By FRANCO PANIZO
The fifth day of Gold Cup action took place at FIU Stadium in Miami, Florida on Friday night, and it saw one team qualify for the knockout stages while another put on a finishing clinic.
Jamaica stayed in first place of Group B and reached the quarterfinals of the Gold Cup for the first time since 2005 with a 2-0 win over Guatemala. Jamaica (2-0-0) defeated a 10-man Guatemala side (0-1-1) courtesy of two second half goals from Demar Phillips. Cristian Noriega was sent off for Guatemala after receiving a second yellow in the 70th minute.
The second game of the night seemed more like a demolition derby than a soccer game as Honduras routed Grenada, 7-1. Clive Murray put Grenada (0-2-0) up in the 19th minute, but Honduras (1-0-1) responded with a flurry of goals. Carlos Costly netted a hat-trick and Jerry Bengston got a brace while Walter Martinez and Alfredo Mejia added a goal each.
Here are highlights from Friday's Group B matches:
Jamaica 2-0 Guatemala
Honduras 7-1 Grenada
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What did you think of Jamaica's win and qualification to the knockout stages? Surprised Honduras won by so much? Feeling bad for Guatemala and Grenada?
Share your thoughts below.
hahahahaha hahah , holding my gut, wait wait, hahahahahaha .
altidore > chicharito
I’m suprised no one is freaking out over the fact that Honduras won 7 – 1 and Costly had a hat trick. With the reactions being so extreme about Mexico getting a couple 5 – 0 results and Chicharito getting 5 goals in the matches. Funny how everyone expects grenada to get crushed but everyone is suprised when Cuba gets crushed.
After the Jack Warner stain has been removed from CONCACAF,…they should consider reducing the size of the GOld Cup. In this region, twelve teams are too many. In the current tournament there are three teams that simply do not have a chance,…Cuba, Grenada and Guadeloupe. So really all we are seeing is one or two teams fighting for a quarterfinal birth. [My money is on El Salvador heading home.]
Therefore,…the ‘finals’ should simply be two groups of four,…top two from each group advance to the semi-finals. This would make for much more meaningful group games.
Wouldn’t the groups be better if they were:
USA, Canada, Panama, Honduras and Mexico, Guatemala, Cost Rica, Jamaica?
Yeah, especially since there’s a good chance that both Guatemala and Honduras will end up with 4 points and goal difference will determine who advances (if Guatemala beats Grenada and Honduras loses to Jamaica).
What I thought was really tacky was the extreme celebration by the 7th goal scorer.
Could it be … Mexican beef?
Pretty tacky move by Honduras to run up the score when Grenada was clearly done, but I suppose the goal-differential tiebreaker does encourage it.
And their best player chose to stay with his club team during this tournament.
Also, their favorite sport is cricket.
Grenada’s time will unlikely come. They live on an island 22 miles long and a one digit number wide. Not a huge population to pick from. Jamaica is one of the largest land masses in the gulf.
Whoever edits these highlights–they are nearly unwatchable. Probably Jack Warner’s nephew or something.
wow the Grenadians just stopped defending for the fifth sixth and seventh goal.
If we play them, we could be in real trouble. We simply don’t have the speed to contain that many fast players. It’s like playing against a team of 5 Dane Richards. You have trouble containing 1 of them, and then there are 4 more.
Bornstein could match up, but Ream and Goodson and Dolo would have a nightmare of an afternoon. One positional mistake and the speed blows right by you.
Definitely a dark horse team in the tournament.
Jamaica could be a problem, but i dont see us making many changes if we play them. Maybe Bornstein replaces boca on the left to add some speed, but i can’t see a lot of changes that bradley would make. Not like we have a lightning fast wing player (chandler) we can slot in to help with the outside speed.
What a contrast in the two Caribbean teams. Grenada your time will come just keep playing important games.
Guatemala just buried themselves with their accumulation of red cards throughout this tournament. And poor Grenada has been used for soccer practice drills in this tournament. At least they scored a goal, though.
Usain Bolt clones.
Grenada with the porous defense.
Jamaica is other worldly quick. What are they feeding those guys down there?
Jeez… they could be a real problem. They are so incredibly fast lol
Something in the water down there. Looks like they have some technical ability up front to complement that speed, a dangerous combination.
Reggae Boys are FAST.
Dane Richards is like the 6th fastest person on the field.