American captain Christian Pulisic made it plain that he did not think officiating contributed to his team’s Copa América group-stage exit, but he was perplexed by the choices made in Monday’s 1-0 loss to Uruguay at Arrowhead Stadium, which effectively ended the Americans’ chances.
“Honestly, I mean I saw things that I’ve never seen before right in front of my eyes today that I just I truly I can’t believe,” Pulisic told the media. “Officiating is not the reason we lost; we are not eliminated from this competition.
“But really, I’ve just seen things that I just really — I mean I think everyone can just give admit I don’t know what I’m looking at. I don’t know what they’re calling. I don’t know what he’s — he gives no explanation.
He’s doing things that I just can’t accept.” After the final whistle, Pulisic looked to first gesture something to referee Kevin Ortega from a distance. This was captured on camera, and Ortega declined to shake Pulisic’s hand.
“He wouldn’t shake my hand. It’s normal — I mean, I guess.” In the 66th minute, Mathías Olivera, a defender for Uruguay, scored the game’s lone goal. When the ball was flicked on, Olivera looked to be offside, but a thorough VAR review verified the goal without requiring Ortega to watch the replay. Replays revealed a negligible amount of overlap between Chris Richards’ foot, the USMNT defender who supposedly kept the Uruguayan onside, and Olivera’s body.
Throughout Monday’s match, there were a number of contentious no calls, but the most bizarre incident outside of the goal occurred in the 32nd minute when Ortega gave Richards a yellow card. Uruguay moved fast to play the free kick, and Ortega lifted his other arm in a “play on” motion before completely extending his arm to raise the yellow card. Despite being extremely close to the goal, Nahitan Nández missed his attempt.
When a yellow card is given, the game is usually stopped so that the referee may document the booking. After the match, Ortega got into a fight with a few American players. Following the game, Adams remarked that it was the “first time I’d ever seen” an occurrence of that nature.
