USA Vs. Mexico, 2011 Gold Cup Final: Mexico Wins 2011 Gold Cup, Beats USA 4-2 In Final

Since then, dos Santos has struggled to get playing time at Tottenham Hotspur and has failed to become first choice for Mexico, at least until right before the Gold Cup started. When Jose Manuel ‘Chepo’ de la Torre was appointed manager of Mexico, he inserted veteran playmaker Sinha into the starting XI, starting with Gio on the bench.

Just hours before the first game of the tournament, Sinha and ‘Hobbit’ Christian Bermudez, the other central attacking midfielder in the team, were sent home for doping, leaving dos Santos as the only player in his position on the Mexico roster. Hours after his teammates were sent home, Gio scored another brace.

When asked about the post-game ceremony, which apparently was conducted mostly in Spanish, he had this to say, according to Reuters:

I know it feels like an American event because it has been held at least partly in the U.S. ever since 1991 and entirely in the U.S. for the past four editions, but it is a CONCACAF event. (Somewhat unrelated, but that’s also why the venue for the finals was someplace like Pasadena, which all but assured a large pro-Mexico crowd, as opposed to someplace like Columbus, Ohio, which would be decidedly more pro-U.S.) As such, it’s entirely reasonable that the award ceremony, which was congratulating a Spanish-speaking country and directed at an audience that was mostly Spanish speaking, would feature a significant amount of Spanish. (It’s also worth noting that at least the part where the Americans received their medals was conducted in English.)

The pronunciations. The exclamations. The excitement. I guarantee none of this is coming through on the English language broadcast.

I’m sure this sounds snobbish to some of you. I’m sure some are wondering how I can possibly appreciate the announcer if I don’t understand a good deal of what they’re saying. And I get that. But you’re just going to have to trust me on this.

For more on how the two teams got to this point, check out our USA vs. Panama stream and our Mexico vs. Honduras stream. For more updates leading up to USA vs. Mexico, bookmark this StoryStream. For all of our previous Gold Cup coverage, check out the Gold Cup 2011 section. For more on Mexican football, including the Mexican national team, the Mexico vs. USA game, and the Mexican Primera, check out SB Nation’s Mexican football blog FMF State Of Mind.

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For more on how the two teams got to this point, check out our USA vs. Panama stream and our Mexico vs. Honduras stream. For more updates leading up to USA vs. Mexico, bookmark this StoryStream. For all of our previous Gold Cup coverage, check out the Gold Cup 2011 section. For more on Mexican football, including the Mexican national team, the Mexico vs. USA game, and the Mexican Primera, check out SB Nation’s Mexican football blog FMF State Of Mind.

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Moments before the USA scored their goal, Bradley made an adjustment, bringing Donovan back into the midfield and moving Dempsey up top, which was exactly how most thought they would start the game. Donovan had been struggling to get the ball, and obviously Bradley wanted to change that. Almost instantly after making the adjustment, Dempsey dropped back to pick up the ball from Adu and Donovan made a great off the ball run into space. Dempsey played him a perfect ball and he rounded Alfredo Talavera, getting himself space to shoot before putting the ball into the back of the net.

For more on how the two teams got to this point, check out our USA vs. Panama stream and our Mexico vs. Honduras stream. For more updates leading up to USA vs. Mexico, bookmark this StoryStream. For all of our previous Gold Cup coverage, check out the Gold Cup 2011 section. For more on Mexican football, including the Mexican national team, the Mexico vs. USA game, and the Mexican Primera, check out SB Nation’s Mexican football blog FMF State Of Mind.

Howard was well beaten and the ball bounced agonisingly off the base of his post and bobbled away. Hernandez chased afterwards, hoping to generate another chance, but although he did manage to pick it up his enthusiasm was rather tempered by the offside flag being raise. A goal wouldn’t have counted anyway. It’s yet another dangerous attack from Mexico, though, who’ve already had several legitimate goalscoring chances spurned. Stil 1-0 USA Pasadena.

For more on how the two teams got to this point, check out our USA vs. Panama stream and our Mexico vs. Honduras stream. For more updates leading up to USA vs. Mexico, bookmark this StoryStream. For all of our previous Gold Cup coverage, check out the Gold Cup 2011 section. For more on Mexican football, including the Mexican national team, the Mexico vs. USA game, and the Mexican Primera, check out SB Nation’s Mexican football blog FMF State Of Mind.

