Mexico coach Juan Carlos Osorio has apologized after television cameras caught him using an expletive during Wednesday’s ill-tempered FIFA Confederations Cup match against New Zealand.
Osorio said he was incensed during the first half when Mexico defender Carlos Salcedo was left injured after a clash with rival forward Chris Wood in the New Zealand area and their opponents failed to kick the ball out of play.
New Zealand played on, went down the other end and nearly scored, with Mexico urging their opponents to stop the game.
Photo: AFP
“I want to apologize to all the television viewers, I obviously went over the top when I got involved with their assistant coach,” Osorio told Mexican media after his side’s 2-1 win. “We always understood and respected their way of playing, a very direct type of football, with a lot of contact.”
“The situation in which Carlos Salcedo was left on the ground gave them a goalscoring chance,” the Colombian said. “Our players and myself were shouting at them and the New Zealand coach to stop the match.”
FIFA has tried to stop the practice of teams kicking the ball out of play to allow treatment to injured opponents after it became routinely abused by players feigning injury to waste time or break up an attack.
Teams who voluntarily kicked the ball out also got a raw deal because the ball would be returned to them deep in their own half rather than where play stopped.
Instead, teams are now encouraged to play on until the referee stops the game, no matter how many players are down injured or how serious the injury appears to be.
However, the guidelines have proved difficult to enforce in some countries, particularly Spain and Italy, where teams continue to demand that opponents kick the ball out if one of their players is injured whether it be genuine or not.
Wednesday’s match was marred by a number of ugly incidents including a brawl near the end of the match as New Zealand were pressing for an equalizer.
The on-pitch fracas involved so many players that the referee had to go to the touchline to assess the skirmishes on a screen, rather than just relying on video replay assistants.
“It was intense, it was competitive,” New Zealand coach Anthony Hudson said after the game that was settled by Oribe Peralta’s 72nd-minute strike for Mexico. “If I was a big team in world football and we were taken right to the edge by a smaller team like New Zealand, there’s a certain amount of discomfort there and big pressure. So I would imagine that’s part of [the incident].”
Three players were booked for their involvement in the second flashpoint of the game.
After Salcedo was carried off on a stretcher, Wood put New Zealand into a surprise lead in the 42nd minute.
Their hopes of a first-ever victory in their fourth appearance at the World Cup warm-up tournament were dented nine minutes into the second half. Javier Aquino and Marco Fabian combined to set up Raul Jimenez to strike on the turn into the top corner.
Peralta completed Mexico’s comeback at the Fisht Stadium by meeting Javier Aquino’s cutback and sweeping a shot past goalkeeper Stefan Marinovic.
Additional reporting by AP
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