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Former US coach Bruce Arena believes that the two penalties that England got during Panama's 6-1 win over Sunday's World Cup would not have been given during the CONCACAF qualifications.
Egyptian referee Gehad Grisha awarded England a pair of penalties when Fidel Escobar and Roman Torres overthrew Jesse Lingard, and when Anibal Godoy faced Harry Kane on the ground. That led to two kicks by Kane while England took the lead 5-0.
But Arena, which took over mid-term of the World Cup qualifying campaign but failed to lead it to Russia, said Panama would have avoided the incidents and said that Subordinate referees in the area hurt the teams. the world stage.
"What happened today with Panama was typical of the CONCACAF competition, but they are never punished," Arena told The Associated Press. "In my opinion, the arbitration is detrimental to the progress of the region, it would be necessary to hit them with their hammers so that they inflict a penalty to CONCACAF."
The president of CONCACAF, Victor Montagliani, made the decision of the Arena.
"It's a bit hyperbole of Bruce," he said. "We are always trying to improve the refereeing, I think that during this last qualifying session, it is the best I have seen for a long time within CONCACAF." Obviously, like a real coach, Bruce has always had problems with referees. "
Panama, beaten 3-0 by Belgium in its first match, seemed not to belong to the same pitch in the first period as England, which led many people to question the qualification. of such a team in front of the United States.
The United States beat Panama 4-0 in their home qualifier, but were held in Panama City. Meanwhile, Panama was able to take four points over Costa Rica – with the upcoming win in the final match after Los Ticos he was already qualified – while the United States lost both games against Costa Rica, who also lost their first two games in Russia.
Panama beat Honduras on goal difference and outstripped the United States in the final qualifying table, and Arena said Panama's performance should not reflect the competitive level of CONCACAF as a whole.
"Mexico is a good team, as is Costa Rica, but Panama is a lower team in the competition," said Arena. "I firmly believe that we should have been the third team, but we have no one to blame but ourselves."
If Mexico move to knockout rounds, 13 of CONCACAF's 24 teams (54 per cent) will have reached the knockout stages since 1990: Mexico seven times, the fourth in the United States and Costa Rica twice .
This will be the first CONCACAF World Cup since 2006 with less than two teams in the round of 16, and Montagliani defended the region's record.
"I think we have a long way to go," said Montagliani. "We still rank behind UEFA and CONMEBOL in terms of points per game in World Cups in the past, but obviously now our fate in terms of race is in the hands of Mexico."
Steve Sampson, the United States coach from 1995 to 1998, said that England 's victory would not have been so easy if they had faced Americans instead.
"If the United States had qualified, we would have done a lot better than Costa Rica and Panama," Sampson told the AP. "I know Panama has moved ahead of the United States in the qualifying phase, but with all the experience of the United States, I have to believe and I think they would have done a lot better than Costa Rica and Panama in this World Cup. "
Former US striker Taylor Twellman, now an ESPN analyst, told the AP that Panama's performance had brought back bad memories.
"It's an extra twist of the knife," Twellman said. "It's another reminder that failure to qualify is an absolute debacle."
The information from the Associated Press has been used in this report.
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