jaime Penedo to send the overwhelmingly pro-Mexico crowd into a frenzy nine minutes into the match.
But Blas Perez, the imposing Panamanian forward who plies his trade in the Mexican First Division, evened the score in the 28th minute, muscling his way past defenders Jonny Magallon and Jose Antonio Castro to push in a header pass by Felipe Baloy.
It was all downhill from there. Panama’s Armando Gun and Mexico's Luis Miguel Noriega saw red cards in first-half stoppage time after a scrum following hard contact between Gun and Dos Santos in front of the Mexico bench.
But the worst came with 10 minutes to go in the match, when Aguirre appeared to intentionally trip Panamanian midfielder Ricardo Phillips as — Aguirre claims — he tried to stop a ball that had been called out of bounds.
Phillips retaliated, words were exchanged and the melee was on.
The event resulted in referee Joel Aguilar ejecting Aguirre and Phillips as both benches cleared.
After the game, Aguirre was contrite.
“I want to apologize to everyone, because I was not on my best behavior for two or three minutes,” Aguirre said. “I tried to stop a dead ball, and there was contact with the player, because of his inertia and me holding my leg up high to stop the ball.
“I came out of my technical area, and for that I was ejected. It was a bad decision on my part. This is a sincere apology. It was a product of my passion for the game. I had had it with Panama's time-wasting tactics.”
Stempel was buying none of it.
“(Aguirre) tried to hit my player,” said Stempel, who was also highly critical of the officiating.
"Everything started when he hit my player."
Even Sabah criticized his coach's actions.
"As a coach, with his experience, it doesn't make much sense," Sabah said. "But he’s human, and he has our support and we are trying hard to win.”
Fans, too, became part of the pandemonium, tossing drink cups and popcorn bags onto the field in disapproval of the show, resulting in the temporary suspension of the match. A fight broke out in the stands but was quickly tended to by peace officers. The projectiles reached Panama players, who prostested, as well as medical personnel trying to tend to a Panamanian player after play resumed. bernardo.fallas@chron.com
Soccer
Brett Coomer Chronicle
Items are thrown from the stands as Panama's Ricardo Phillips is escorted from the field after being ejected during the second half.
If Thursday night’s CONCACAF Gold Cup doubleheader at Reliant Stadium was about meeting expectations, organizers, fans, players and coaches all did a heck of a job — to a point.
As expected, a colorful and vocal crowd of more than 47,000 — the largest for the tournament thus far — showed up and made itself heard.
As expected, the tiny French-speaking Caribbean island of Guadeloupe reasserted itself as an emerging regional threat with an easy victory over a humble opponent.
And, as expected, Mexico suffered on the field to squeeze out a result in a match marred by violent play, ejections and a benches-clearing brawl that halted play for almost 10 minutes.
Just your typical hotly contested match involving a frustrated Mexican team that appears incapable of handling the pressure it is under.Until, that is, things got unexpectedly ugly, with fans tossing objects onto the field and at least one fight breaking out in the stands.
In what began as a soccer spectacle, the hot ticket that was the Mexico-Panama Group C showdown deteriorated into a classless charade, with three players, including two Panamanians, and Mexico coach Javier Aguirre ejected and the teams settling for a 1-1 tie.
"The way the game ended was a disgrace," Panama coach Gary Stempel said afterward.
The few who showed up for the early match were treated to a decidedly more civil and entertaining affair. Out to prove its 2007 semifinal showing was no fluke, Guadeloupe remained perfect in Group C with a 2-0 victory over Nicaragua.
Stephane Auvray and Ludovic Gotin scored a minute apart in the second half off assists by Aurelien Capoue, and the Gwada Boys booked their ticket to the quarterfinals with a match to go in group play of the biennial tournament that crowns the champion of the North and Central American and Caribbean
“Our objective coming into this tournament was to at least, at the very minimum, reach the semifinal stage,” Gwada Boys coach Roger Salnot said.
With El Tri drawing Panama, Guadeloupe, a French overseas department in the Caribbean playing in its second Gold Cup, took sole command of Group C with six points. Mexico (1-0-1) is second with four points, Panama is third (0-1-1) with one and Nicaragua is last after two losses.
In the highly anticipated nightcap, Miguel Sabah first put Mexico ahead off an assist by Giovanni Dos Santos, collecting the dish in front of the goal and placing a 10-yarder low and to the right of Panama keeper Jaime Penedo to send the overwhelmingly pro-Mexico crowd into a frenzy nine minutes into the match.
But Blas Perez, the imposing Panamanian forward who plies his trade in the Mexican First Division, evened the score in the 28th minute, muscling his way past defenders Jonny Magallon and Jose Antonio Castro to push in a header pass by Felipe Baloy.
It was all downhill from there. Panama’s Armando Gun and Mexico's Luis Miguel Noriega saw red cards in first-half stoppage time after a scrum following hard contact between Gun and Dos Santos in front of the Mexico bench.
But the worst came with 10 minutes to go in the match, when Aguirre appeared to intentionally trip Panamanian midfielder Ricardo Phillips as — Aguirre claims — he tried to stop a ball that had been called out of bounds.
Phillips retaliated, words were exchanged and the melee was on.
The event resulted in referee Joel Aguilar ejecting Aguirre and Phillips as both benches cleared.
After the game, Aguirre was contrite.
“I want to apologize to everyone, because I was not on my best behavior for two or three minutes,” Aguirre said. “I tried to stop a dead ball, and there was contact with the player, because of his inertia and me holding my leg up high to stop the ball.
“I came out of my technical area, and for that I was ejected. It was a bad decision on my part. This is a sincere apology. It was a product of my passion for the game. I had had it with Panama's time-wasting tactics.”
Stempel was buying none of it.
“(Aguirre) tried to hit my player,” said Stempel, who was also highly critical of the officiating.
"Everything started when he hit my player."
Even Sabah criticized his coach's actions.
"As a coach, with his experience, it doesn't make much sense," Sabah said. "But he’s human, and he has our support and we are trying hard to win.”
Fans, too, became part of the pandemonium, tossing drink cups and popcorn bags onto the field in disapproval of the show, resulting in the temporary suspension of the match. A fight broke out in the stands but was quickly tended to by peace officers. The projectiles reached Panama players, who prostested, as well as medical personnel trying to tend to a Panamanian player after play resumed. bernardo.fallas@chron.com
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