Salomon Rondon converted a 57th-minute penalty kick, Rafael Romo denied Orbelin Pineda from the spot in the 87th and Venezuela stunned Mexico 1-0 on Wednesday night in Inglewood, Calif., to advance to the Copa America quarterfinals.
Rondon — Venezuela’s all-time leading scorer — coolly converted his 42nd international goal after Jon Aramburu got behind Julian Quinones, who clumsily took him down about a yard inside the right edge of the penalty area.
A half-hour later, Romo dived to his right to deny Pineda after referee Raphael Claus ruled, following a lengthy VAR review, that Miguel Navarro used his left arm to block Jorge Sanchez’s shot.
“Sometimes we were not in possession of the ball, but we never gave up,” Venezuela coach Fernando Batista said of his team, through an interpreter. “They give it their all to challenge the opponent, and that makes me very proud.”
Venezuela (2-0-0, 6 points) reached the next round with a game to spare in Group B. Mexico (1-1-0, 3 points) must now defeat Ecuador (1-1-0, 3 points) in both teams’ group finale to avoid being eliminated before the quarterfinals for the third time in its past four appearances as a guest nation at the CONMEBOL event.
The Mexico-Ecuador game is scheduled for Sunday in Glendale, Ariz., the same day Venezuela opposes already-eliminated Jamaica (0-2-0, 0 points) in Austin, Texas.
“If you generate opportunities as we did, if the man of the match is the opponent’s goalkeeper, yes, things weren’t as we expected,” lamented Mexico coach Jaime Lozano, through an interpreter. “But there are 90 minutes ahead. No one is getting off this ship. And we will make it.”
Mexico also saw its captain leave the match early for the second time in as many group games. This time defender Cesar Montes was removed at halftime after Edson Alvarez left injured on the half-hour mark in a 1-0 opening win over Jamaica on Saturday.
“I saw that he was with a level of discomfort in his groin, and at halftime they told us it was going to be complicated for him to play the second half,” Lozano said of Montes. “So tomorrow or maybe in a couple days we’ll have an answer, but today we can not say if we’re going to have him for the next match.”
Venezuela would win the group with a win or draw in their finale against Jamaica. That likely would allow the Vinotinto to avoid defending champion Argentina in the quarterfinal stage.
Romo’s penalty denial was one of his five stops to prevent favored Mexico from finding an equalizer, with the last two coming after Pineda’s miss.
Romo dived to his right to deny Cesar Huerta’s low drive in the 88th minute, then stood tall to block Guillermo Martinez’s effort from close range in the first minute of stoppage time.
Mexico was the superior team for the opening half hour, but Romo thwarted El Tri’s best early chance after Santiago Gimenez ran onto Luis Chavez’s throughball but connected weakly on his shot.
Venezuela grew into the game, with Rondon striking the right post with a dipping half volley in the 34th minute and Yeferson Soteldo forcing Julio Gonzalez’s near-post save in the 50th.
–Field Level Media
