Fox Sports Analyst Alexi Lalas Calls Out ‘Ridiculous’ Referee in U.S. Loss to Uruguay: ‘It Was a Joke’
Fox Sports analyst Alexi Lalas slammed the referees for their actions during and after the U.S. men’s soccer team’s loss to Uruguay on Monday night.
The U.S. lost 1-0 to Uruguay in the group stage of the Copa America. With the loss, the team was eliminated from the tournament. Making the disappointing result even worse was the questionable officiating throughout the game.
One of those calls directly led to Uruguay scoring the only goal of the match.
This was somehow not ruled offside after review 🤔 pic.twitter.com/Oh2Xn9Z7bK
— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) July 2, 2024
Uruguay nearly scored in the first half when the referees made the bizarre decision to allow play to continue after handing out a yellow card.
This is CRAZY. Ref blows his whistle and pulls yellow card. Uruguay stops the ball and tries a quick restart, which is fine if not a yellow. BUT THEN, ref signals for advantage and play on, which is not even close to what happened and ignoring handball. #CopaAmerica #USMNT pic.twitter.com/4MMCfO8OvH
— Cork Gaines, Ph.D. (@CorkGaines) July 2, 2024
After the match, U.S. star Christian Pulisic had some words for the officiating crew while shaking their hands. One of the refs outright refused the handshake.
An official refused to shake Pulisic’s hand after the match pic.twitter.com/lurToJchMC
— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) July 2, 2024
Lalas called the ref “ridiculous” for the act and his performance during the match.
“That’s ridiculous,” he said on his podcast State of the Union. “I mean, I don’t get that, but this referee was ridiculous — it was a joke — and should not referee.”
Watch the video above via YouTube.
