USMNT-Paraguay descends into chaos with ‘very dangerous’ brawl

CHESTER, Pa. — There wasn’t much love at the end of the U.S. men’s national team’s friendly with Paraguay at the home of the MLS team that represents the City of Brotherly Love.

Tempers flared in the final minutes of the match when Alex Freeman and Paraguay’s Gustavo Gómez tussled over a ball after it had been kicked out of bounds, leading to a benches-clearing brawl that included USMNT head coach Mauricio Pochettino getting knocked to the ground.

Pochettino said he had been looking in another direction when he heard the scuffle break out, but when he turned to try and intervene, he was knocked down. “Lucky that [Paraguay coach] Gustavo Alfaro saw me and say, wait, and helped me with some staff.”

Initially, Freeman and Gómez were the only ones involved, but quickly, both teams came rushing over and punches were thrown amid the melee.

At one point, Freeman shoved a Paraguayan player outside of the main scrum after that player had a hold of the American defender.

A bottle was thrown toward the pitch from the stands as the scuffle was happening.

USMNT goalkeeper and New York City FC star Matt Freese said that he was happy to see his teammates rally and come to the aid of each other during the fight, but wasn’t happy about some of the things that occurred from the Paraguay side during it.

“There were a few cheap shots thrown from their end, to be honest,” he said. “But that’s part of being a team and we’re going to be standing up for each other no matter the end of the game, beginning of the game, middle of the game, on the sideline like that. That’s what it means to be a team.”

Freese joked that he’s never moved as quickly as he did to jump into the fray, but declined to say if he got a shot in.

“I’ll keep it diplomatic,” he responded.

Six yellow cards combined were assessed due to the fight and Omar Alderete was given a red card.

Pochettino called the melee a “very dangerous situation.”

“I don’t like this type of situation,” he said.