Thursday, February 5, 2009

US-Mexico countdown: No. 7

No. 7. Gold Cup 2007 Final, Chicago, June 24, 2007. US 2, Mexico 1.

Although it happened quite regularly in the 1990s, the United States and Mexico had not met in the CONCACAF Gold Cup in nearly a decade. This time around, though, the teams avoided upsets along the way and met in a highly-anticipated final. Mexico finally broke through its scoreless streak and tallied a goal against the United States on American soil for the first time in eight years as Andres Guardado knocked a ball into the goal late in the first half, which sent most of the 60,000 fans in attendance into a frenzy. The goal forced the United States to try and come from behind to win, which they did. Mexico's Jonny Magallon helped fuel the comeback as he was whistled for a foul inside the penalty area. Landon Donovan converted the penalty kick and leveled the score. Some 11 minutes later, Benny Feilhaber scored what might be the most aesthetically-pleasing goal in the rivalry's history with a long-range volley. Mexico mounted a furious rally and came close to scoring a few times but in the end the Americans held on to win the Gold Cup title at Mexico's expense.

Lineups

US: Tim Howard; Jonathan Spector (Frank Simek, 72), Oguchi Onyewu, Carlos Bocanegra, Jonathan Bornstein; Clint Dempsey (Taylor Twellman, 69), Benny Feilhaber, Pablo Mastroeni (Ricardo Clark, 46), DaMarcus Beasley; Brian Ching, Landon Donovan

Mexico: Oswaldo Sanchez; Jonny Magallon, Carlos Salcido, Rafael Marquez, Ricardo Osorio; Alberto Medina (Cuauhtemoc Blanco, 78), Pavel Pardo, Jared Borgetti (Omar Bravo, 40), Jaime Lozano (Adolfo Bautista, 81), Andres Guardado, Nery Castillo

Goals
Mexico - Guardado 44
US - Donovan 62
US - Feilhaber 73

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh, where have you gone the good Benny Feilhaber.

Anonymous said...

Benny is MIA. That goal was awesome. Some of my mexican soccer teammates still talk about Benny's goal. Too bad that he is fallen out of favor so fast.