Like this post? Follow @sbnation on Twitter and like SB Nation on Facebook.

For more on how the two teams got to this point, check out our USA vs. Panama stream and our Mexico vs. Honduras stream. For more updates leading up to USA vs. Mexico, bookmark this StoryStream. For all of our previous Gold Cup coverage, check out the Gold Cup 2011 section. For more on Mexican football, including the Mexican national team, the Mexico vs. USA game, and the Mexican Primera, check out SB Nation’s Mexican football blog FMF State Of Mind.

For more on how the two teams got to this point, check out our USA vs. Panama stream and our Mexico vs. Honduras stream. For more updates leading up to USA vs. Mexico, bookmark this StoryStream. For all of our previous Gold Cup coverage, check out the Gold Cup 2011 section. For more on Mexican football, including the Mexican national team, the Mexico vs. USA game, and the Mexican Primera, check out SB Nation’s Mexican football blog FMF State Of Mind.

For more on how the two teams got to this point, check out our USA vs. Panama stream and our Mexico vs. Honduras stream. For more updates leading up to USA vs. Mexico, bookmark this StoryStream. For all of our previous Gold Cup coverage, check out the Gold Cup 2011 section. For more on Mexican football, including the Mexican national team, the Mexico vs. USA game, and the Mexican Primera, check out SB Nation’s Mexican football blog FMF State Of Mind.

That all changed when Bob Bradley made him a surprise selection to the Gold Cup team and then made an even bigger shocker by putting him in late in a game the U.S. needed to win. Adu made the move look genius, though, as he helped set up the winning score. Among those happiest was the Burgundy Wave, who reminds us that Adu still has a lot of soccer ahead of him:

For more on how the two teams got to this point, check out our USA vs. Panama stream and our Mexico vs. Honduras stream. For more updates leading up to USA vs. Mexico, bookmark this StoryStream. For all of our previous Gold Cup coverage, check out the Gold Cup 2011 section. For more on Mexican football, including the Mexican national team, the Mexico vs. USA game, and the Mexican Primera, check out SB Nation’s Mexican football blog FMF State Of Mind.

Dempsey, no doubt, has many memories of these same people booing the United States. He probably remember some of these people giving him a particularly hard time while he was playing against them as a youngster. So, I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt that he did not really mean what he said in this quote that appeared in the Houston Chronicle after the match:

In any case, I really hope that he does not really believe that the soccer team you support says anything about your appreciation for a country. With the United States playing Mexico in Saturday’s Gold Cup final, though, I have a feeling we are going to hear plenty of other people make a similar accusation, and I’d like to go on record now as saying, Don’t.

Lots of team fanbases have an interesting dynamic when it comes to a divide in national team support among the fans, but Chivas USA probably takes the cake in this regard. There are probably a great deal of fans who own both a Mexico and a United States jersey.

For more on how the two teams got to this point, check out our USA vs. Panama stream and our Mexico vs. Honduras stream. For more updates leading up to USA vs. Mexico, bookmark this StoryStream. For all of our previous Gold Cup coverage, check out the Gold Cup 2011 section. For more on Mexican football, including the Mexican national team, the Mexico vs. USA game, and the Mexican Primera, check out SB Nation’s Mexican football blog FMF State Of Mind.

Mexico had another experience with a gap between class strikers, in the mid-90s. There was a good four year period between when Hugo Sanchez got too old to be effective and when Borgetti emerged. The exact same thing happened to Mexico again between 2006 and 2010, but it was worth the wait. Chicharito has emerged as a star, while Giovani dos Santos has finally found out that there is more to life than getting drunk and scarfing down pizza. He’s replaced Cuauhtemoc Blanco in a similar manner, as Mexico were stuck with Nery Castillo for a period of time they would probably like to forget. Sad, I actually kind of liked Gio’s raccoon belly.

His team selection is a minor mystery, complicated by a number of factors. Donovan has come off the bench in the last two matches for the United States, but leaving the USMNT’s all-time leading goal scorer out of the starting lineup against Mexico sounds like a really good way for Bradley to lose the dressing room. His inclusion is a given, as is Dempsey’s, meaning that either Kljestan or Bedoya must be dropped. Agudelo could get dropped in a bizarre move where Bradley plays Dempsey as a false nine, but it’s doubtful he’s that adventurous.