Soccer match between USA and Mexico abandoned after homophobic chants

LAS VEGAS — Four players were sent off and the game was called off by the referee after repeated homophobic chanting from fans Thursday night at Allegiant Stadium.

The United States’ 3-0 win over Mexico and their place in Sunday’s CONCACAF Nations League final against Canada will be remembered both for its ugliness and for the two goals from Christian Pulisic and one from Ricardo Pepi.

The game was stopped in the 90th minute because of homophobic chanting. When play resumed, 12 minutes of injury time was indicated, but renewed chants resulted in referee Iván Barton ending the game in the eighth minute of injury time.

“As for the singing, first of all, I want to be very clear that it has no place in the game for our beliefs and culture,” said interim US coach BJ Callaghan. “It has no place in our value system.”

Concacaf – the North, Central American and Caribbean Football Association – said it strongly condemned “the discriminatory chanting” during the game BBC reported.

“Chanting heard during the match led to the activation of the anti-discrimination protocol by match officials. In addition, security personnel have expelled several fans from the stadium for unacceptable behavior inside the stadium,” the organization said. per ESPN.

“These incidents were extremely disappointing and ruined what was actually a positive reason for presenting high-quality football in our region.”

FIFA fined Mexico 100,000 Swiss francs ($108,000) in January for fans chanting anti-gay at two games.

In a physical game on Thursday, American players Weston McKennie and Sergiño Dest were sent off by Barton along with Mexicans César Montes and Gerardo Arteaga in the heated second half between the North American rivals.

“The lads told me it was going to be violent, but I’m definitely still in shock at what happened,” said US forward Folarin Balogun, who was eventually bumped onto the field. “I was only on the ground because I was in pain but when I looked up I saw so many people around me and I knew my teammates were just trying to defend me.”