Mexico Advances in Sudden Death
Bring back Bora.
If Thursday night’s performance is the best Manuel Lapuente’s team can do, then Mexico would have been a lot better off staying with Bora Milutinovic, the coach it so ignominiously fired last year.
At least Bora’s teams were exciting.
In front of a Los Angeles Coliseum crowd of 45,507 that was almost lulled to sleep, Mexico defeated Jamaica, 1-0, in sudden-death overtime to advance to Sunday’s championship game of the CONCACAF Gold Cup.
The winning goal, almost 15 minutes into overtime, was scored on a sharp header by Luis Hernandez, the blond striker with the headband and two shirts.
On scoring, Hernandez raced over to the sideline and stripped off his No. 15 jersey to reveal a No. 12 jersey beneath it.
Just what that all meant is anyone’s guess. To the fans who until that moment had been more interested in tossing cups of whatever at the Jamaican players and game officials than in the game itself, Hernandez in No. 1.
Whether Mexico is able to defend the championship it last won in 1996, however, is problematic. In two hours Thursday, it struggled to break down a well-organized Jamaican team.
On the strength of that showing, the United States, which defeated Brazil in a pulsating semifinal on Tuesday, must have a better than even chance of winning the tournament for the first time since 1991.
To call Thursday’s semifinal dull would be an understatement.
The teams had met four times during World Cup ’98 qualifying play, with Mexico winning, 2-1 and 6-0, in Mexico City and Jamaica prevailing, 2-1, and tying 0-0, in Kingston.
But in Los Angeles, neither team looked remotely capable of scoring during the regulation 90 minutes.
The closest anyone came was when Hernandez powered a headed off the underside of the crossbar in the 88th minute off a pass from Salvador Carmona.
Other than that, the ball never came close to the net.
Hernandez is a leftover from the Bora days. He tried to make a go of it in Argentina with Boca Juniors, but failed to impress there despite being hugely popular with the fans. A couple of months ago, he returned to Mexico to play for Necaxa.
He and Ramon Ramirez, another Bora holdover, are the only Mexican players who look remotely capable of doing well in the World Cup this summer.
Jamaica, well organized by Coach Rene Simoes but lacking the legs while playing its third game in five days, looked like a tired team. The spark it had shown earlier in the tournament was missing.
The first half was a largely uninspiring affair as each team took a cautious approach. Mexico looked more dangerous on offense but could not capitalize on the few chances it created.
Warren Barrett, arguably the goalkeeper of the tournament, denied Ramirez with a diving block in the sixth minute. The ball rolled free, but just too far ahead of players following up to get the rebound and Jamaica’s defense cleared it.
In the 13th minute, the pony-tailed Francisco Palencia hammered a diagonal shot across the face of the net that slid by inches wide of the left post. Near the end of the half, Robert Medina fired a hard shot that Barrett smothered on the goal line.
Other than that, Mexico didn’t come close to scoring.
Jamaica was equally toothless inside the penalty area. The Caribbean team failed to even test Mexican goalkeeper Oscar Perez, the few shots it had flying either high or wide.
The half ended with Barrett and Cuauhtemoc Blanco both getting yellow cards after some pushing and shoving inside the Jamaican goal area. Like the rest of the play in the first 45 minutes, however, it was a half-hearted incident lacking real drama.
Meanwhile, Brazil will be without standout forward Romario for Sunday’s third-place game against Jamaica after he was injured during training Friday.
(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)
GOLD CUP FINAL
Mexico vs. United States
When: Sunday
Where: Coliseum
Time 5 p.m.
Consolation: Jamaica vs. Brazil, 3 p.m.
CONCACAF Gold Cup
*--*
Team W L T GF GA Pts Group One xJamaica 2 0 1 5 2 7 xBrazil 1 0 2 5 1 5 Guatemala 0 1 2 3 4 2 El Salvador 0 2 1 0 6 1 Group Two xMexico 2 0 0 6 2 6 Trinidad 1 1 0 5 5 3 Honduras 0 1 1 1 5 0 Group Three xUnited States 2 0 0 5 1 6 Costa Rica 1 1 0 8 4 3 Cuba 0 2 0 2 10 0
*--*
x-advanced to semifinals
Feb. 1: Trinidad and Tobago 3, Honduras 1; United States 3, Cuba 0; El Salvador 0, Guatemala 0
Feb. 3: Brazil 0, Jamaica 0
Feb. 4: Costa Rica 7, Cuba 2; Mexico 4, Trinidad and Tobago 2
Feb. 5: Brazil 1, Guatemala 1
Feb. 6: El Salvador vs. Jamaica, ppd.
Feb. 7: United States 2, Costa Rica 1; Mexico 2, Honduras 0
Sunday: Jamaica 3, Guatemala 2; Brazil 4, El Salvador 0
Monday: Jamaica 2, El Salvador 0
Tuesday: United States 1, Brazil 0.
Thursday: Mexico 1, Jamaica 0 (OT)
Sunday: Third-place game, Brazil vs. Jamaica 3 p.m. and final, United States vs. Mexico, 5 p.m. (Los Angeles Coliseum).
* All times Pacific.
