Thursday night’s CONCACAF Gold Cup doubleheader at Reliant Stadium in Houston was a wild affair. The evening started out calmly enough but ended with hot-tempered players and recklessly angry fans.

Reliant was filled with over 47,000 rowdy, loud, and colorful fans – the largest turn-out for the tournament so far.

The fans who showed up for the early match between the tiny Caribbean island of Guadalupe and Nicaragua were treated to a fairly placid game with much more civil fanfare. Guadalupe was able to keep a clean sheet and claim top spot in the Group C standings with a 2-0 win over Nicaragua.

Stephane Auvray and Ludovic Gotin scored minutes apart early in the second half off of assists by Aurelien Capoue, booking the Gwada Boys tickets to the quarterfinals with a match to go in group play.

Guadalupe’s coach, Roger Salnot, said, “Our objective coming into this tournament was to at least reach the semifinal stage.”

Nicaragua is now bottom of Group C after losing against Mexico during last week’s action. Mexico (1-0-1) is second with four points and Panama is third (0-1-1) with one point.

Reliant didn’t really start to fill up until El Tri took the field in what was expected to be a physical contest with Panama. Expectations were met early on with referee Joel Aguilar gave a yellow card to Panama’s Felipe Baloy in the third minute.

Mexico gained the lead seven minutes later after an impressive build-up and an unselfish pass from Giovanni Dos Santos that led to a Miguel Sabah goal. Sabah was able to shoot to the opposite post to beat Panama goalkeeper Jaime Penedo, sending an overly pro-Mexico crowd into a frenzy. Panama equalized quickly off of a Blas Perez goal in the 40^th minute.

Things heated up and became much more physical between goals when Perez placed an elbow into the back of Mexican goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa in the 14^th minute while Ochoa went up for a long pass that sailed over the crossbar.

Ochoa appeared injured for a few minutes and required treatment, but remained in the match.

Mexico’s Gerardo Torrado received a yellow card in the 12^th minute and Panama’s Luis Moreno and Nelson Barahona both saw yellow in the first half. Just before the half time whistle, referee Joel Aguilar sent off Panama’s Armando Gun and Mexico’s Luis Noriega after a scrum following hard contact between Gun and Dos Santos in front of the Mexico bench.

It was all downhill after that. With 10 minutes remaining in the match, Mexico’s coach Javier Aguirre appeared to intentionally trip Panamanian midfielder Ricardo Phillips as the player chased a ball down out of bounds. Aguirre claims that he was trying to stop the ball, but the damage was done. Phillips immediately retaliated against the Mexican coach, words were exchanged in front of the bench, and the fighting was on.

Once things were sorted out, referee Aguilar ejected Aguirre and Phillips as both team’s benches cleared.

Soon the fans got in on the action as cups, drinks, and other projectiles rained down onto the field, mostly towards the Panama players. Ricardo Phillips was on the receiving end of a barrage of abuse from Mexican fans as he was hastily escorted off of the field by Houston Police and Gold Cup personnel. A fight broke out in stands opposite of the team benches, but was quickly ended by security officers.

The match was temporarily suspended as the field was cleared and benches were sorted out.

After approximately 10 minutes of the game being suspended, play resumed only to be suspended again when Mexican fans threw projectiles at a Panamanian player who was receiving treatment from medical personnel on the sideline.

In the post-game conference, coach Aguirre apologized for this conduct and said, “I shouldn’t have come out of my designated area. I deserved the red card. I honestly regret it. I think the ref did the right thing.”

Aguirre added that his contact with Phillips was not intentional.

“My conduct was not justifiable,” Aguirre said. “I tried to stop the ball after the ref signaled a throw in and when the Panamanian player continued to play the ball, I tried to stop it and I made inevitable contact with the player because of the inertia he had. I lifted my foot more than I should have. I am completely regretful for doing so. I shouldn’t come out of my area.”

But Panamanian coach Gary Stempel was not buying any of it, responding, “(Aguirre) tried to hit my player.” He was also critical of the match officials, saying, “The way the game ended was a disgrace.”

The match finally ended with Mexico and Panama drawing 1-1, sharing the points, in a game that will be remembered for violent play on the field and rowdy fans in the stands.

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