(Washington Post) The scene at RFK Stadium went from festive to temporarily chaotic on Sunday evening, as Panama downed El Salvador, 5-3 on penalty kicks, following a controversial tying goal in the final minute of regulation in the CONCACAF Gold Cup quarterfinal.
The tens of thousands of blue-and-white-clad Salvadoran supporters among the sellout crowd of 45,423 transformed the stadium into a pulsating explosion of noise, flags waving and
That quickly changed when Panamaâs Luis Tejada headed a ball toward the goal line following a frantic back-and-forth inside the Salvadoransâ box in the 90th minute. El Salvador goalkeeper Miguel Montes snagged the ball out of the air, but the referees ruled it crossed the line. Video replays did not show conclusively if the entire ball crossed the line.
âEl Salvadorâs elimination has been conditioned by human error made by the referees,â El Salvador Coach Ruben Israel said through an interpreter. âWhich is okay, because theyâre human and they can make mistakes.â
Panama Coach Julio Dely Valdes, also through an interpreter, countered that comment.
âWe will not talk about the refereesâ mistakes,â Dely Valdes said. âI didnât even want to mention it because this game was very suspiciously [called] against Panama. If anyone knows a little bit about soccer, they know that the refs were against us.â
After the controversial goal, the situation at the stadium that has become a home away from home for the Salvadoran team began to unravel â at least momentarily.
Bottles were thrown onto the field in throngs….(read more)