Tag: CONCACAF Gold Cup

INGLEWOOD, Calif. — Santiago Giménez scored after an electrifying sprint in the 88th minute, and Mexico won the CONCACAF Gold Cup for the record ninth time with a 1-0 victory over Panama on Sunday night.

After Edson Álvarez slid to block Iván Anderson’s cross in the Mexico penalty area, Orbelín Pineda dribbled away and made a tremendous pass into the center circle. Giménez, 22-year-old Feyenoord forward, dribbled past Harold Cummings and outraced Cummings and Fidel Escobar into the penalty area. Giménez scuffed a bouncing left-foot shot over goalkeeper Orlando Mosquera for his fourth goal in 18 international appearances and his second of the tournament.

The goal by the Argentina-born Giménez, who came on as a substitute only three minutes earlier, set off a frenzied celebration at SoFi Stadium, packed with fans celebrating Mexico’s dramatic revival in this biennial CONCACAF tournament.

Several months after Mexico crashed out of the World Cup with its worst performance in nearly half a century, El Tri rebounded with an excellent tournament under interim manager Jaime Lozano, who took over the beleaguered program only a month ago.

Mexico, which allowed just two goals in its matches, has won this tournament more than all other nations combined. The U.S. has seven Gold Cup titles and Canada one.

Giménez’s late goal ended an unlikely Gold Cup run by Panama, which upset the U.S. in the semifinals to earn its third appearance in the final. Los Canaleros couldn’t get several solid scoring chances past veteran Mexican goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa.

Lozano, who coached Mexico’s Olympic team to a bronze medal in Tokyo two years ago, was hired to lead the Gold Cup campaign by Juan Carlos Rodríguez, who took over as Mexican Football Federation president only a month earlier.

While the Gold Cup is notorious for featuring half-strength national teams, Mexico began the final with eight starters who also started at the World Cup.

Mexico dominated play for most of the first half, but Panama defended impressively. Henry Martín appeared to put Mexico ahead in the 33rd minute with a close-range goal, but a video review several minutes after the play found him offside.

Pineda and Martín both had tantalizing chances in the 43rd minute, but Panama goalkeeper Orlando Mosquera stopped their consecutive point-blank shots.

Panama got its best scoring chance shortly after halftime, but Alberto Quintero put his header just wide of the far post. Edgar Barcenas had another good-looking chance in the 87th minute, but missed wide from outside the box.

Moments later, Gimenez scored his biggest goal for Mexico.

Anybody who thought the absence of the hosts’ national team would lead to an anticlimactic Gold Cup final doesn’t know Southern California very well: The sellout crowd south of downtown Los Angeles was overwhelmingly dominated by fans of El Tri, which is treated like the home team whenever it plays in this area — even against the American team.

But this victory is an impressive reversal for Mexico, which failed to get out of World Cup group play in Qatar for the first time since 1978. That disappointment led to coach Tata Martino’s departure and Diego Cocca’s brief tenure before the arrival of Lozano, who largely relied on the core of his Olympic team at the Gold Cup.

Just a month after frustrated Mexican fans boycotted the third-place match of the Nations League in Las Vegas against Panama, that passionate base returned in full voice to the Los Angeles Rams’ palatial NFL stadium.

Panama barely missed the World Cup last year, yet kept Spanish coach Thomas Christiansen. The decision paid off with inspired play in the Gold Cup, culminating in the nation’s first trip to the final since 2013 with a victory over the host U.S. on penalties in San Diego.

SoFi put down natural grass for the Gold Cup final instead of its usual artificial turf for American football, and the seams in the sod were very visible in a few places. The $5 billion stadium is in contention to host the World Cup final in 2026, but seems unlikely to get it due to the narrowness of the field.

___

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

ST. LOUIS — Jesús Ferreira scored his second international hat trick, Djordje Mihailovic had two goals and the 13th-ranked United States overwhelmed No. 139 St. Kitts and Nevis 6-0 on Wednesday night in the CONCACAF Gold Cup.

Mihailovic, Bryan Reynolds and Ferreira scored in a 3:50 span to build a 3-0 lead by the 16th minute. The U.S. outshot St. Kitts 34-2.

“We know that we had to come out here and gain points, gain goals, and I think the team went out there and took care of business,” Ferreira said.

Ferreira has 11 goals in 20 appearances and became the fastest American to double-digit goals, accomplishing the feat in three games fewer than Clint Mathis. Seven of Ferreira’s goals have been against St. Kitts and then-No. 170 Grenada.

Ferreira became the fifth American with multiple hat tricks behind Landon Donovan with three, and Peter Millar, Jozy Altidore and Clint Dempsey with two each. Ferreira was the only American starter who played at last year’s World Cup, appearing in the first half of the second-round loss to the Netherlands.

Mihailovic also had two assists for the defending champion Americans, who matched their largest Gold Cup victory margin, also 6-0 against Cuba in 2015 and Trinidad in 2019.

The U.S., which needed a late goal for a 1-1 opening draw against Jamaica, leads Group A with four points. Trinidad and Tobago has three, Jamaica one and St. Kitts none. The top two teams advance and the U.S. needs merely a draw against Trinidad on Sunday at Charlotte, North Carolina.

“Tonight was one more step forward for us,” U.S. interim coach B.J. Callaghan said.

St. Kitts, which became the U.S.’s 100th international opponent. dropped to 0-2 as the U.S. improved to 39 wins, one loss and five draws in the Gold Cup group stage.

