It was the gut punch before halftime that virtually floored the US national team and dented any hopes of a comeback victory in their Copa America Centenario opener on Friday.
Mexican referee Roberto Garcia pointed to the penalty spot after judging that USA right back DeAndre Yedlin had handled the ball when he deflected a cross delivered into the US box. Colombian star captain James Rodriguez took care of the rest, expertly converting the PK for a 2-0 Colombia lead, the final margin in a loss for the Red, White and Blue.
“It’s not like I tried to stop the ball with my hand,” Yedlin explained to reporters in the Levi’s Stadium media mixed zone after the match. “It wasn’t blatant at all, but the ref thought it was blatant enough to call it.
“In a perfect situation, I don’t turn my back to the ball. That’s obviously first and foremost, but human instinct sometimes tells you to do that, and unfortunately it got my hand and the ref thought it was blatant enough to call a penalty. It’s just those fine margins that can sometimes make or break a game.”
In this case, it broke the game, although Yedlin's teammates were divided about the call afterward.
Whether it was the hand ball issue or just the general criticism leveled at the US afterward, something prompted this response from Yedlin on Twitter:
Yet the Seattle Sounders academy product and former MLS player had an optimistic take on the match, one that wasn't all gloom and doom, despite the end result.
“There’s a lot of positives that we can take from this game," Yedlin told reporters. "We have to fix the things that we need to fix and not dwell too much on the negatives. I don’t think the score reflected the match. If we put away our chances, we could have tied the game or even won it.”
