When Tragedy Takes the Form of a Mexican Referee

For those unaware, Canada’s national soccer team had its exciting run through the Gold Cup cut painfully short as a tying goal scored in the last seconds of extra time in their semi-final game against the U.S. was amazingly disallowed by an old nemesis…

Predictably, all you could get out of him was a "Señor I no habla inglés!"

Atiba Hutchinson’s would-be 94^th minute marker was, with shocking disregard for the rules of the game, wiped out by Benito Archundia, resulting in a 2-1 home-field win for the U.S. If his name sounds vaguely familiar, he’s the same referee that gave Canada the business during the most recent World Cup qualifying bid when he single-handedly donated a couple of goal-related calls to Honduras resulting in our elimination. But that was a Canadian side that seemed doomed from the start, underachieving early and struggling mightily to put ball in the net.

And that is what makes this year’s Mexican stand-off such a travesty: the Gold Cup squad has been nothing short of brilliant at times, playing a ball-control style heavily reliant on a newer breed of player donning the red and white. The aforementioned Hutchinson and the spiritual centre of the team, Julian De Guzman have combined in the middle of the field to give the national team the sort of foundation that could allow them to play more than competitively with the big boys of the CONCACAF region, as witnessed by last night’s match with the FIFA-desired juggernaut. Even a revitalized Dwayne De Rosario leading the up-front charges with Ali Gerba and young Ian Hume give Canada potentially something they haven’t had in its history: depth at the attacking positions.

Is he jersey purchase worthy?...Mr. C sez 'SI'! Hey, with a little activator and some shades, we could have the second coming of Eazy-E

Although the Americans imposition of their athleticism seemed to bother certain players more than others (not not looking at you Paul Stalteri), the Canadians clearly deserved better and had drawn several poor tackles out of a stretched American defense, eventually cumulating in a somewhat questionable red-carding late in the game. (I would be remiss to not mention the general over-rated nature of U.S. golden boy Landon Donovan – any dependence upon him will be one reason this American team will struggle to attain world class stature). Which, again, emphasizes the pain of being deprived of what was right and good: Canada would have been up one player in the extra time and, at the very least, had a chance to eliminate the U.S. in penalties.

It would be an understatement to say this tournament was prepared with the intention of holding a Mexico-U.S. final. Still, it is the potential denied by this moment of unfairness, and not Canada’s leap 30-odd places up the FIFA rankings, that should reinforce what will be an exciting future for Canadian soccer, further highlighted by a strong U-20 side that hosts the FIFA championships starting July 1^st. At the end of the day, things looks bright, unlike, say, over at Arsenal, where Henry’s impending defection casts a huge shadow over the top of the Premiership. Good thing I put in the Barca scarf request early (L, if you're reading this and you haven't made the purchase - don't buy it not now, buy it right now) : the ranks of the contenders in English soccer just got noticably slimmer. Here in CONCACAF, you can add one more team to legitimately challenge the old FIFA-endorsed guard.