During Sunday night’s Copa America matchup between the U.S. Men’s National Team and Uruguay, referee Kevin Ortega made several high-profile errors that earned him plenty of criticism during and after the game.
Ortega, who was refereeing just the seventh match of his career and his first Copa America match, yellow-carded USMNT’s Tyler Adams when he was stepped on by an opponent, failed to capitalize on a counterattacking opportunity for the USMNT and failed to stop the match by issuing a yellow card that nearly resulted in a Uruguay goal.
In addition, Ortega missed several fouls and overlooked player injuries on numerous occasions, as he took an excessively long time to respond when players suffered injuries.
Compilation of some of the most controversial refereeing moments from the United States vs Uruguay match photo.twitter.com/XHwv9B5YfL
— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) July 2, 2024
“This guy is completely out of place in this game,” Lalas said at halftime of Ortega’s performance. “Now, this is no reason for the U.S. not to be on top. This is no reason for the U.S. not to do whatever they’re doing. But this is a poor performance by the referee that’s going to be part of the narrative.”
To make matters worse, Ortega refused to shake hands with U.S. national team captain Christian Pulisic after the game. When Pulisic approached him and extended his hand to shake his hand, Ortega simply put his hands behind his back and stared blankly ahead.
A referee refused to shake Pulisic’s hand after the match. image.twitter.com/lurToJchMC
— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) July 2, 2024
To make matters worse, Ortega and the video assistant referee failed to see what appeared to be a blatant offside decision on Uruguay’s go-ahead goal.
Somehow this wasn’t considered offside after review photo.twitter.com/Oh2Xn9Z7bK
— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) July 2, 2024
It’s worth noting that the U.S. national team would likely have been eliminated even without the poor officiating, as Panama defeated Bolivia by a score of 3-1, meaning the U.S. national team would have had to win the match, not just draw, to advance. But the officiating was undeniably frustrating for the Americans.
