{"id":580385,"date":"2026-08-10T12:58:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T12:58:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/580385\/"},"modified":"2026-08-10T12:58:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T12:58:10","slug":"mexico-seal-place-at-2028-olympics-after-controversial-var-red-card-in-u-20-win-over-us-soccer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/580385\/","title":{"rendered":"Mexico seal place at 2028 Olympics after controversial VAR red card in U-20 win over US | Soccer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Crist\u00f3bal Alfaro scored twice as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/football\/mexico\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Mexico<\/a> retained their Concacaf Under-20 title with a 2-0 victory over the United States in the final at the Azteca on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The victory booked Mexico\u2019s place at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics \u2013 the US have already qualified as hosts \u2013 but the match was overshadowed by a controversial red card. The US were reduced to 10 men just before half-time when Chris Applewhite received a red card after a VAR review for a challenge on Hugo Camberos, during which the US captain <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/reel\/Db10KfpOLUo\/\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">appeared to make minimal contact<\/a> with his opponent.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Mexico were 1-0 up at that point after Alfaro had opened the scoring in the 28th minute with a powerful, close-range header from a set piece. The defender sealed the victory with his second goal, another header, in the 69th minute.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">\u201cIt\u2019s a dream come true. Although I scored, this is a collective achievement. I thank the fans for their unconditional support,\u201d Alfaro said in a post-match interview. \u201cIt was an incredible experience to win at home.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Mexico finished the tournament unbeaten and only conceded one goal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Both teams were already assured of spots in next year\u2019s Under-20 World Cup in Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan by reaching the semi-finals of the Concacaf championship.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Crist\u00f3bal Alfaro scored twice as Mexico retained their Concacaf Under-20 title with a 2-0 victory over the United&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":580386,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":["post-580385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=580385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580385\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/580386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=580385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=580385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=580385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}