USA Edge Through to the Final, but not without Controversy

The USA beat Canada 2-1 last night in the 2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup semi-final to reach yet another final. However the game ended very controversially, when an equaliser in the last seconds of injury time from Canada was ruled out for no good reason.

The "scorer", Denmark-based Atiba Hutchinson was shown to be about level with the defense when the ball came to him, but that was irrelevant anyways, as the ball had arrived at his feet via a wayward header from USA defender Oguchi Onyewu. By the laws of the game, with Onyweu getting the final touch, Hutchinson was not offside. To add to that, it was not as if it was a pass that had deflected off Hutchinson (which would have somewhat made the decision more palatable), but just a desperate, badly executed header from the big defender that put the ball into the Canadian midfielder's path. It was tough on the reds.

Earlier in the game, the USA had gone ahead through veteran right-back Frankie Hejduk, who had charged upfield to combine well with Donovan and then tuck the ball past Pat Onstad, the stand-in Canadian 'keeper.

Donovan then doubled their lead from the penalty spot after Onstad had clumsily brought down DaMarcus Beasley, who had been played in brilliantly by Clint Dempsey.

However, Canada fought their way back into the game through the tigerish Iain Hume, and then proceeded to charge forward at every available opportunity. The Canadians possess technical midfielders of a very, very high quality in De Guzman, De Rosario and Hutchinson, and along with the experience, attitude and ability of Paul Stalteri and Ante Jazic behind them, they should never have allowed themselves to slip behind in the way they did, but having dug their own hole they almost managed to climb out of it.

Hutchinson scored, Team Canada went wild, the linesman and referee made their opinions known, and the gloss was taken of an amazingly exciting finish. Paul Stalteri was livid at the shame-faced officials, and rightly so, but really Canada had only themselves to blame in letting this game slip away.

The USA, on balance of play, deserved to go through, but had much to thank Lady Luck for. Yet again they will face Mexico in the final in what can only turn out to be a fiery encounter.

The Mexicans had beaten Guadeloupe 1-0 with a wondergoal from Pavel Pardo.