2025 Gold Cup Recaps: The Third Yellow vs. Group A's Scoreless Draws
With Mexico and Costa Rica already through to the knockouts, we're going to talk about the two big VAR decisions from these games instead.
Group A had the nightcap of Sunday’s doubleheader, which featured two goalless draws between the advancing and unbeaten Mexico and Costa Rica and the eliminated and winless Dominican Republic and Suriname.
Since we have no goals to talk about and some VAR things instead, we’re going to make this a hybrid recap/referee analysis.
MEXICO 0, COSTA RICA 0
We’re going to focus on the end of this game, because there really isn’t a whole lot to talk about, particularly for Costa Rica who only had 30 percent of the ball and put none of their five shots on target.
In stoppage time, Mexico’s Santiago Gimenez hit a bicycle kick winner after a partial clearance from Costa Rica’s Orlando Galo. However, VAR intervened, and replays showed Gimenez clearly a step offside on the initial free kick prior to the header.
We’ve discussed this play a few times in MLS action with the New England Revolution earlier in the year. Galo’s header while falling towards his own goal should not be ruled as a deliberate action, despite him cleanly playing the ball. Galo is not assured to gain possession or make a clear pass in that situation, and his attempt, however awry it went, is ruled as a deflection per the rules.
Basically the defender is allowed to block stuff and should be able to do so without being punished for the opponent’s positioning. Yes, there were situations where this play would reset offside not that long ago, but it created a lot of really bad cherry picking goals that were bad for the game.
Bringing the interpretation back in line with the only exception for a defender receiving the ball in an offside position is when an opponent in clear possession makes a deliberate backpass, is more in line with the spirit of the law, which is to protect the defense. It’s a very high bar for a defensive blocking action to be considered a deliberate play under the laws and that clearly did not happen here. Various FOX studio people from Landon Donovan and Alexi Lalas seem flummoxed by this for reasons I don’t get.
Be onside on your own free kick. Gimenez was standing several yards offside prior to the cross, which is just mind boggling to me that he does that in the first place. It doesn’t matter in the end, cause El Tri wins the group with the result but even as a secondary runner when the set piece isn’t going to you, as an attacker you still have to start from an onside position and Gimenez didn’t do that. Easy flag, there shouldn’t be a debate here.
SURINAME 0, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC 0
Okay, half hour in and DR’s Edgar Pujol trips up Suriname’s Kenneth Paal about 25-30 yards away from goal in the left channel. Center referee Ismael Cornejo displays a yellow for stopping a promising attack, and then VAR buzzes in.
Paal has a lot of room between him and keeper Xavier Valdez and no one between them. There are two Dominican players even with Paal but the closest is at the top of the arc of his own area which is a good distance away, 15-20 yards. Cornejo reviews and overturns his yellow and goes to red for denial of a goal scoring opportunity.
This is clear orange card territory for me. The yellow for the tactical stopping of the attack is assured but given the distance and angles here — still 5-10 yards outside the box and a keeper and potential defender to cut down the angle — I think the red is too much. The key for me here is Paal’s touch prior to the foul is going straight towards the endline, rather than direct toward goal. That extra time and distance to goal might be the extra second the Dominican defense needs to recover and contest this.
In my opinion there’s just enough of a chance that the DR defender can get there and/or Paal not being immediately in at the center of goal that I would leave the call as is. But it’s not an unjustified overturn either - a couple of touches and Suriname could have half a net to try and shoot on but there’s enough to make me doubt that this will be a surefire scoring chance.
In the first half of a de facto friendly with no bearing on end result of the tournament, I think a DGSO needs to be a lot more blatantly obvious than this to drop someone down to 10 men. I know that’s not how the decision making process should work but you know, Law 18 exists.
GROUP OVERVIEW
Mexico tops the group and will play Group D runner up Saudi Arabia on Saturday June 28th at 10:15 PM EDT from Glendale, AZ. Costa Rica’s quarterfinal will be Sunday June 29th at 7 PM EDT from Minneapolis, MN.
The Ticos will be without the suspended Manfred Ugalde and Carlos Mora due to yellow card accumulation. Ariel Lassiter and Warren Madrigal are also out with significant injuries as is the USMNT’s Haji Wright. We’ll see if CONCACAF approves of any roster changes prior to the beginning of the quarterfinals.
Not the way Suriname or DR wanted to finish their tournament runs, they would have been stronger knockout dark horses in any other group getting past two Top 5 teams in the region was a bridge too far despite three excellent performances.