USMNT knocked out of Copa America as VAR controversy overshadows clash with Uruguay

The United States men’s national team (USMNT) has been eliminated from this summer’s Copa America after losing 1-0 to Uruguay on Monday.

The United States is hosting the soccer tournament and the team was expected to reach the knockout stages after being drawn in a relatively easy group with Uruguay, Bolivia and Panama. But after Gregg Berhalter’s players lost 2-1 to the latter in their second group match, reaching the quarterfinals was always going to be a big challenge.

With Bolivia beating Panama 3-1 in Monday’s other Group C match, the U.S. national team needed to beat Uruguay and have a better goal difference than its rivals to advance. Still, American hearts were broken in the 66th minute of the match when Mathias Olivera scored.

The goal was controversial as Olivera appeared to be offside in the FOX television replay. However, the video referee (VAR) confirmed that Olivera was level with the USMNT back line when the ball was thrown into the penalty area.

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There were several questionable refereeing decisions during Monday’s match, leading FOX analyst and former soccer player Alexi Lalas to become enraged at referee Kevin Ortega. “Let’s use his full name: it’s Kevin Paulo Ortega Pimentel,” Lalas said during halftime.

Okay? You know when your parents get mad and use your full name? Because this guy, this guy is totally out of touch with this game and what he’s doing.

“Now, this is not a reason for the US not to step up, this is not a reason for the US not to do whatever it does, but this is a poor performance by the referee that will be part of the story. The other good side is that the US played a very, very good half.”

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Speaking at full-time, USMNT captain Christian Pulisic admitted: “It’s hard to say right now, emotions are obviously running high. I mean, we had a good start and brought a lot of energy, but at the end of the day there just wasn’t enough quality. I felt like we were giving it our all, but just couldn’t find solutions to score.”

When pressed about the referee, Pulisic said: “There’s a lot (to talk about). I don’t want to talk too much about the referee. It’s frustrating, but yeah, that’s what this tournament is about, so we just have to do our best to deal with it.”

Pulisic was then asked where the USMNT goes from here. He responded, “Right now it’s just about getting a little bit of rest and regrouping and finding an identity again — and we’ve got some big things coming up. So I’m looking forward to it.”