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Gold Cup Final: USA vs. Mexico (Matchday Commentary)

USA Crest    MexicoLogo

The USA-Mexico rivalry is ready to resume today as the the U.S. national team takes on 'El Tri' in the CONCACAF Gold Cup final at Giants Stadium today (3pm, Fox Soccer Channel/Univision).

The Americans are looking to win a third straight Gold Cup while Mexico is looking to win its first match vs. the USA on American soil in almost a decade.

I will be providing commentary throughout the day so please feel free to follow the match here. As always, you are welcome to share your own thoughts and opinions in the comments section below.

Enjoy the action (USA lineup after the jump):

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FINAL- That's all for me. Please feel free to share your post-game thoughts on this debacle in the comments section below (And yes, I'm banning and deleting as we speak since things have turned a bit crazy).

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FINAL– Mexican fans break out a "Yes we could!" chant. They're loving this trophy presentation.

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FINAL– In the end, Mexico brought a better team to the Gold Cup and the Americans ultimately wound up paying the price for keeping and fielding such a young and understrength squad this far into the tournament.

If Bob Bradley's ultimate goal was to really test this young group of players to see who could handle the rigors of more important games, then he certainly learned plenty in this tournament. If Bradley's ultimate goal was to win a trophy, he has only himself to blame for this result.

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FINAL– Giovani Dos Santos is chosen as game MVP. Jay Heaps finished second in the voting. 

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FINAL– Mexico 5, USA 0.

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90th Minute– This is actually not the worst loss to Mexico ever. here are some worse ones:

1957- Mexico 6, USA 0

1949- Mexico 6, USA 0

This IS the worst loss to Mexico on American soil in U.S. national team history.

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90th Minute– The last time Mexico scored five vs. the USA? A 5-1 drubbing in 1980 in Mexico City.

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90th Minute– 79,156 is the attendance. Lots of witnesses to this slaughter.

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88th Minute– GOAL MEXICO!!!! Guille Franco buries one from 20 yards out. Mexico 5, USA 0.

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87th Minute– Heaps with a second yellow card for a clumsy challenge.

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84th Minute– It's as if the American defenders have never seen a team switch fields with long passes.

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82nd Minute– For those wondering, Castro did a Michael Jackson tribute with a crotch grab.

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81st Minute– Sam Cronin is coming into the match. Kyle Beckerman exits. One of the few players to keep it together even during this late meltdown.

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80th Minute– Jose Antonio Castro with the fourth goal, off another pass from Castro.

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79th Minute– GOAL MEXICO!!!! 4-0. Wow, this is ugly.

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74th Minute– Dos Santos misses wide with a dangerous shot.

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72nd Minute– So how many of these U.S. players will start on Aug. 12 in the World Cup qualifier? Aside from Brian Ching, I doubt any of the eleven have a legitimate chance of starting. How many of the Mexican players could start? Ochoa, Magallon, Torrado, Vela and Dos Santos are all good bets.

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71st Minute– Mexico is having fun now, though not as much as Javier Aguirre, who delivered some lively fist pumps after the third goal. He's enjoying this one. Doing slightly better than the last time he coached against the United States.

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69th Minute– The crowd is going nuts here. The American defense was just completely overwhelmed by Mexico's speed.

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67th Minute– GOAL MEXICO!!! Carlos Vela finishes a great run and pass by Dos Santos. They've shredded the USA defense in the past 10 minutes. Mexico 3, USA 0.

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66th Minute– Holden with another turnover. The Americans are showing their inexperience today.

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64th Minute– As bad as the PK call was, there's no excuse for the defensive breakdowns here.

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63rd Minute– Cooper and Quaranta are in, Pause and Arnaud are out.

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62nd Minute- GOAL MEXICO!!!! Dos Santos with the finish. Another Mexico breakaway. Holden with the turnover, and Mexico makes them pay. Mexico 2, USA 0.

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60th Minute– SAVE PERKINS!!!! Vela on the breakaway but Perkins makes a clutch kick save. WOW.

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59th Minute– PERKINS SAVE!!! TWICE. What is going on with the USA defense?  Mexico is finding tons of space.

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57th Minute– Should be interesting to see how this changes the game. Will Mexico keep attacking? Will Bob Bradley make an attacking sub (Kenny Cooper)? Will the ref provide a make-up call for that tragic decision?

