Mexico won their second successive Gold Cup last night, coming back from 2-0 to beat the USA 4-2 in the final.
The Americans looked well in control in the early stages and stormed into an early two-goal lead. Michael Bradley put them ahead with an eighth minute header from Freddy Adu’s corner and Landon Donovan, teed up by Clint Dempsey, made it two midway through the first half. But Pablo Barrera put Mexico back in the game six minutes later with a crisp finish from the edge of the area and Andres Guardado equalised in the 36th minute, reacting quickest after Giovani Dos Santos’ shot deflected off Eric Lichaj and left Tim Howard, who had not conceded a goal in 351 minutes prior to Barrera’s strike, stranded.
Barrera scored against just after the break – and after the Americans spurned a couple of good chances to equalise – Dos Santos sealed the victory with an impudent chip. The bad news for Fulham was that Carlos Salcido, having been passed fit for the final, had to go off injured during the first half. The defender was still in a buoyant mood afterwards, however:
It was a beautiful final and luckily we were able to finish it off with a victory. We wanted it. We’d been working hard for it all tournament long, and how great that we reached our goal in the end.
