Photo by Mike DiNovo/USA Today Sports
By DEVIN ELLIS
There was some high-scoring action in Group C of the Gold Cup last night, as Trinidad & Tobago took care of Guatemala in a 3-1 victory, and Mexico showed no signs of slowing down despite its injury woes, walloping Cuba 6-0.
In Chicago, Mexico made an example of Cuba in front of a huge Mexican contingent at Solider Field.
El Tri’s first goal in the 16th minute was a scrappy one, and after a few blocked shots in the Cuban box, the ball bounced to Oribe Peralta, who finally smashed it past the Cubans on their goal line. In the 36th minute, Peralta got his second when the ball came to him at the edge of the box after some neat passing from Mexico, and he slotted the ball into the goal.
In the 22nd minute, Mexico scored again. The Cuban defenders, unable to clear their lines, let the ball bounce in their box, allowing Carlos Vela to take advantage and shoot past Cuban goal keeper Diosvely Guerra Santiesteban.
In the 43rd minute, Antonio Rios played a lovely forward ball onto the head of Mexican captain Andrés Guardado, whose looping header beat Santiesteban for El Tri’s third of the match.
After halftime, the Mexican deluge continued. In the 61st minute Vela played a ball into the box which the Cuban defense were unable to clear, and it fell right to Peralta’s feet who converted from a yard out to complete his hat trick.
Mexico’s sixth and last goal came in the 74th minute, when a ball went from midfield over the top of the Cuban defense, which Giovanni Dos Santos controlled well and finished even better.
In the night’s other action, it only took T&T 10 minutes to open the scoring against Guatemala, when, on a Khaleem Hyland corner kick, Sheldon Bateau muscled his way in front of his man and volleyed home from close range.
Just three minutes later, T&T were on the scoreboard again. After some dreadful defending, the Guatemalan back line were unable to clear the ball, which bounced to the feet of Cordell Cato, who took the ball around Ricardo Jerez with ease and put his team two goals up.
In the 25th minute, Joevin Jones tried to play a ball through to Cato, but Jerez palmed the ball away. The Guatemalan keeper’s clearance fell back to Jones’ feet, and he struck a shot first time for his team’s third of the match.
The storm of Trinidadian attacks slowed down after that, and in the 60th minute, Guatemalan captain Carlos Ruiz got a goal back for his team after taking teammate’s Carlos Castillo Alonzo’s header down in stride and blasting the ball into the top-right corner, giving goalkeeper Jan Williams no chance. Although Guatemala pressured Trinidad & Tobago with some efforts late in the match, Ruiz’s goal was the last of the game.
Group C will be in action again on July 12th, when Trinidad & Tobago takes on Cuba, while Guatemala plays Mexico.
I just heard on ESPN that Guardado has a pre contract with an MLS team snd will play with them next year
Cuba would’ve had a representative in the World Cup had they allowed Osvaldo Alonso play for his adopted country, the USA. Most here would agree he is a better choice than Beckie, however, I don’t know that Klinsie would’ve taken him.
Someone needs to tell these guys to press the “DEFECT” button a little early. Like at halftime.
The interesting policy question is how long dry foot/wet foot lasts if relations are normalized. If that is a question then you might see people defect in greater numbers now before any rules are changed moving towards a more normal visa lottery type situation.
I’m buyin’ beach front in Havana. 10 years, that place’ll be hoppin’.
Mexico should have hung double-digits on Cuba. That was absurd. But a defection and six players + their head coach being stuck in Antigua with VISA issues tell me Cuba still has a long way to go in soccer and in having normalized relations with America.
Feel bad for Ariel Martinez. The guy’s a really nice player who would look good in MLS, but he’s stuck in the Cuban League. The rest of the team looked clueless.
Tournament ain’t over yet, I remember watching Maykel Galindo thinking he’d help someone and soon enough he was. The reality for Cuba is it is always interesting who returns home from these events.
So looks like confirmation from the Spanish commentators Gio Dos Santos will join the LA Galaxy. Announcement will be made after the Gold Cup.
I heard the same but on Fox Sports1. Alexi touched on it for a brief moment.
Does playing such a weak opponent really help Mexico? Cuba were terrible.
It looked more like a scrimmage than a competitive match.
Agreed. Cuba were worse than my pub league team last night. They looked like a high school side.
This was actually their baseball team they threw out there.
Cuba has one acknowledged defector already, as well as 6 players and a coach who cryptically are “stuck in Antigua” and haven’t made it yet. So let’s be nice.
I don’t get this line of argument, or the similar line about how we don’t deserve better marketing or coverage of the event because some of the teams are soft. The best few in the region made the knockout rounds last year, and Mexico will eventually face them. Those games are as worthy as anything in the Euros and more relevant to an American. I mean, what’s the idea, that they should, like, skip the tournament or something? The draw is what it is. This is an end in itself, not preparation. If you play Saudi Arabia at the World Cup, do we say, “doesn’t really help?” You take your W and move on (sometimes they don’t, recall the USA-Haiti tie a few years back).