After nipping their neighbors to the north Canada 2-1 in the semifinals, the USA will go for their second straight Gold Cup win on Sunday versus their southern neighbors from Mexico. Can coach Bob Bradley rally Landon Donovan, Kasey Keller and the rest of his troops one more time to hand Mexico their first defeat in the finals?
It wasn’t pretty, but the United States got the job done.
The U.S. national soccer team beat Canada 2-1 at Thursday’s CONCACAF Gold Cup semifinal in Chicago. The win propelled the American side into Sunday’s final against Mexico, who downed upstart Guadeloupe later that evening at Soldier Field. It’s a chance for the U.S. to win its second Gold Cup in a row -- but it almost didn’t happen. Canada had an apparent tying goal disallowed in stoppage time when the play was incorrectly whistled offsides.
The Americans didn’t escape the match unscathed. Frankie Hejduk, who scored the opening goal against Canada (his first goal for the national side since 2000), received his second yellow card in two games and will have to sit out Sunday’s final. So will 19-year-old midfielder Michael Bradley, the son of coach Bob Bradley and currently on loan to SC Heerenveen of the Dutch Premier Division. He was shown a red card the 89th minute and gets an automatic suspension for his troubles.
As for the Mexicans they have been to the Gold Cup final on four occasions, winning every time. But El Tricolor had to be patient to find the net against Guadeloupe, a French "overseas department" whose best players are fulfilling obligations in the mother country. Mexico also settled for 1-0 victories against Costa Rica in the quarterfinals and Panama in the group stage. Factor in their 2-1 loss to Honduras (No. 55 in FIFA’s world rankings for June), and Mexico is anything but caliente going into Sunday’s final.
Odds on the championship game at Solider Field had yet to be posted at press time, but despite Mexico’s less than stellar road to the final, they were +144 favorites to win the Gold Cup heading into Thursday’s semis, edging the U.S. at +161. Plucky Guadeloupe was +212, and unheralded Canada brought up the rear at +2000. However, this was a Canadian team loaded with MLS and international talent that had rocketed 38 spots up the rankings to No. 56. The U.S., meanwhile, moved ahead of Mexico in the CONCACAF pecking order by jumping from No. 29 in May to No. 16, a full 10 spots ahead of El Tri.
These FIFA rankings were once considered a laughingstock. The Americans regularly placed inside the Top 20, reaching as high as fourth place heading into the 2006 World Cup. But even the optimistic U.S. players knew better. They’ll be much more encouraged by their current surge up the rankings, which were reformulated last July to reflect what FIFA called "the reality of world football."
Only Mexico, the U.S. and Canada have won the Gold Cup since its reincarnation as a biennial tournament in 1991. The most recent of Mexico’s four victories was in 2003; however, the U.S. won two of the last three events to bring their Cup total to three. Canada’s lone victory was in 2000.
The final takes place at 3:00 p.m. Eastern time with television coverage on Univision and the Fox Soccer Channel.
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U.S. and Mexico set for Gold Cup duel
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