In front of 62,493 fans (approximately 90-95% of which were Mexico supporters) El Tri continued their dominance over the United States in Gold Cup final clashes. The sell out crowd, most of which left euphoric, witnessed Mexico beating the U.S. for the fifth time in six tries in the Gold Cup tournament finale.
This time the decision was 1-0, with the only scoring coming via L.A. Galaxy star and Mexico midfielder Jonathan Dos Santos in the 73′. Of course, the USA certainly had their chances, putting five shots on target, one of which, an early first half effort by Jozy Altidore, made every American supporter who saw it groan at an opportunity missed.
would have been HUGE for the #USA #USMNT to score first on the road, in a very hostile away environment at Soldier Field in Chicago! GOLDEN opportunity missed. https://t.co/QqeqrhaBDj
— Paul M. Banks (@PaulMBanks) July 8, 2019
The missed opportunity was infamous enough that Twitter composed a “Moment” out of it, and they were gracious enough to include this writer’s sarcastic tweet. Not surprisingly, Twitter gonna Twitter, and naturally you had users of the micro-blogging platform NOT understanding the basic concept of sarcasm.
Never underestimate the stupidity of social media users.
https://twitter.com/PaulMBanks/status/1148063076530446336
Mexico certainly deserved the silverware claiming win tonight, as they put more shots on target than the U.S. and they held a decisive advantage in possession. They entered this contest as favorites for a reason, and they certainly showed that in the second half.
“I think over the course of 90 minutes Mexico was the better team,” said USMNT Coach Gregg Berhalter in his post game news conference.
“I think what we lacked was some of the calmness and composure. We knew it was going to be a big event, we knew it was going to be a semi hostile crowd.
“What we lacked was the calmness, and Mexico had it.”
Berhalter was also asked about U.S. midfielder Weston McKennie, who was right up there with Christian Pulisic as the best players for the Stars and Stripes this tournament. The USA manager compared the 20-year-old FC Schalke man to Pulisic, saying he really developed, both offensively and defensively, over the course of this month.
“When we’re able to see his progress, his maturity over this period,” the first year boss said of the player he handed the captain’s arm band to tonight.
“He was relentless on both sides of the ball. we really saw it in the later phases of this tournament.”
By the way, here’s footage of the JDS goal:
https://twitter.com/Ibroo_Messi/status/1148062750368833536
Berhalter believes the USMNT still made some strides over the course of this tournament, and he said so in postgame.
“The general understanding of our game model was better over the course of this month,” he said. “So in one sense we made progress…This experience will help us moving forward.”
Berhalter closed the news conference by saying “good month guys, thank you.”
Finally, and really this is a lot more important than football/futbol/soccer- IT’S TIME TO STOP THAT DEPLORABLE DISGUSTING OFFENSIVE CHANT!!!!! Mexico fans! Seriously, this is something we’ve been writing about for years, and kudos to the national team for trying what they can to make it go away, but enough is enough.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly appears on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
You can follow Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com on Twitter here and his cat on Instagram at this link.