On the final night of Copa America Group C play, the U.S. men’s national team had to either match or better third-place Panama’s result against last-place Bolivia. The challenge was that the U.S. would have to do it against unbeaten group leaders Uruguay.
The U.S. matched Uruguay in a frenetic and physical first half made all the more chaotic by odd decisions from an inexperienced referee and a strange camera angle for the TV broadcast. But in the second half, Uruguay broke through, scoring a goal in the 66th minute that the U.S. could not answer.
Panam beat Bolivia 2-1 and the U.S. lost 1-0 to Uruguay, ending their Copa America after one win and two losses in the group stage.
Paul Tenorio, Greg O’Keeffe and Jeff Rueter share their takeaways from the match…
How did officiating impact the game?
Referee Kevin Ortega Pimentel looked out of his depth for much of what was a very high-paced affair.
Pimentel swallowed his whistle and signaled to play on early in the game when several fouls appeared to have occurred. In the 17th minute, U.S. midfielder Tyler Adams was yellow-carded for a foul that was committed on him. Then, when giving Chris Richards a yellow card in the 32nd minute, Uruguay looked to play a quick free kick. The only problem: Pimentel was still in the act of showing the yellow card to Richards. Card in hand, he still allowed play to continue — play should have been whistled dead — and Uruguay nearly had a great goal-scoring chance if not for a desperate clearance from Tim Ream.
Ten minutes later, Pimentel struck again when the U.S. broke out on a counter-attack despite an Uruguay handball near the top of the U.S. box. With Christian Pulisic turning into space and dribbling at full speed, Pimentel’s late whistle brought the ball back to the top of the box as U.S. players on the field and on the bench protested the delayed call that failed to give advantage.
The 32-year-old Peruvian official had overseen just seven international matches before Monday’s game, and this was his first game in the middle at Copa America. He was the fourth official for the USMNT’s 2-1 defeat by Panama and Venezuela’s 2-1 win over Ecuador earlier in the tournament. Ortega was the youngest official at the 2022 World Cup. Then aged only 30, he was the fourth official for five matches in Qatar – including the United States’ 1-0 win against Iran.
Then, of course, there was Uruguay’s goal. Some angles seem to show that it was offside. A later angle showed that Chris Richards seemingly kept Mathias Olivera onside as Darwin Nuñez made the initial header that forced Matt Turner into a shot. Turner’s save bounced right in front of an unmarked Olivera, resulting in the Los Angeles FC attacker’s second international goal.
Paul Tenorio
Referee Kevin Ortega shows a yellow card to Tyler Adams. (Photo: Shaun Clark/Getty Images)
Joy to agony in five minutes
From hope to dismay in the space of five frantic minutes. Soccer can be cruel.
First a wave of excitement crashed through the U.S. fans in Arrowhead Stadium as it emerged that Bolivia had equalized with Panama.
At 1-1 in Orlando and the contest in Kansas City still deadlocked, Berhalter’s men were going through to the next stage.
The manager appeared to signal that news to his captain Christian Pulisic, in order to let his players know their efforts were leading the right way.
VAR had taken its time to confirm it, but Bruno Miranda’s Bolivia goal stood. A draw with Uruguay looked like being enough to advance.
But like everything else in this frenetic see-saw contest, it was destined to change, and change fast. Five minutes later and VAR again played its controversial part in breaking American hearts. Mathias Olivera bundled the ball over the line despite a strong suggestion that he was off-side.
Another agonizing wait – this time, to the dismay of everyone checking the lines on X and TV, the goal was given.
It was a dramatic sequence of events that could have broken spirits, but the U.S., to their credit, kept going. Attacking substitutions flowed. It was all or nothing.
And yet the feeling remained, after a contest sullied by awful officiating, the unjust narrative had been written. Factors beyond their control had conspired to dump the USMNT out of this home-soil competition.
Greg O’Keeffe
Mathias Olivera (No. 16) and his Uruguay teammates celebrate the goal. (Photo: Michael Reaves/Getty Images)
What does this mean for U.S. coach Gregg Berhalter?
Monday’s loss means the U.S. will limp out of the Copa América with just one win, over lowly Bolivia, and a lot of questions to answer. Chief among them is whether Gregg Berhalter will continue as coach of the national team.
If this tournament was about showing progress since the 2022 World Cup, it is difficult to say that the U.S. has taken steps forward. Even taking into account Tim Weah’s early red card in the Panama game, the U.S. was unable to see out a result and get a much-needed point against a CONCACAF foe to take some pressure off of the group finale.
Then, the U.S. not only didn’t get the needed win against Uruguay, but they also failed to get a result. While there were bright moments in the game, the U.S. couldn’t generate enough good goal-scoring chances.
Ultimately, bringing Berhalter back was a bet that the culture and continuity would help this group grow. If U.S. Soccer feels that growth isn’t happening, a change could be coming.
Paul Tenorio
What was the deal with the camera angle?
Even as camera qualities have improved and innovations to how matches are shown progress, there has generally been a collective ideal height to show a soccer match. It’s something of a two-thirds angle on a stadium’s second deck — high enough to catch something of a side profile as players run, but not so far away that numbers, faces or meticulously curated hairdos are lost to the viewer at home.
Broadcast viewers at the start of this game were given a disorienting birds-eye view that was more like a nine-tenths angle by comparison, comically similar to an aerial shot taken by a blimp. Per Fox, this is the angle that was given as the global feed, as determined by CONMEBOL. This wouldn’t likely have been most people’s pick — it certainly wasn’t the vantage point when Inter Miami played Sporting Kansas City at the same venue this spring.
“This is not a stadium for ants. This is a very high camera for the CONMEBOL world feed.” 🤣🎥🐜@StuHolden shares what everyone’s thinking 😅 pic.twitter.com/V7ps4Ag8Of
— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) July 2, 2024
Curiously, this was the exact same camera placement that the NFL uses for its “All 22” camera to track every player on the field’s every motion. Similarly, it was a nice novelty for any tactical nerds tuning in — and should save each team’s video analyst from hunting for supplemental shots.
Unfortunately for those intrepid analysts, CONMEBOL seemed to get the memo around the 39th minute, as it switched to that more tried-and-true two-thirds angle for the final minutes of the first half. Only time will tell if any young viewers of this game will go on to seek out tactical views on the back of this initial decision.
Jeff Rueter
What’s next for each team?
Uruguay vs. Runner-up of Group D (Brazil, Colombia or Costa Rica) — Saturday, July 6 at 9:00 p.m. ET (Allegiant Stadium, Las Vegas, NV)
Winner of Group D (Colombia or Brazil) vs. TK — Saturday, July 6 at 6:00 p.m. ET (State Farm Stadium, Glendale, AZ)
USMNT is eliminated from the tournament.
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(Top photo: Michael Reaves/Getty Images)
