Mexicos Mateo Chavez red-carded after double-slapping USMNTs Sebastian Berhalter in wild scene

The USMNT beat rival Mexico on Saturday in a friendly that was anything but.Midway through the second half of the eventual 3-0 U.S.victory at State Farm Stadium in Arizona, Mateo Chavez fouled Yunus Musah, prompting Sebastian Berhalter to confront Chavez and shove him.Yet Chavez decided he wasn’t going to go down without a fight and the Mexico star slapped his rival with both hands at the same time.Berhalter, who is the son of former coach Gregg Berhalter, grabbed his right cheek and fell to the ground as the referee came over and fellow American Alex Freeman shoved Chavez away.

Chavez was issued a red card and was removed from the game after hardly 20 minutes.The Mexico defender’s sending off started some chaos among the two teams and USMNT head coach Mauricio Pochettino and staff ran onto the field to help separate the two teams.The American men scored two of their three goals in the second half, including Cavan Sullivan’s score that benefited from a huge error by Mexico goalkeeper Raul Rangel to get a 2-0 lead.He intercepted a pass from Rangel before lifting the ball past the goalie from far outside the box.

The goal went down as the 17-year-old’s first with the USMNT, making him the youngest goal-scorer in the program’s history.Julian Hall opened the scoring in the first half for the stars and stripes while Malik Tillman had the third goal before the final whistle.Pochettino, who signed an extension with U.S.

Soccer, is rebuilding and retooling his team after suffering a World Cup heartbreaker with a brutal 4-1 loss to Belgium in the round of 16, missing the quarterfinals yet again.Saturday’s win was the team’s third in three games during this three-week international window.The USMNT faces Canada on Tuesday....