Chaos during the Gold Cup 2009 in group c match

It was bound to happen sooner or later. You just knew things would turn a little physical and nasty after a relatively calm Gold Cup tournament so far. Well it all came to a boiling point in a red hot Reliant Stadium in Houston, Texas on July 9th as Panama held Mexico to a 1-1 draw in their Group C match before a pro-Mexican crowd of 47,000.

Three players and Mexican manager Javier Aguirre were sent off before the final whistle blew, and when it did blow, there were quite a few punch ups in the crowd and a lot of rubbish thrown onto the pitch.

It was a scrappy game from the get go and Mexico’s Luis Noriega and Panama’s Armando Gun were both sent off just before half time as a minor scuffle took place after Gun had taken down Giovani Dos Santos in a tackle.

It was just shades of things to come as more trouble started when Ricardo Phillips of Panama ran the ball into touch just in front of the Mexican bench with about 10 minutes to go in the game. Aguirre put his foot up though and impeded Phillips. The player and Aguirre then got into a bit of a shoving match and a few other players, some who were on the sidelines, got into it and came over to see what the fuss was. Phillips was then given a red card and Aguirre was sent off of the bench. While things looked like they had gotten back to normal on the pitch, some of the supporters decided to duke it out and the game was held up a few minutes.

The last few minutes were played out and it looked like the final whistle would come soon, but then Blas Perez of Panama was hit by an object thrown from the crowd in the last minute. He was given treatment, but was then hit again with another unidentified flying object as he was being stretchered off the field. This caused more flare ups in the stands.

As for the actual football match, Dos Santos set up Miguel Sabah on a nice two on one counter attack to put Mexico ahead in the 11th minute. Perez then tied the score at 1-1 in the 28th minute after a scrambly play in the Mexican box. Perez managed to stab at the ball while it was in mid air from just a few yards out and it ended up in the back of the net.

All in all there were three yellow cards given to Panama, one to Mexico, and two red cards each. But funnily enough, there were only 14 fouls committed in the game between both teams.

The result means that Mexico, with four points, needs a point from their last group game against Guadeloupe on July 12 to guarantee a spot in the quarter-finals. If they lose and Panama beats Nicaragua, then the Mexicans will be out.

Guadeloupe has already made it to the quarterfinals as Stephane Auvray and Ludovic Gotin scored a minute apart to beat Nicaragua 2-0, keeping them top in Group C with six points. The goals came in the 58th and 59th minutes.