CHESTER, Pa. – The U.S. men’s national team’s 2-1 win over Paraguay closed out with a brawl between the two teams, which saw one player sent off and two players receive yellow cards.
In the first minute of stoppage time of the USA’s 2-1 win, the ball went out of play near the midfield line and both the USMNT’s Alex Freeman and Paraguay’s Gustavo Gomez went for the ball. Within moments, Gomez placed Freeman in a headlock, with players from both teams charging to the touchline as a fight broke out. Players and staff duked it out on the sideline for about a minute, a water bottle flying out of the scuffle at one point and separate fights breaking out, including one with Max Arfsten on the side.
The crowd eventually dissipated, and in the end, the referee issued a red card to Omar Alderete, who was an unused substitute for Paraguay, while the USMNT’s Cristian Roldan and Paraguay’s Junior Alonso got a yellow card.
“I’ll keep the diplomatic,” USMNT goalkeeper Matt Freese said afterwards. “I was very happy, the way that we supported each other and there were a few cheap shots thrown from their end to be honest, but it’s part of being a team and we’re going to be standing out for each other no matter the moment, no matter the end of the game, beginning of the game, in the middle of the game, on the sideline like that. That’s what it means to be a team and I don’t think I’ve ever moved that quickly yet, didn’t I?”
Freese also tied it back to the fighting spirit that head coach Mauricio Pochettino has tried to instill in the players as part of his reinvention of the group.
“We got in the locker room after the warm-up and the first thing that was said was [Cristian Roldan] screaming, ‘We’re not going to wait to get punched first. We’re going to be on the front foot, we’re going to win our duels,’ and then obviously that culminates at the end in an actual fight,” Freese said. I think the more important part is the fight in the individual duels and in the individual moments and then where does this start? It starts in building the culture, but it also starts on the training field with the intensity that we bring. It was a very intense week of training and heavy tackles, things like that. Nothing bad, obviously. We’re all teammates, but creating that intense competitive environment is the start of it, and then it translates into the matches.”
Pochettino, though, said he did not see how the fight started but said it described it as a “dangerous situation.”
“It was difficult to see because I was looking [in] another direction,” he said. “That type of situation are very, very, very dangerous, very dangerous situation. I think we need to pay attention because anything can happen. Yes, I don’t like. I don’t like this type of situation. How it start[ed], I cannot say nothing because I need to … see on the tv why all this started.”
