USMNT Fans Were Furious Over Controversial No-Call in Gold Cup Final Loss to Mexico | OneFootball

The United States suffered a painful defeat in the Gold Cup final against Mexico on Sunday night, losing 2–1 despite striking first and picking up an early lead just four minutes into the game.

One moment during the second half had USMNT fans irate, as a controversial decision from referees took away a potential penalty for the Americans. In the 67th minute, left back Max Arfsten attempted to dribble inside the box when the ball was stolen by Jorge Sanchez, who got in the way of the ball while going down on one knee.

While trying to regain balance and get back to his feet, Sanchez inadvertently put his hand directly on the ball, which had deflected in front of him after his interception. Naturally, the U.S. was bargaining for a penalty, but referees deemed the hand ball to be accidental and thus opted against calling a penalty.

Mexico would break the deadlock and take a 2–1 lead just 10 minutes later.

It's a situation that's similar to one seen in the Premier League back in 2023, when Arsenal's Martin Ødegaard was falling to the ground and hit the ball with his hand on the way down. Both the on-field referee and VAR ruled it was not a penalty due to the accidental nature of the contact. It was later determined that both officials made a mistake, and a penalty was, in fact, warranted.

In this case, however, Sanchez didn't make any movements after coming in contact with the ball, which seems to have been a factor in referees not calling a penalty.

USMNT fans were irate over the decision from referees in Sunday's Gold Cup final, and they took to social media to air their grievances over what many felt should've been a penalty.