Mexico 1-0 Panama (Jul 16, 2023) Game Analysis

Santiago Giménez scored after an electrifying dash within the 88th minute as Mexico gained the CONCACAF Gold Cup for the document ninth time with a 1-0 victory over Panama on Sunday evening.

After Edson Álvarez slid to dam Iván Anderson’s cross within the Mexico penalty space, Orbelín Pineda dribbled away and made an ideal move to the middle circle. The 22-year-old Feyenoord ahead dribbled previous Harold Cummings and outraced Cummings and Fidel Escobar into the penalty space, the place he tucked away a intelligent scuffed shot for his fourth aim in 18 worldwide appearances.

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The aim by the Argentina-born Giménez set off a frenzied celebration at sold-out SoFi Stadium, which was full of followers celebrating Mexico’s dramatic revival on this biennial CONCACAF event.

Mexico seemed to have damaged the impasse within the thirty third minute however Henry Martin’s aim was disallowed for offside after a VAR evaluation. It had one other wonderful alternative simply earlier than the break however Panama keeper Orlando Mosquera denied them once more.

Panama’s finest probability got here within the 87th minute however Edgar Barcenas’ lengthy vary shot sailed broad of aim. Minutes later Gimenez ended it.

Several months after Mexico crashed out of the World Cup with its worst efficiency in almost half a century, El Tri rebounded with a superb event beneath interim supervisor Jaime Lozano, who took over the beleaguered program solely a month in the past.

Mexico, which allowed simply two objectives in its matches, has gained this event greater than all different nations mixed. The U.S. has seven Gold Cup titles and Canada one. Panama got here up brief in its effort to win the Gold Cup for the primary time.

Giménez’s late aim ended an unlikely Gold Cup run by Panama, which upset the U.S. within the semifinals to earn its third look within the last. Los Canaleros could not get a number of strong scoring possibilities previous veteran Mexican goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa.

Lozano, who coached Mexico’s Olympic staff to a bronze medal in Tokyo two years in the past, was employed to guide the Gold Cup marketing campaign by Juan Carlos Rodríguez, who took over as Mexican Football Federation president solely a month earlier.

While the Gold Cup is infamous for that includes half-strength nationwide groups, Mexico started the ultimate with eight starters who additionally began on the World Cup and it confirmed with 14 first-half pictures earlier than lastly discovering the again of the web for the win.

Information from The Associated Press was used on this story.