Sergi\u00f1o Dest lost his composure in a needless dispute with the referee, getting a pair of yellow cards for dissent in a 30-second span that endangered the United States\u2019 berth in next year\u2019s Copa Am\u00e9rica. Trinidad won 2-1 on Monday night in Port-of-Spain, overcoming a deficit by scoring twice after Dest\u2019s 39th-minute ejection left the U.S. a man short. The Americans held on to win the total-goals series 4-2 and earn spots in the 16-nation Copa Am\u00e9rica and the CONCACAF Nations League semifinals. \u201cIt\u2019s inexcusable,\u201d U.S. coach Gregg Berhalter said. \u201cIt really is.\u201d Following a 3-0 win last week at Austin, Texas, Antonee Robinson scored in the 25th minute off Dest\u2019s cross to give the 11th-ranked U.S. a four-goal series lead in the Nations League quarterfinal.<\/p>\n
Reon Moore tied the score in the 43rd and Alvin Jones put the 99th-ranked Soca Warriors ahead in the 57th with a 30-yard free kick off the hands of goalkeeper Matt Turner, who tried to parry the swerving shot. Jones scored a similar long-range goal in October 2017 against Tim Howard in a 2-1 win at Couva, about 20 miles south, that ended the Americans\u2019 streak of World Cup appearances at seven. The U.S. was in control until Dest upset an assistant referee who ruled he didn\u2019t keep a ball from going out near midfield, and punted the ball toward the far end. That earned the first yellow from Guatemalan referee Walter L\u00f3pez, and the 23-year-old defender then pointed toward where no foul was called moments earlier when Andre Rampersad pushed him over.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was surreal,\u201d Berhalter said. Dest argued with L\u00f3pez as Gio Reyna and Tim Ream tried to keep him away, Reyna trying to cover Dest\u2019s mouth. L\u00f3pez raised two fingers and showed a second yellow and a red. Ream and Turner screamed at Dest as he walked off the field. \u201cIt is concerning because that\u2019s not what we represent, that\u2019s not who we are as a group,\u201d Berhalter said. \u201cWe pride ourselves in staying mentally disciplined, battling through any type of conditions. Whether they\u2019re good decisions or bad decisions, we\u2019re supposed to keep going and respond in an appropriate way, and that obviously wasn\u2019t the right response from Sergi\u00f1o. He apologized to the group. He said it\u2019s not going to happen again. As a team, the players, the staff, we need to hold him accountable.\u201d Dest will be suspended for the Nations League semifinal in March. He missed this year\u2019s Nations League final after getting a red card and a three-game ban for scuffling in the semifinal against Mexico.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were very firm with with our words after the game,\u201d Berhalter said. \u201cHe put a number of guys in jeopardy, made a number of guys do a lot of extra work in this weather.\u201d American team spokesman Michael Kammarman said CONCACAF rules prohibit players who receive red cards from speaking with media after matches. CONCACAF general secretary Philippe Moggio did not reply to an email seeking comment.<\/p>\n
\u201cSerge has done a great job of maturing and growing over the years that he\u2019s been with the group and for him this has to be a learning experience,\u201d Berhalter said. \u201cWe give people second chances. We work with people. We help them overcome instances like this.\u201d \u201cWhat I don\u2019t want this to turn into is a witch hunt,\u201d Berhalter added. \u201cHe\u2019s a young player, is a fantastic part of this team. He\u2019s going to learn. He\u2019s going to grow. He made a dumb mistake. He knows that. He apologized to the team and we\u2019ve moved forward.\u201d Berhalter brought in right back Joe Scally for Reyna after the ejection to restore a four-man back line. Trinidad tied the score when Jones played a long ball to Moore, who got past defender Cameron Carter-Vickers and beat Turner to the near post.<\/p>\n
Robinson scored on a diving header from Dest\u2019s cross, getting by Shannon Gomez and redirecting the ball past goalkeeper Denzil Smith from 10 yards for his fourth international goal and second in two games. The U.S. finished the year with 11 wins, four losses and three draws, going 4-2 in the start of Berhalter\u2019s second term as coach. The match in largely empty Hasely Crawford Stadium was 34 years and one day after Paul Caligiuri\u2019s goal there lifted the U.S. to a 1-0 win and into its first World Cup in 40 years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sergi\u00f1o Dest lost his composure in a needless dispute with the referee, getting a pair of yellow cards for dissent\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":12124,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[184,36],"tags":[3543,3539,3541,3538,3540,95,3542],"class_list":["post-12123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-soccer","category-sports","tag-concacaf-nations-league","tag-copa-america","tag-referee","tag-sergino-dest","tag-trinidad","tag-usa","tag-yellow-card"],"reading_time":"4 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12123\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}