Mexico beats Panama in CONCACAF Gold Cup final

INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) — Santiago Giménez scored after an electrifying dash within the 88th minute, and Mexico gained the CONCACAF Gold Cup for the file ninth time with a 1-0 victory over Panama on Sunday evening.

After Edson Álvarez slid to dam Iván Anderson’s cross within the Mexico penalty space, Orbelín Pineda dribbled away and made an incredible move into the centre circle. Giménez, 22-year-old Feyenoord ahead, dribbled previous Harold Cummings and outraced Cummings and Fidel Escobar into the penalty space. Giménez scuffed a bouncing left-foot shot over goalkeeper Orlando Mosquera for his fourth purpose in 18 worldwide appearances and his second of the event.

The purpose by the Argentina-born Giménez, who got here on in its place solely three minutes earlier, set off a frenzied celebration at SoFi Stadium, filled with followers celebrating Mexico’s dramatic revival on this biennial CONCACAF event.

Several months after Mexico crashed out of the World Cup with its worst efficiency in almost half a century, El Tri rebounded with a superb event beneath interim supervisor Jaime Lozano, who took over the beleaguered program solely a month in the past.

Mexico, which allowed simply two targets in its matches, has gained this event greater than all different nations mixed. The U.S. has seven Gold Cup titles and Canada one.

Giménez’s late purpose ended an unlikely Gold Cup run by Panama, which upset the U.S. within the semifinals to earn its third look within the remaining. Los Canaleros couldn’t get a number of strong scoring probabilities previous veteran Mexican goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa.

Lozano, who coached Mexico’s Olympic group to a bronze medal in Tokyo two years in the past, was employed to steer the Gold Cup marketing campaign by Juan Carlos Rodríguez, who took over as Mexican Football Federation president solely a month earlier.

While the Gold Cup is infamous for that includes half-strength nationwide groups, Mexico started the ultimate with eight starters who additionally began on the World Cup.

Mexico dominated play for a lot of the first half, however Panama defended impressively. Henry Martín appeared to place Mexico forward within the thirty third minute with a close-range purpose, however a video overview a number of minutes after the play discovered him offside.

Pineda and Martín each had tantalizing probabilities within the forty third minute, however Panama goalkeeper Orlando Mosquera stopped their consecutive point-blank photographs.

Panama bought its finest scoring likelihood shortly after halftime, however Alberto Quintero put his header simply large of the far submit. Edgar Barcenas had one other handsome likelihood within the 87th minute, however missed large from outdoors the field.

Moments later, Gimenez scored his largest purpose for Mexico.

Anybody who thought the absence of the hosts’ nationwide group would result in an anticlimactic Gold Cup remaining doesn’t know Southern California very nicely: The sellout crowd south of downtown Los Angeles was overwhelmingly dominated by followers of El Tri, which is handled like the house group every time it performs on this space — even towards the American group.

But this victory is a powerful reversal for Mexico, which didn’t get out of World Cup group play in Qatar for the primary time since 1978. That disappointment led to educate Tata Martino’s departure and Diego Cocca’s temporary tenure earlier than the arrival of Lozano, who largely relied on the core of his Olympic group on the Gold Cup.

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

Panama barely missed the World Cup final yr, but saved Spanish coach Thomas Christiansen. The determination paid off with impressed play within the Gold Cup, culminating within the nation’s first journey to the ultimate since 2013 with a victory over the host U.S. on penalties in San Diego.

SoFi put down pure grass for the Gold Cup remaining as a substitute of its normal synthetic turf for American soccer, and the seams within the sod had been very seen in a number of locations. The $5 billion stadium is in competition to host the World Cup remaining in 2026, however appears unlikely to get it as a result of narrowness of the sphere.