CONCACAF Gold Cup 2015
Mexico stretched their lead as the most successful nation in CONCACAF. Mexico won the completion with a side dish of controversy.
The 13th edition of the CONCACAF Gold Cup was once again hosted by United States. This time around the United States co-hosted the tournament with their northern neighbors Canada. The venue was in 14 cities, with 13 of them in the United States and 1 in Canada.
According to FIFA, Canada was the lowest ranked side in the tournament, while Costa Rica was the highest ranked team at the start of the tournament. Being ranked as the least threatening side made it a no surprise early exit for the co-host. Being a former winner and co-host did not stop Canada from being at the bottom of Group B at the end of the preliminary round. Canada failing to make it to the knockout stage and exited the tournament without scoring no goal.
With the exception of Canada winning the CONCACAF Gold Cup in 2000, the United States and Mexico have tossed the trophy between themselves. It’s no surprise that they were the favorites.
Mexico
The eventual champions; Mexico, remained the only team to go through the competition without a defeat. Despite their impressive defensive record, they were sometimes wasteful in front of the goal. Mexico could not top their group. They were in ‘Group C’ with Trinidad and Tobago, Cuba and Guatemala. No offense to the fans of these teams, but Mexico shouldn’t have had a hard time in their group. But football is not played on paper. Mexico came in second to Trinidad and Tobago, and their only win in that group in a heavy defeat of Cuba, 6-0.
Mexico vs Trinidad and Tobago was a match that is worth re-watching. The match ended a 4-4 draw, as both nations can beat themselves over letting a win slip away, and/or praise their abilities to find a solution to a potential defeat.
Mexico opened the scoring, Paul Aguilar sent the Mexican into halftime with a 1-0 lead. Carlos Vela doubled this lead five minutes into the second half. Four minutes after Vela’s goal, the Trinidadians started their comeback with a goal from Keron Cummings. Not too long after Cumming cutting the Mexican lead in half, Kenwyne Jones equalized to make the score 2-2. Pressure was on, when Cummings found the net again with a superb side footed shot from quite an acute angle in the 67th minute to make it a 3-2. For the first time in the match Trinidad and Tobago was leading. Mexico had blown a lead, and a chance at a draw. Deep into regulation, a superb shot from Andres Guardado scored for Mexico in the 88th minute, making the score 3-3. Two minutes after Guardado’s equalizer, Kenwyne Jones’s ‘own goal’ in the 90th minute gave Mexico a 4-3 lead. Trinidad and Tobago had blown a lead, and a chance at a draw.
‘It was all over, Mexico is definitely walking away with all 3 points as expected.’ – says a man who is new to futbal. A late late equalizer from Yohance Marshall tied the match at 4-4.
Having the final equalizer of the competition, and the expectations before the game, might have made the 4-4 draw feel like a win for Trinidad and Tobago.
Knockout stages
In the knockout stage of the competition, Mexico needed penalties to advance into the final. All their penalties happened at the end of a half, at the dying ends of a half. This tempered with a lot of emotions.
In the quarter final match against Costa Rica, it took a really late penalty kick for Mexico to win. The game had ended in a draw, and the additional 30 minutes of extra time had expired into an additional 4 minutes of ‘additional time’. Basing it on performance, Mexico deserved the win, but they didn’t get it the traditional way, and that might not sit well with the neutrals and Costa Rican fans.
Two penalties were also need to dispose Panama in the semifinals. Panama took the lead 12 minutes into the second half, courtesy of Roman Torres. Mexico had a late penalty at the end of regulation to send the game into extra time. And at the end of the first half of extra time, they had another penalty to grab the winning goal.
United States of America
The other favorite was also the defending champions and host. United States are always expected to produce great results in CONCACAF. They are a giant in the confederation. United States entered the competition to close up the gap on Mexico’s success in the CONCACAF. As defending champions and host nation, USA looks to have an easy ride to the final whistle. The most difficulty we expected the Americans to have was with Mexico. But even then, Mexico hadn’t beaten USA in their past 6 meetings before the tournament.
In a group with Haiti Panama and Honduras, it wouldn’t sound crazy to expect that the Americans will top their group with maximum points. They did top their group, but failed to get maximum points as a result of Panamanian stubborn defense. Two wins out of three, and a draw is not the worst thing in the world.
The quarter final was a blast for the Americans. Cuba was the opposition, and they were at the end of another 6-0 thrashing. Cuba had already suffered a 6-0 loss in the group stages to Mexico.
Maybe the easiness of the quarter final dulled up the attack of USA when they met Jamaica in the semifinal. By the time the Americans woke up from the hangover from their quarter final win, they were down 2-0 to Jamaica. Two goals in the last 15 minutes of the first half from Jamaica’s Darren Mattocks and Giles Barnes woke USA up. The attempt to come back started in the second half when Michael Bradley scored right at the start of the second half. Bradley’s goal placed everyone on the edge of their seat for the rest of the match. Despite having a questionable man behind the sticks, Jamaica’s tactics worked to eliminate the remaining host nation.
Exiting a competition in the semifinal stage is not necessarily a bad performance, but when you are the USA, and it’s a CONCACAF tournament, and Mexico is not the opposition, it is seen as a failure.
Jamaica
No Caribbean side had won the competition, or even got to the final of the CONCACAF Gold Cup. And after losing all their matches in the Copa America, Jamaican fans might have come into this competition with dented hopes.
Things were different this time around. Many will say competition was stronger in Copa America than the Gold Cup. Jamaica shared their group with Costa Rica, El Salvador and the co-host; Canada. The only team in that could stop a Jamaican victory was Costa Rica, who played a 2-2 draw with the eventual finalist. Jamaica topped their group, battled Haiti in a close 1-0 win, disposed an offensively challenged USA and arrived the final to meet a Mexican team that had broken some hearts along the way. A Caribbean team had eventually arrived at the finals of the CONCACAF Gold Cup.
The Final
Despite Mexico getting to the final in an unconventional way, Jamaica was no match for Mexico. Mexico dominated the match, and to be fair, they dominated most of their matches. Mexico had something to prove. They had to win a match in the knockout stage without penalty kicks. A comprehensive margin was required to make the victory a convincing one. The 3-1 score line at the end of the match was exactly should have met the requirement for the score line the Mexicans hoped for.
Group A finished as
- USA – 7 points
- Haiti – 4 points
- Panama – 3 points
- Honduras -1 point
Group B finished as
- Jamaica – 7 points
- Costa Rica – 3 points
- El Salvador – 2 points
- Canada – 2 points
Group C finished as
- Trinidad and Tobago – 7 points
- Mexico – 6 points
- Cuba – 3 points
- Guatemala – 1 point
Top Goalscorers
- Clint Dempsey (USA) – 7 goals
- Andres Guardado ( Mexico) – 6 goals
- Oribe Peralta –(Mexico) – 6 goals
Highest scoring sides
- Mexico – 16 goals
- United States – 12 goals
- Trinidad and Tobago – 10 goals
- Jamaica – 8 goals
- Panama – 6 goals
Lowest scoring sides
- Canada – 0 goals
- El Salvador – 1 goal
- Guatemala – 1 goal
- Cuba – 1 goal
- Haiti – 2 goals
- Honduras – 2 goals
