The Gold Cup Recap: Mexico Takes the Crown

While it may seem just like a soccer game, the cold-blooded battle between the US and Mexico just got a little more heated just in time for Saturday's Gold Cup Finals. At the end of the day, the heat went the way of Mexico and made US wait for another chance to get a shot at the Gold Cup.

Mexico continued its strong dominance in the Finals over the US with a come-from-behind 4-2 victory over a US team that had Landon Donovan start a game since two games ago versus Jamaica. And while everything was sort of fun and games, I kindly considered this a game that was Mexico's to win.

I mean, sure, I picked the US to win it, but somehow I just had that feeling that perhaps Mexico could give the US a run for its money. After all, Mexico was missing five important players and yet they continued to be remarkable in their dominant play.

The US was up 2-0 in the first twenty minutes of the goal, with goals coming from Michael Bradley and Landon Donovan, but Mexico got itself into position again to overrun an all-impressive US team, with two goals from Pablo Barrera and one goal apiece from Andres Guardado and Giovani Dos Santos. They won it 4-2 and that's because of their ever-impressive ways on defense and on offense.

To be completely honest, this was kind of a game that was probably home-field advantage from Mexico since it was played at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, which has tons of fans who root for the Mexico team each year. And while I applaud how the Mexico team did, you can't overlook how the US could have fallen flat in the final half of the game. Sure, it looked like a team that had an offense that could overcome a deficit, but all in all, the offense of Mexico really pounded down on that US defense and made them second-guess and that haunted them as Mexico managed to get four goals past Tim Howard.

The next question I have for the US team is this: Could this be the end of Bob Bradley's coaching tenure with the US team? I don't so, because he managed to get past Panama a second time, and Mexico has a star-studded team, whom has players who are playing for many teams throughout the MLS. Bob Bradley is a great coach and I think he deserves the chance to stay, even after the Gold Cup Finals loss. Down the road, however, could this be the time where the US team says goodbye to its long-time coach. He'll stay for now, but plans change down the road, and we'll see what happens.

Overall, congratulations to Mexico for another Gold Cup win. The US showed heart and it showed pride in trying to win that elusive Gold Cup, but sometimes you can't always win them all. I applaud the US team for their grace and their effort and hopefully they'll be able to learn from a close loss to Mexico.