KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The United States men’s national team was officially eliminated from the 2024 Copa América on Monday night after a 1-0 loss to Uruguay.
But as the game ended, there was a heated moment between U.S. captain Christian Pulisic and the referee that perfectly captured their frustration with the way the game was going at Arrowhead Stadium.
Pulisic was seen nearly challenging official Kevin Ortega as he tried to encourage him to celebrate with Uruguay on the field. When Pulisic shook hands with a linesman, Ortega refused to do the same.
Kudos to Reddit for this, Fox Soccer edited this video of Pulisic gesturing for the referees to go celebrate with the Uruguayan team, but they cut the beginning because they clearly feed the angry feelings, try to process those feelings and make the story https://t.co/M6w75yLawd photo.twitter.com/a3Nzpe4UEQ
— Douglas Reyes-Ceron (@dreyesceron) July 2, 2024
“Yeah, he didn’t want to shake my hand,” Pulisic said after the game. “But that’s normal. I mean, I guess.”
While there were plenty of calls to criticize on Monday, rightly or wrongly, there were two major instances of questionable refereeing in the match, one of which led to Uruguay’s only goal.
In the second half, Uruguay’s Mathias Olivera was just offside when he scored, which was confirmed by a video review. However, by the time Fox commentators watched the replay, it seemed clear that he was one of two players in an offside position — which would have nullified the goal.
There was a point in the first half where Ortega called a foul but then remarkably allowed play to continue. Ortega called a foul on U.S. defender Chris Richards and clearly drew a yellow card to make his decision, but then suddenly put it away as Uruguay went ahead and nearly scored. Tim Ream managed to scramble back and clear the ball, but the rest of the U.S. team had stopped play when Ortega made his first decision.
Pulisic’s frustration appeared to boil over in the final moments of the match, as he was seen shouting at Ortega and chasing him after he failed to receive a call in injury time.
“Honestly, I mean, I saw things that I’ve never seen before, right in front of my eyes today, that I just can’t believe,” Pulisic said. “That’s not why we lost. We’re not out of this tournament because of the refereeing. But really, I just saw things that — really, I mean … I don’t know what I’m looking at, I don’t know what they’re yelling, he’s not explaining, he’s doing things that I just can’t — I can’t accept it.”
Pulisic wasn’t the only one to criticize the officiating after the game. Antonee Robinson also hit out at the referees, particularly when it came to the yellow card incident in the first half.
“It was exhausting,” Robinson said. “The referee clearly has no idea what he’s doing, doesn’t know how to control the game … This referee was terrible. I’ve never seen a referee let a quick free-kick go when he had a yellow card in his hand. It’s literally embarrassing. And [I] I hope something happens to him.”
As both Pulisic and Robinson noted, the United States’ elimination from the tournament wasn’t just due to refereeing. They had previously lost 2-1 to Panama in the group stage last week, making the match against Uruguay virtually a must-win.
But given the several questionable moments and the handshake incident at the end, it’s no wonder Pulisic and others were angry with the officials Monday night.
