After a night of chaos at the Gold Cup regional tournament, the national team from Panama gathered for a picture, waved to the camera and held up a banner.
Only no one was smiling. And the waves were actually thumbs-down gestures of disgust and disdain.
“Concacaf ladrones,” the banner said.
Thieves.
Beneath that accusatory declaration, “Corruptos” was written three times, as if once were not nearly enough to describe the fecklessness of soccer’s governing body for the North American, Central American and Caribbean region.
There was plenty of blame to go around – questionable decisions by the referee, threatening acts by players and debris-hurling fans — during the embarrassment of Mexico’s 2-1 victory over Panama on Wednesday in a Gold Cup semifinal at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.