FIFA World Cup<\/a>, which will be co-hosted by the two fierce rivals, along with Canada.\n <\/p>\n\n The intensity of the occasion was evident from the opening kickoff in front of more than 70,000 screaming fans at NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas.\n <\/p>\n
\n The Americans seemed to catch Mexico off guard as Chris Richards scored the game\u2019s first goal with a scintillating header that ricocheted in off the crossbar on a set piece free kick from Sebastian Berhalter just four minutes into the match to give the USA an instant advantage.\n <\/p>\n
\n Mexico took command after the USMNT\u2019s fast start and dominated for long stretches of a first half in which Mexico enjoyed nearly double the time of possession of the Americans.\n <\/p>\n
\n El Tri finally found its equalizer in the 27th minute when Ra\u00fal Jim\u00e9nez turned on a pass from Marcel Ru\u00edz and sent it past American goalie Matthew Freese and into the roof of the netting from point blank range to tie the game 1-1.\n <\/p>\n
\n After his heroics, Jim\u00e9nez celebrated by mimicking the trademark celebration of recently deceased Portuguese star Diogo Jota, who was previously a teammate of Jim\u00e9nez on the English professional team Wolverhampton Wanderers, while the Mexican striker held a Jota jersey across his lap.\n <\/p>\n
\n As the second half got underway, the two teams exchanged near goals in the early minutes as the momentum of the match teetered on a knife\u2019s edge.\n <\/p>\n
\n The tension continued to build until Mexico released the pressure with a set piece goal to break the deadlock in the 77th minute.\n <\/p>\n
\n The free kick deflected off the head of Johan V\u00e1squez and a diving Edson \u00c1lvarez headed the ball into the corner of the USA goal to give El Tri a 2-1 lead.\n <\/p>\n
\n The goal was initially flagged as offside, but a Video Assistant Referee review determined that it was a good goal to put Mexico in front for the first time in the game.\n <\/p>\n
\n In the second minute of stoppage time, the USMNT came agonizingly close to tying the game, but Mexican keeper \u00c1ngel Malag\u00f3n was able to do just enough to keep Patrick Agyemang\u2019s shot out of the goal, and the Mexico defense cleared the ball away.\n <\/p>\n
\n The Americans were unable to generate another good scoring opportunity before referee Mario Escobar blew the final whistle.\n <\/p>\n
\n Sunday night\u2019s game marked the eighth time that the two neighboring countries have met in the final of this tournament, with Mexico now holding the 6-2 advantage in those games.\n <\/p>\n
\n Mexico\u2019s second consecutive victory in the tournament extends its CONCACAF-leading tally to 10 Gold Cup crowns all-time, three more than the USMNT\u2019s second-place total of seven.\n <\/p>\n
\n For first-year USMNT manager Mauricio Pochettino, there\u2019s less than a year until the 2026 World Cup, and the former Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea boss will be hoping that the return of some of the top US players will help his squad turn its fortunes.\n <\/p>\n
\n Christian Pulisic, arguably the best player in the team, drew the ire of Pochettino after he opted to sit out the Gold Cup to rest following a grueling season with Italian Serie A club AC Milan.\n <\/p>\n
\n Meanwhile, Weston McKennie and Tim Weah both missed the Gold Cup while playing in the Club World Cup with Juventus, while PSV defender Sergi\u00f1o Dest pulled out of the squad to focus on fully recovering from an ACL injury.\n <\/p>\n
\n The USMNT will launch its World Cup campaign on June 12 at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, while Mexico will play in the first match of the tournament a day earlier at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CNN \u00a0\u2014\u00a0 Mexico defeated the United States Men\u2019s National Team by a score of 2-1 on Sunday to…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":45256,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[51,50,52],"class_list":{"0":"post-45255","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-stories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114810445050004175","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45255"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45255\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}