By Paul Nicholson
June 17 – The USA became the first team to qualify for the semi-finals of the Copa America Centenario with a 2-1 win over Ecuador in Seattle.
Once again USA’s captain Clint Dempsey led the way for the host nation with a goal on 22 minutes, his third of the competition. The US lead was doubled on 64 minutes by Gyasi Zardes, Dempsey provided the assist.
With both teams reduced to 10-men after the sending off of Ecuador’s Antonio Valencia and USA’s Jermaine Jones, the match heated up in front of an increasingly passionate and anxious home crowd.
Ecuador pulled a goal back on 74 minutes as they laid siege to the US goalmouth but were unable to break through with US keeper Brad Guzan putting a terrible club season behind him at Aston Villa and pulling out a string of outstanding saves for his country. Ecuador will rue the succession of missed chances as much as the USA will celebrate what could prove to be a breakthrough victory.
The USA will now face tournament favourites Argentina or Venezuela in the semi final on June 21 in Houston. The draw has fallen favourably for the US who will have two extra days of preparation for the match.
Argentina and Venezuela play their quarter final on Saturday (June 18) in Foxborough.
The potential prospect of an all CONCACAF final is still possible with Mexico in quarter final action against Chile on Saturday in Santa Clara, California. The winners of that match will play either Peru or Colombia in the semi-final. They meet today in East Rutherford.
Organisers will be hoping Mexican fans will be on their best behaviour after continued complaints of the chanting of ‘puto’ (translated means ‘homo-gay’).
CONCACAF and CONMEBOL contrived to issue a joint statement “Regarding Derogatory and Offensive Fan Behavior at Certain Copa America Centenario Matches’ saying that it took “derogatory or offensive during our matches very seriously. This behavior does not reflect the true spirit of football and must be stopped.”
However, the statement confusingly stopped short of naming incidents, countries or even threatening sanctions, but focused on the good work they are doing within their ‘Embrace Diversity’ campaign, which perhaps might not be communicating to the fans and their chants.
The statement said: “As part of our efforts to demonstrate our commitment to diversity and inclusion, the confederations implemented the ‘Embrace Diversity’ campaign prior to the start of the Copa America Centenario, which integrated all 16 participant nations. In addition, we have also worked closely with the Local Organizing Committee to adopt the necessary security and customer service measures to ensure our fans are safe at our matches.
“We are also working with other stakeholders and partners on short, mid and long-term initiatives through educational campaigns and other means, as we act together to eradicate these behaviors from our sport while keeping our fans safe at our events.”
The danger for organisers is that they escalate what is essentially a non-violent and non-racist crowd issue – but clearly a homophobic chant (intentionally so or not) – out of proportion. Separately, at the PanAm games in Guadalajara, Mexican fans started to yell eeeeeeeeeeePUTA to the female Canadian goalkeeper. A stadium announcement asked the fans to stop emphasising that it wasn’t appropriate, the fans took this on board and since then the chant has been absent from women’s matches. It is unlikely to be that simple.
A senior Mexican football official told Insideworldfootball: “We must change the word PUTO for any other word…it is a very difficult challenge, but we must do it ASAP. The WAVE and the yelling of eeeeeeeeeeeee – shaking our hands previous to the PUTO, are Mexican fans trademarks. It would be lovely by all means, to listen the Crowd yelling: teeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeMEXICO, or eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeGOOOL, instead of PUTO…Education and proper communication are the name of the fair game and fair support to your team.”
In comparison, a similar version of the word (putah in Portuguese, but the literal meaning is son of a whore) came up in the employment tribunal in England between Chelsea Football Club and their former doctor Eva Carneiro. Used by coach Jose Mourinho when Carneiro ran on to the pitch to treat Eden Hazard, Mourinho passed it off as a commonly used swear word rather than using it to directly refer to Carneiro.
Perhaps it is better to just focus on the football rather than too vigorously scratch sore spots in what is an imperfect world. Doubtless Mourinho would have had the same feeling regarding the Carneiro treatment incident.
Contact the writer of this story at moc.l1714380073labto1714380073ofdlr1714380073owedi1714380073sni@n1714380073osloh1714380073cin.l1714380073uap1714380073