At Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City on Monday, the United States lost 1-0 to Uruguay, so being eliminated from the Copa América. The U.S. needed to win to progress because Panama defeated Bolívia 3-1 in the other group match, but Mathías Olivera’s set piece goal in the 66th minute, which was allowed to stand despite being extremely close to being offside, was the game-winning goal.
Just eight shots totaling 0.41 xG were attempted by the United States, and Sergio Rochet stopped all four of them that were attempted on goal.
It was a tough game from the beginning, and Uruguay was more than willing to take part in the physicality even if they just needed a draw to move on. Before the game opened up a bit in the second half, the first half yielded 14 fouls and two injury substitutions: Folarin Balogun of the USA in the 41st minute and Maximiliano Araújo of Uruguay in the 27th.
The U.S. quickly moved from appearing to progress because of a tying goal in the Panama-Bolivia match (it had to match or better Panama’s outcome) to trailing because of Olivera’s goal. Panama promptly stored its match, and that was the end of it.