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56th MinuteGOAL MEXICO. Torrado finishes the penalty.

Dos Santos elbowed Heaps in the face, Heaps goes down in a heap, and the ref awards Mexico a penalty. Shocking.

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55th Minute– PENALTY!!! Ref awards Mexico a penalty. Dos Santos looks to have taken a dive there.

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54th Minute– Dos Santos gets by Marshall on the right flank but his cross finds nobody. Mexico is working the wings well. Aguirre has identified the weak spots in the back for the USA.

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52nd Minute– Torrado passes it off the ref, leading to a USA breakaway. Had some flashbacks to the USA win in Glendale, Arizona when a Mexico pass off the ref led to Landon Donovan's breakaway goal.

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50th Minute– Heaps just got skinned.

Rogers with a shot right at Ochoa, needs a much better shot to beat the Mexican keeper.

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50th Minute– Mexico corner kick.

They're assaulting the wings early on. It's clear what the instructions were.

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49th Minute– Rogers with a nice tackle on Dos Santos in the area. Dos Santos is working the right flank now.

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48th Minute– Rogers HIGH. A good look from 12 yards out goes over by a foot.

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47th Minute– Vela's inclusion means Dos Santos can slide over to the wing, with Vela joining Sabah up top. Medina had been awful.

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46th Minute– Carlos Vela has come into the match.

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HALFTIME– USA 0, Mexico 0. Pretty even game. Both teams have had chances, but neither has really taken a hold of this game. Who will step up in the second half? 

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45th Minute– Mexico on the counter again. But no, Alberto Medina sends another shot wide.

That's where Dos Santos wants to be, in space with the ball, running at the USA attack. He's so good but his teammates aren't stepping up.

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44th Minute– Marshall CLUTCH with a defensive intervention on a Mexico breakaway. Goodson nearly let Mexico in for a goal with a poorly-timed slide tackle that opened up a Mexico counter.

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42nd Minute– Mexico struggling to create in the final third. They need a more creative player in central midfield since Dos Santos seems to be parked higher up the field (where Marshall has done a good job on him).

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40th Minute– Pause with the turnover on the long pass attempt. Mexico hasn't found much in the middle of the field so it hasn't bee a totally bad game for Pause but he's on a yellow and has had some nervy moments.

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36th Minute– Neither team has really put a stamp on the game yet. Mexico has looked deadly on the counter, while the USA has had a few nice sequences.

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34th Minute– Beckerman goes wide with a shot from the arc. Definitely had a Panama flashback there, but it wasn't to be.

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33rd Minute– USA corner off a bad mexico header. This Mexican defense is definitely vulnerable.

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32nd Minute– Guillermo Ochoa has enjoyed a strong tournament for Mexico and isn't going to be easy to beat today.

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31th Minute– Sabah header wide.

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30th Minute– Mexico corner kick.

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28th Minute– HOLDEN WIDE!!!!!! He had a clear look from distance and sends it wide. Great sequence.

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27th Minute– Ching is ruled offside on a sequence and Pause gets a yellow for shooting into the goal after the whistle. Not sure how he would have heard that whistle, but it was pretty late.

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24th Minute– Heaps with a yellow card for a hard foul.

USA doing well to shadow Dos Santos.

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23rd Minute– Americans started out well, but they need to be careful not to let Mexico start finding its rhythm.

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21st Minute– Beckerman with an unforced turnover. Americans need to do much better with the ball.

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20th Minute– Mexico with a good stretch of possession. USA looking a bit nervous in that sequence. Beckerman and Pause need to slow things down.

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18th Minute– Logan Pause looking shaky early on.

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17th Minute– Goodson is back on the field.

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17th Minute– USA is playing a man down right now.

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16th Minute– Looks like Goodson caught a head to the face ala Jimmy Conrad vs. Panama.

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14th Minute– USA with a chance on the corner but Ching's shot is blocked. Goodson is down on the ground.

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13th Minute– USA with another corner off a long free kick.

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12th Minute– The field definitely looks to be playing slow, which is to be expected from two-day-old grass.

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11th Minute– USA is holding its own early with some useful possession. No real chances yet though.

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9th Minute– USA wins a corner. Holden's hit a few good ones.

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8th Minute– Dos Santos sent the springing pass on that chance. He's so hard to defend because he floats all over.

