The 93, 420 fans at the Rose Bowl got what the majority of them wanted, a CONCACAF Gold Cup victory for Mexico. It didn't seem like it was going to happen, with two early US goals, but Mexico stormed back with four unanswered goals to crush the spirits and hopes of the Yankee faithful. With the victory, Mexico earns a berth in the 2013 Confederations Cup, to be held in Brazil ahead of the World Cup.
It's a sign of the state of the sport in North America that both the international club final and the national team final were USA v. Mexico (Real Salt Lake v. Monterrey in CONCACAF Champions League) and in both cases, the Americans put up a good early fight only to go down when it mattered most.
Mexico wasted little time in getting the go ahead goal. In the 49', Pablo Barrera got his second goal of the match, this one slightly farther than his first one. From there the Americans looked to find the equalizer, but the never seemed to recover from coughing up the early lead. With the Yanks on the ropes, Giovani Dos Santos put the game on ice. With Tim Howard's defenders letting him down with a horrid clearance, Dos Santos dribbled away from a diving Howard's hands then chipped the ball past everyone in the box.
It's safe to say Tim Howard is the angriest human being on the planet tonight. The four goals will look bad on the sheet, but they can't be attributed to his play. From the moment Jonathan Bornstein came on the pitch, the Americans had a giant hole in the back. Pablo Barerra, the fastest man on the Mexican national team, may deserve man of the match, but the Americans will look back on this one as a game they let get away.