Penalty Kick Decides Game

A questionable penalty kick awarded by Jamaican referee Peter Prendergast led to Costa Rica’s 1-0 victory over Canada on Thursday evening in the opening round of the Gold Cup.

Canada’s Patrice Bernier, who later was ejected for another foul, was judged to have handled the ball in the penalty area and Costa Rica’s Jafet Soto made no mistake with the resulting kick, beating Canadian goalkeeper Greg Sutton high to his left in the 30th minute.

“I have to look at the penalty again,” Canada Coach Frank Yallop said. “It didn’t look to me like a blatant penalty kick, so you’ve got to make sure it is in these competitions because points are very vital.

“I think a tie or a win for us would have been probably fair. We put everything into the match and we should have got something out of it. It’s very frustrating to come away with no points.”

--Grahame L. Jones