A Dos Santos victimized the USMNT once again
Eight summers ago, at the Rose Bowl, it was Giovani Dos Santos scoring one of the best goals of his career at the 76th minute, signifying a 4-2 lead for the Mexicans, and thus securing Mexico its 6th ever Gold Cup title over the stars and stripes. Yesterday, after 72 minutes of scoreless football, it was Giovani’s younger brother, Jonathan, who struck the ball with his left boot and saw the ball soar to the bottom part of the crossbar and bounce straight to the back of the net.
Both teams began the match with 4-3-3 formations, clearly prepared to focus their attack on the flanks with speed or dribbling. But it was Gregg Berhalter’s side that had the upper hand in the opening moments. After only 7 minutes, Jozy Altidore had probably the clearest opportunity the entire game would present, as he shook off Héctor Moreno to end up missing a wide-open shot just left of the Mexican keeper Ochoa. And that wasn’t all.
The U.S. would try to lob in a few passes over the back of the slow and sloppy Mexican central defenders, who looked lost and confused in the first portion of the game. Through the first 20 minutes, the entire Mexican squad looked nervous and out of synch. The U.S. had allowed Mexico to survive. Had Altidore or anybody else scored one of those first half chances, the game would’ve been very different. The score though, remained tied at zero.
But Mexico would soon after start to settle in. They began to control possession as time went on and started to create attacking plays, especially on the left side of the U.S. defense. And even Rodolfo Pizarro (left winger) got in a couple dangerous plays on his side toward the end of the first half.
And that was it for Bradley and company. The U.S. never really showed signs of life offensively speaking in the second half, apart from Morris’ header 5 minutes in that was kept out at the line, and from there up until the dying moments of the game, when keeper Ochoa and central defender Moreno combined to keep out a couple of very dangerous balls. Even when Berhalter made the move we were all expecting (Zardes in for Altidore), this proved to even further their lack of playbuilding.
But for Tata Martino’s team, it was all the contrary. The assault was on. Mexico began its all-out attack on the U.S., as Pizarro touched the ball countless times, dribbled it into the box, crossed it, passed it along to teammates, even attempted a shot that went sailing over the bar. Guardado had a free kick and another shot just a couple of minutes later that both went over the bar as well. Raúl Jiménez got dropped a gift from a bad shot by Edson Álvarez and couldn’t manage to get enough on it to give his country the lead.
American defenders were outmatching Mexican attackers, as a bunch of their headers and shot attempts were going wide or high thanks to Miazga, Long, Bradley, and company always making contact and never letting Mexico get comfortable at the moment they rose to meet the ball. Jiménez up until that point had shown nothing, just as Uriel Antuna, who were to me, the two biggest disappointments of the game.
But then came Pizarro’s cross to Jiménez, and the Wolves’ player finally showed why he was just acquired permanently by the English club a few months back. He did what he’s done all year and during this Gold Cup so well. He received the ball perfectly with his back to the goal, gave it a little backheel straight to Jonathan Dos Santos who didn’t even position his body, but instead just struck it with his left foot, and the ball soared to the crossbar and into the net, as Zack Steffen could only watch. The younger Dos Santos brother had just given Mexico the lead in the final, as his older brother had done eight years before at right around the same time in the game.
And that was enough to help Mexico secure its 8th Gold Cup title, which leads all countries. And the thing that should worry the U.S. the most is that Mexico didn’t even play this cup with their best players. Hector Herrera and Javier Hernández decided to sit this one out. Carlos Vela says that he has retired from the National team. So, in short, Mexico was missing at least three of its biggest players, and still managed to win the Gold Cup, and rather comfortably, or at least more than you’d expect. Berhalter has a lot of work to do if he wants his squad to even consider the possibility of becoming the best team in CONCACAF. For now, Mexico are the deservedly reigning champions and clearly best team in North and Central America.