World Cup: Mexico’s Javier Aguirre says official admitted error

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Mexico’s World Cup came to and end Sunday. And while the 3-1 loss to Argentina didn’t hinge on an official’s bad call, it certainly was affected by one.

Mexican Coach Javier Aguirre refused to talk about the referees, who upheld Carlos Tevez’s goal in the 26th minute even though the Argentina striker was clearly offside. But Aguirre did talk about the comportment of referee Roberto Rosetti at halftime, when a skirmish nearly broke out in the tunnel leading from the pitch to the changing rooms.

Rosetti, Aguirre said, appeared to be upset with the assistant official, Stefano Ayroldi, who missed the obvious infraction.

‘Rosetti was upset when he came into the tunnel at halftime,’ Aguirre said. ‘He was upset with him and the replay because it was evidence of his error. They accepted that they were wrong but they couldn’t do anything other than [say] ‘What can we do to make it up?’ ‘

Aguirre said his team had trouble getting over the mistake, and that may have changed the course of the game.

‘That mistake is what caused us to lose our composure, our concentration,’ he said. ‘They showed the replay on the scoreboard. There was a lot of confusion for a few minutes and I think that got us out of our game.’

-- Kevin Baxter in Johannesburg