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6th Minute– Chad Marshall is paying extra attention to Gio Dos Santos today, as he should considering Dos Santos is far and away Mexico's most dangerous player.

DANGEROUS Mexico cross finds nobody.

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4th Minute– This is a bit of a defensive-minded Mexico lineup, with Aguirre looking like he's emphasizing possession early.

USA on the move but can't break down Mexico's back-line.

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2nd Minute– Mexicans start out with some possession. They're looking like they're going to start the match slowly. Makes sense considering they just went to PKs on Thursday night.

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1st Minute– We're underway.

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PRE-GAME– It's a sellout crowd tonight and I'd say it's at least 80 percent Mexican. Sam's Army/American Outlaws are filling out 101 nicely though.

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PRE-GAME– The anthems have been played and we're getting close to kickoff.

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PRE-GAME– No Carlos Vela in the starting lineup for Mexico. He's still working his way back from an injury suffered earlier in the tournament. He's a safe bet to be a second-half substitute.

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PRE-GAME– Here is Mexico's lineup:

————-Miguel-Sabah——-Gio Dos Santos————–

Alberto Medina———————————-Efrain Juarez

———–Gerardo Torrado——-Jose Castro—————–

Fausto Pinto————————————–Israel Castro

————-JC Valenzuela———–Jonny Magallon———–

————————–Guillermo-Ochoa———————–

BENCH– Jose Corona, Ismael Rodriguez, Guillermo Franco, Carlos Vela, Pablo Barrera, Carlos Esquivel, Luis Miguel Noriega

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PRE-GAME– ESPN2 is airing a one-hour pre-game show previewing today's Gold Cup final. The show started at 2pm for those of you watching at home.

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PRE-GAME- Bob Bradley sticks with the same lineup from the semifinal. Not that surprising considering how well they played vs. Honduras, but I was wondering if the short turnaround would play a role in choosing the lineup. 

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PRE-GAME– Here's the USA bench:

Jon Busch, Brad Evans, Kenny Cooper, Santino Quaranta, Colin Clark, Sam Cronin, Michael Parkhurst

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PRE-GAME– Here is the USA lineup:

————-Ching———–ARnaud—————-

Rogers————————————–Holden

———-Beckerman———Pause—————–

Pearce—–Marshall——Goodson———Heaps

———————Perkins————————-

Comments

  1. Breaking news… Mexico’s B team is 5 goals better than our C/D team. Big whoop.

    People need to quit calling this our B team, though. Our B team is listed below. How many of these guys were out there yesterday?

    ———–Guzan————–

    Cherundolo—Demerit—Califf—-Bornstein

    Torres——Edu——Feilhaber—-Beasley

    ——Ching/Davies——-Casey/Johnson—–

    Sour grapes my ass. Facts are facts.

    Reply
  2. Being as there is 600+ comments now, I doubt too many people will continue to post but love the quote from Brian Ching:

    “I’m pissed. If you’re an American and you’re not pissed then there’s something wrong with you. We’ve just got to channel this anger, use it, and bring it with us on Aug. 12.”

    Reply
  3. sup – then place some of the blame on the players. Everyone always want to blame the manager for every single thing, but if the players are pro’s, then the blame needs to be laid at their feet as well. We dropped our heads and ran out of gas. Do I like the result? Absolutely not, but to call for the managers head EVERY SINGLE TIME EVERY LITTLE THING doesn’t go our way is stupid and ignorant. Yes, you’ve lost the plot. What a wonderful idea you guys seem to want – replace manager everytime we don’ play well so we will be in a CONSTANT state of turnover. Brilliant.

    Bradley accomplished in this tournament what he set out to accomplish. Do you follow our national team?? When this initial line-up was announced, I had no illusions of winning the final, if we even made it that far. From here out, you will see our full teams and I’d be willing to wager with you that we don’t lose 5-0 & qualify for the World Cup – which is all that matters.

    Reply
  4. The Mexican fans were terrible in section 122… We were also the target of bottles being thrown, and beer spraying…

    I was certainly the only one paying taxes in the section…LOL

    It really opened up my eyes to the amount of illegals we have in this country..

    They live in this country, and have no respect for america or americans…

    Reply
  5. Remember that the Gold Cup is a regional tourny and that CONCACAF chooses stadiums for maximal payoff. Just as it pisses me off that I was there representing with less than 20% of the attendance, I realize that the real game is played in Columbus for a reason.

    Reply

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