In a thrilling finish to
CONCACAF Gold Cup 2007, USA defeated
Mexico 2-1 before a pro Mexican crowd at
Soldier Field in Chicago. The Americans
reached the final after defeating
Canada 2-1 in the semi final, in what
turned out to be a very controversial
offside call by the referee. The offside
call negated Canada’s second goal that
would have tied the game in the dying
seconds of injury time in regulation
play.
With all things
considered, USA was the team in the
tournament that was more deserving to be
the champion. They played consistently
all the way through and finished the
tournament with an unblemished 6-0-0
record
USA faced their stiffest
challenge in the semis and final games
against Canada and Mexico respectively.
They were a bit lucky to be ahead of
Canada 2-0 at the half, based on Canada
having a good part of the run of play.
Canada held its own and scored the only
goal of the second half which had the
Americans defending vigorously to
protect their one goal lead.
In the final the
Americans proved that they go both ways
against a Mexico team that may have been
overrated. USA defended when they had
to, and maintained their dangerous
offense when needed in a come from
behind win over Mexico. USA was trailing
1-0 after one half of play as they held
on for the half to regroup.
Mexico was the # team in
the CONCACAF region heading into the
Gold Cup tournament but they could not
secure the lead against a well precision
USA attack. As a result they gave up two
goals in just over ten minutes to
scramble at the end in an effort to
score the equalizer which never came.
Gold
Cup 2007 proved that the CONCACAF teams
have improved their soccer programs to
the level that shows that any team from
the region can qualify for the future
FIFA tournaments.
Canada performed well at Gold Cup 2007
and if their personnel and level of play can be
maintained, Canada would have a very good chance of
qualifying for World Cup South Africa 2010
