Mexico captain Pavel Pardo scored on a curling, long range shot in the second half to give Mexico a 1-0 win over Guadeloupe on Thursday and a spot in the CONCACAF Gold Cup final.
Mexico, four-time champions, have never lost in the finals, but Mexico's path to this year's final didn't quite go according to plan.
"We knew it wasn't going to be easy to beat them," Mexico coach Hugo Sanchez said.
"The work of Mexico was to create opportunities and I think did so. We didn't find many, but enough to be happy with our performance. A 2-0, 3-0 scoreline would have been more just," he said.
Guadeloupe is an overseas department of France and isn't one of FIFA's 208 members. That means soccer's world governing body doesn't recognize it. It is allowed to have a team in this regional championship, but with its best players committed to France, it essentially fielded what Mexico or the US would consider a second-string or third-string squad.
But the Gwada Boys gave Mexico everything it could handle.
Guadeloupe goalie Franck Grandel made five saves in the first half alone, but it may as well have been twice that for all the time he spent diving this way and that and leaping to punch the ball out of harm's way.
No matter who took the shot or where it was from, El Tri couldn't get anything in the net.
In the 55th minute, Cuauhtemoc Blanco -- who will join Major League Soccer's Chicago Fire next month -- crossed to Adolfo Bautista from the far left. Bautista headed the ball, but it went straight to Grandel's hands and he punched it away.
Eight minutes later, Gerardo Torrado's shot from straight on sailed over the crossbar.
But with a crowd of 50,790 -- most of whom were supporting Mexico -- cheering loudly, Pardo finally bailed the Mexicans out.
From 30m out, he looped a sharp ball with his right foot into the upper corner of the net. Grandel leaped, but it was just beyond his reach.
As the rest of the Mexican team mobbed Pardo and the crowd erupted in cheers of "MEX-I-CO! MEX-I-CO!" Grandel sat on the ground, dejected.
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