The Olympic soccer spying scandal involving the Canadian women’s team generated most of the headlines in North America on Wednesday, with two staff members being sent home and coach Bev Priestman facing questions about her role in the drone-based espionage.
It made it easy to miss the news of an actual game that had its fair share of chaos.
Actually, chaos might be putting lightly what happened late in the opening-day men’s match between Argentina and Morocco.
With the North African side leading 2-1 deep into stoppage time, Argentina seemingly scored an equalizer.
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Moroccan fans stormed the field in protest while also throwing bottles and other objects at Argentina fans in the crowd. Officials sent both teams to their respective locker rooms as security cleared the field of pitch invaders.
But, despite the goal coming in the 16th minute of what was supposed to be 15 minutes of added time, the game wasn’t over. It had merely been suspended by officials.
The teams were called back onto the field roughly two hours later with the stadium empty to complete the final moments of the contest.
Play was set to resume after a brief warmup, but referee Glenn Nyberg confirmed that Argentina’s goal was being reviewed. After checking the pitch-side monitor, VAR showed that an Argentine player was offside in the buildup and the goal was disallowed, restoring Morocco’s 2-1 lead.
The teams played out the final three minutes of the match with Morocco holding on to score an upset win over the reigning World Cup champions.
Understandably, the Argentine coaching staff was not pleased.
“What happened on the field was a scandal,” said Argentina coach Javier Mascherano. “This isn’t a neighborhood tournament, these are the Olympic Games.”
Argentina’s soccer federation said it had filed a formal protest Wednesday to world governing body FIFA and would do “what is necessary” to guarantee the safety of players.
“Having to wait almost two hours in the dressing room, after Morocco fans entering the pitch, the violence that the Argentina delegation suffered, our players having to warm up again and continue to play a match that should have been suspended by the main referee, is really something that makes no sense and that goes against the competition rules,” Argentina Football Association president Claudio Tapia said.
Mascherano also called out a lack of communication from organizers about what was going to happen as they waited in the locker room during the delay.
“I can’t explain what happened. We spent about an hour and a half in the dressing room where they never told us what was going to happen,” Mascherano told reporters.
“The Moroccan captains didn’t want to play, we didn’t want to continue, and fans threw things at us. It’s the biggest circus I’ve ever seen in my life.”