Making his first start since June 2019, Mihailovic put the U.S. ahead in the 12th minute before a crowd of 21,216 with a left foot shot from the side of the penalty spot after a cut-back pass from Gianluca Busio.

Reynolds, playing on his 22nd birthday, beat Julani Archibald with a 20-yard volley in the 14th after Alejandro Zendejas’ corner kick bounced twice across the penalty area. He became the first American to score an international goal on his birthday since Earnie Stewart against Honduras in 2001.

Ferreira dribbled into the penalty area following a Busio pass, scoring on a 12-yard angled shot in the 16th to give the U.S. three competitive goals in the shortest span in team history. Ferreira then got past an offside trap to score between the goalkeeper’s legs from a Mihailovic feed in the 25th.

Ferreira added his third from short range in the 50th and Mihailovic added his third international goal in the 79th.

Callaghan inserted seven new starters from last weekend’s opener, adding goalkeeper Sean Johnson, Reynolds at right back, central defender Jalen Neal and left back DeJuan Jones along with Busio and Mihailovic in midfield and forward Cale Cowell. The holdovers were defender Matt Miazga and midfielder James Sands along with Ferreira and Alex Zendejas up front.

Johnson captained the U.S. for the first time.

In the first game, No. 63 Jamaica beat 104th-ranked Trinidad and Tobago 4-1. Demarai Gray, playing on his 26th birthday, scored in the 14th and 30th minutes for his first two international goals. Leon Bailey scored in the 18th and Dujuan Richards got a goal in the second minute of second-half stoppage time. Andre Rampersad scored for the Soca Warriors in the 49th.

___

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

LAS VEGAS — Having scored his first goal for the United States and won his first medal, Folarin Balogun looked to a future that includes a 2026 World Cup co-hosted by America.

“I’ve only here a short amount of time, but already I feel a part of it and I feel a part of something bigger,” he said.

Balogun and Chris Richards scored their first international goals, both off assists from Gio Reyna, and the U.S. beat Canada 2-0 on Sunday night for the Americans’ second straight CONCACAF Nations League title.

“It’s another step in the right direction,” U.S. captain Christian Pulisic said. “It’s just going to be about these knockout games. Come those big tournaments, Copa América, World Cup, it’s time to get tough. We got to step up and score the goals when it counts and keep them out of our goal.”

Richards scored in the 12th minute from Reyna’s corner kick, bouncing a header from 7 yards to the left of goalkeeper Milan Borjan for his first goal in 10 international appearances.

Balogun, who debuted in Thursday’s 3-0 win over Mexico after choosing to play the U.S. over England, doubled the lead in the 34th when he took a feed from Reyna and held off Scott Kennedy with his right arm to slot past Borjan.

“We’re looking beyond to the 2026 World Cup, and we need to perform in high-intensity knockout games,” interim coach B.J. Callaghan said. “That’s something that we learned from the World Cup.”

Callaghan took over May 30 and also will run the team in the CONCACAF Gold Cup starting next weekend. Gregg Berhalter, brought back as coach Friday 5 1/2 months after his contract was allowed to expire, won’t return to the sidelines until September exhibitions.

Before a crowd of just 35,000 at Allegiant Stadium, the U.S. extended its home unbeaten streak against Canada to 22 games dating to 1957. Canada remained without a title since the 2000 Gold Cup.

Reyna sparked both goals from a central midfield role rather than the wing Berhalter used him on, then left at halftime with a calf injury and was replaced by Luca de a Torre. Reyna’s lack of hustle in training at the World Cup and his family’s angry response created the controversy that let to Berhalter’s January departure.

“It shows his quality that’s on the field, his ball security, his ability to take on two or three players and connect passes,” Callaghan said. “We’ve challenged Gio to do more work off the ball on the defensive side, and he’s absolutely risen to the occasion.”

Before Richards’ goal, the Americans had not scored from a corner kick since Jordan Morris’ goal at El Salvador on June 14 last year.

“I definitely know I didn’t play that much this year, but I know what I can bring,” said Richards, who had just four Premier League starts and nine appearances for Crystal Palace.

Callaghan made three changes from Thursday, inserting central defender Walker Zimmerman for Miles Robinson and midfielder Brenden Aaronson and right back Joe Scally for Weston McKennie and Sergiño Dest, both suspended after getting red cards against El Tri.

Canada coach John Herdman said the 6-foot-3 Zimmerman and 6-foot-2 Richards were difficult to defend against.

“We’re just not in that killer area of the pitch,” Herdman said. “We’ve talked about this post-World Cup. It’s in the boxes where Canada’s suffering. You don’t get time to work with the players. There’s no time. But we need this September window. We need the resources where we can actually put a camp together, where I can work for six days on the things that make the biggest difference moving forward.”

NOTES: The game was streamed on Paramount+ while the CBS Sports Network broadcast the Canadian Football League and sprint cars. … Atiba Hutchinson didn’t get in the game, ending his Canada career with 104 appearances. … Mexico beat Panama 1-0 in the third-place match on Jesús Gallardo’s fourth-minute goal. Aníbal Godoy’s apparent equalizer on a 55th-minute bicycle kick was disallowed in a video review for offside, and 76th-minute penalty kick awarded to Mexico by Jamaican referee Daneon Parchment also was reversed in a video review.

___

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/Soccer and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports