Jamaica’s players react after losing 1-3 against Mexico in the final of the 2015 Gold Cup in Philadelphia yesterday. (PHOTO: AP)
PENNSYLVANIA, USA — Jamaica’s Reggae Boyz went into a shock meltdown as they were outclassed 3-1 by a slick Mexico in the final of the CONCACAF Gold Cup at the Lincoln Financial Field here last night.
Their hopes of creating further history of being the first Caribbean Gold Cup champion faded into the Philadelphia night, the Boyz forlorn as confetti fell gloriously on the newly crowned champions and the desired prize raised in triumph mere touching distance away.
So close, but yet so far. It was just not Jamaica’s night.
Meanwhile, Mexico Captain Andres Guardado opened the scoring in the 31st minute, with follow-up goals from Jesus Corona (47th) and Oribe Peralta (61st) to break Jamaican hearts.
Substitute Darren Mattocks, a scorer in the 2-1 semi-final win against the USA in Atlanta on Wednesday, restored Jamaican pride with a goal in the 80th minute.
Mexico, who are winning their seventh title, walked away with the Gold Cup and the winning prize of US$1 million, while Jamaica got US$500,000 and the Fairplay award.
Jamaica had made a confident and promising start to the contest, spreading the Mexicans thin by using the flanks to good effect. But as soon as the Central Americans got into their slick passing game, it was over as a contest.
However, Jamaica were mostly unhinged by sloppy defending, and as soon as the goals started going in, they seemed to have lost hope and heart. From then on, they couldn’t seem to find their keel and they drifted away from everything they had done right to get this far.
But when things were looking good for the Reggae Boyz, who have nothing to be ashamed of on a well-executed campaign up to last night’s crushing defeat, they had their threatening moments.
In the seventh minute, Jamaica delivered a nice piece of attacking play starting from the left-side, swinging play to the right where Kemar Lawrence and Jobi McAnuff worked a combination, but the former was fouled as he was about to shoot.
In the first 15 minutes or so, Jamaica continued to show offensive enterprise with Simon Dawkins, Jobi McAnuff and Giles Barnes combining well and using both flanks to good effect to get behind the Mexico defence seemingly at will.
And in one of those moves, Garath McCleary exploded down the right-side to cross for McAnuff, who headed back into the danger area, but there were no Jamaican players in the vicinity.
Mexico made their most telling move in the 22nd minute when skipper Andres Guardado came forward to pass to Peralta, but his effort was not clinical enough to cause much worries in the Jamaican back line.
Three minutes later Jesus Corona, found open in the middle, headed down with more precision than power, which forced goalkeeper Ryan Thompson into his first real save, turning the tricky ball behind for a corner.
In minute 30, Mexico kept up their operation in the Jamaica half with Corona, who was left open with no defender in a position to close him down, but his shot was wide.
But following a spell of sustained pressure from Mexico, their offensive campaign finally bore fruit after PSV Eindhoven’s Guardado streaked into the box from a searching right-side cross from Paul Aguilar to beat Thompson at his near post with a side-footed shot from 16 yards.
Just on the stroke of the half-way mark, Jamaica’s Adrian Mariappa used a combination of skill and pace to get the better of his opponent, which opened up acres down the right to run, but his well-weighted low cross inside glided wide of the lunging boots of Barnes and McAnuff arriving in the box.
But only two minutes into the second half, the unthinkable happened. Central defender Michael Hector fumbled the ball just outside the 18-yard box and was quickly dispossessed by a lurking Corona who beat Thompson with a low shot to his left.
At that moment, a cloud of darkness fell on an otherwise bright and promising Jamaican campaign.
But it got gloomier for Jamaica when Hector’s dreadful night continued. A cross from Aguilar inside slipped through Hector’s legs as he tried to control, and Peralta was present to beat Thompson from 12 yards in minute 61.
Mattocks, on as a 60th-minute substitute, gave Jamaica some measure of respectability when he collected a neat pass from McAnuff into the area, shook off his antagonist and buried wide and low past goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa.