By Paul Nicholson
July 27 – Mexico won their seventh CONCACAF Gold Cup last night with a 3-1 win over the tournament’s surprise package Jamaica who made Gold Cup history by being the first team from the Caribbean to reach the final.
Mexico led by a goal at half time from Andres Guardado, with Jesus Corona and Oribe Peralta scoring in the second half, before Darren Mattocks pulled one back for the Reggae Boyz.
Mexico’s last three matches have ended in injury time drama, but there was no such controversy this time as 68,930 at Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field, saw the Mexicans take the title and win a play-off for the 2017 Confederations Cup in Russia.
The Confederations Cup play off will be held October 9 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, where Mexico will meet 2013 Gold Cup winners USA. CONCACAF splits qualification for the region’s berth to the Confederations Cup between two editions of the Gold Cup, giving both editions of the Gold Cup in each 4-year cycle the same importance from a competitive perspective.
If the US had held on to the Gold Cup trophy they would have qualified automatically. However, knocked out by Jamaica in the semi-final, they played Panama for third place in a replay of the 2013 final. In 2005 the US won the Gold Cup final on penalties 3-1, but this time Panama were winners, 3-2.
Earlier in the week Panama had vehemently protested against the refereeing in their semi-final against Mexico and generally in the tournament, feeling that they were being cheated.
Panama, with Costa Rica who were eliminated by Mexico in the quarter finals, called for the resignation of the CONCACAF referees committee. Both nations took the highly unusual steps of filing official complaints which the confederation discussed at its executive committee meeting before the final two matches.
The result was a statement from CONCACAF President Alfredo Hawit statement regarding the officiating at the Mexico and Panama, saying that they had met with both the Referee Department leadership and referee Mark Geiger and that he accepted that errors had been made.
“We at CONCACAF regret these circumstances but accept that such human errors are part of the game,” said Hawit.
CONCACAF did however levy sanctions against Mexico, Panama and United States Cases. The Panamanian Football Federation was fined an undisclosed amount for team misconduct both on and off the field. Additionally, Panamanian player Jaime Penedo was suspended two matches for pushing the assistant referee following the end of the match. Fellow Panamanian player Luis Tejada was also sanctioned with a two-match ban, one match for the red card received and one “for failing to leave the field in a timely manner following the ejection”.
Mexican head coach Miguel Herrera and United States player Michael Bradley, were sanctioned for infractions of the CONCACAF Gold Cup 2015 Media Regulations for Participating Member Associations.
The Gold Cup, held in the aftermath of the Zurich arrests of CONCACAF president Jeffrey Webb and executive committee member Ricardo Li, was a major success for the confederation as it rebuilds its reputation and its commercial proposition in particular.
As the dust settles, focus will now inevitably return to the less savoury business of reform, reorganisation and picking up the pieces of key programmes that have been threatened by the crisis. But it will be done in the knowledge that the confederation’s blue riband event, the Gold Cup, has been safeguarded (some would say saved).
Contact the writer of this story at moc.l1734787623labto1734787623ofdlr1734787623owedi1734787623sni@n1734787623osloh1734787623cin.l1734787623uap1734787623