The ESPN referee specialist considers that the Chivas forward committed an infraction that merited a red card
The arbitration specialist of ESPN, Felipe Ramos Rizo pointed out that in the first half of the match between Chivas and the Bravos de Ciudad Juárez, the forward Ángel Zaldívar had to be sent off, after a strong foul in the early minutes of the game.
Through his Twitter account, the former World Cup referee emphasized that the Guadalajara attacker committed a tackle that deserved a red card, despite the foul being sanctioned with a yellow card.
"The first half ends in Guadalajara, Zaldívar should have been sent off in the 3rd minute, but he stayed with a yellow card," he wrote on the social media platform.
At the start of the match at Estadio Akron, Ángel Zaldívar arrived late to a play and delivered a hard tackle to the Juárez player, which immediately led the referee to issue a cautionary card.
Later, the play was reviewed through VAR, so the determination of the severity of the foul took a few minutes, however, the refereeing body decided not to sanction the expulsion of the Guadalajara forward.
Similarly, in the same Twitter post, Felipe Ramos Rizo emphasized that the two goals scored by Chivas in the first half were correctly annulled: "well annulled the goals for Chivas," he pointed out.
The first goal came from a series of rebounds in the area, so Carlos Cisneros took advantage and finished the play, however, the ball hit the hand of the Guadalajara defender, so the goal that would have put Chivas ahead was nullified.
Similarly, in Chivas' second goal, Hiram Mier was in an offside position, which is why the referee used VAR to penalize the offside and annul the second goal of the Rojiblanco team's afternoon.