lol this was the most surreal thing I ever watched. CONCACAF at its peak.
View: https://youtu.be/VHf1JIt9vdI
Wow that's brutal. I don't recall watching that tournament so that's the first I've seen of it.
The red at 24' is absurd, barely a yellow, could easily just be a common foul. I have absolutely no idea what Mark Geiger was thinking there. What happened at 88' is just
barely fair, might not be called today with the benefit of VAR and the "bracing for a fall" rule. At 103', leaving aside that it hits Vela in the arm before it falls, the defender Cummings got to it first and Orozco just clattered into him and fell down, that's maybe called 2 times out of 10. Cummings probably didn't need to make that challenge though, it was already heading to a very oblique angle.
Anyway, that is a rough,
rough match. I dunno about "fixed", I don't see why Mark Geiger would participate in any sort of scheme or go along with any sort of marketing interests, he had a big rep to uphold. Had already officiated the 2014 world cup, would go on to officiate the 2018 world cup (as hard as it is to believe). But those are 3 tough-to-ridiculous calls all going Mexico's way, no doubt there.
I hope Wednesday's match is a lot cleaner. We shouldn't need any shenanigans to advance, we're better than Panama's team by just about
any measure. But it's too bad they got rid of the 3rd place match, trekfan might've gotten a chance for revenge vs Mexico
edit: Scuffed Discord sicko
DopeIsland has an xG-and-Elo-based model that gives Mexico 74% to advance, and USA 79% to advance. That overrates USA (because the Elo was earned by the A-team), but also underrates Jamaica imo (their GC squad is much better than history would suggest).