For the first time in the history of international soccer, Mexico won a game in a continental competition thanks to some dubious calls by a match official. El Tri defeated Panama in extra time, 2-1, thanks to two penalties.
Panama's Luis Tejada was sent off in the 24th minute after challenging a little too harshly for a ball. Is it a red card? Maybe. I have no qualms nor quibbles with this one, to be honest.
As you can see in the video above, it's not an elbow, but it's certainly an odd looking challenge in the air.
Despite being down a man for the rest of the match, Panama continued to fight. By comparison, Mexico continued to shrug their shoulders and wait for some wizardry to happen as they've done for the entirety of this Gold Cup.
And then... Panama scored! Somehow, some way, they went up 1-0 in the 57th minute.
Would they hold out and win? They were holding out for a while. They thought it was a 10-man Panama team versus Mexico. Unfortunately it was a 10-man Panama team versus Mexico AND the referees.
American referee Mark Geiger decided to make his mark on the match in the 85th minute.
Here's the controversial hand ball from Panama leading to the Mexico penalty... http://t.co/El9ENE7Gzh
— World Soccer Shop (@worldsoccershop) July 23, 2025
Was it a penalty? Maybe. (No.) My favorite part of that sequence is that the "handball" was caused by the Mexican striker shoving and tripping Torres to the ground.
Mexico would go on to get a second goal in extra time (via a correctly awarded penalty!) because who cares at this point? They're advancing to the finals after two dubious calls in two straight knockout round matches.
Big teams get calls that lead to advantageous results. This is how sports works. Ask Sacramento Kings fans how they feel about the NBA Playoffs and a certain Western Conference Championship series against the Lakers.
For their part, a lot of the Mexican players were professional about the whole thing.
Andres Guardado on Fox Sports 2: "I didn't celebrate, because that penalty call left me w/ a bad taste" #GoldCup pic.twitter.com/oPnQN5a69U
— Francisco X. Rivera (@FX_Rivera) July 23, 2025
I don't know what to say about all of this. It's just... how it is. Mexico gets a lot of calls and it doesn't matter what country the referee is from or how lauded he has been in the past. Mark Geiger is supposed to be one of the best officials in the world. Maybe he made a mistake. Everyone makes mistakes. It's just alarmingly coincidental how a lot of these CONCACAF referees happen to make crucial, game changing mistakes while Mexico is losing or tied in meaningful matches.
