CONCACAF suspended four players a week after the U.S. beat Mexico 3-0 in a game with the ejections, fights, & an anti gay chant. The Cesar Montes and Gerardo Arteaga of the Mexico & Weston McKennie & Sergio Dest of the U.S. were all banned for “on-field player misconduct,” the organisation said Friday.
The Montes and McKennie were both banned for 3 matches. Arteaga and Dest were both Arteaga and Dest were not allowed to participate in the game for the next two matches. The bans are in addition to the one-game punishments that each player received when they were ejected from the game that took place on June 15th.
Montes was shown a red card after kicking Folarin Balogun in the leg, which led to the player’s dismissal from the match. Because of this, a fight broke out on the field, and when it was over, McKennie was given a red card as well.
Later on in the match, both Dest and Arteaga were shown red cards for engaging in on-field altercations. The game was stopped five minutes early due of the increasingly tense atmosphere in the stands, which included supporters screaming an anti-gay slogan. After the game, CONCACAF stated that the match was not interrupted due to the chant that was taking place.
Because of the sanctions, there won’t be any games that American players miss out on.
During the games of the Gold Cup, both McKennie and Dest will have the opportunity to fulfill the terms of their suspensions. Both players are not part of the United States team that will compete in the Gold Cup. The fact that this is the case does not change the fact that those games count toward their suspensions.
That is not something that will occur with Team Mexico. Montes and Arteaga are both listed on the Gold Cup roster for the team, however they will not participate in any of the games because they have been suspended.
