Andres Guardado scored again, with no penalty-kick needed this time, and his teammates finally managed some goals, too.
Mexico ensured the final would not come down to any refereeing decisions in the last minutes with a 3-1 victory over upstarts Jamaica to win the Gold Cup on Sunday.
Guardado scored his fourth goal of the knockout rounds, while Jesus Corona and Oribe Peralta also scored as El Tri won their seventh Gold Cup.
Photo: AP
It was a convincing performance for coach Miguel Herrera and his team after some shaky defending and contentious moments in their previous two matches.
Jamaica had made a rousing run, stunning the US in the semis to become the first Caribbean nation to reach the final, and the Reggae Boyz looked as though they belonged in the opening minutes, keeping the pressure on Mexico with several promising scoring chances, but never getting a shot on target.
However, El Tri started to find the gaps in the Mexico defense and a yellow card for Jamaica helped lead to Mexico’s first goal. The Reggae Boyz had not trailed since early in the second half of their opening match.
Mexico, who already held the record for most Gold Cup titles, are 7-1 in finals. They face the US, the 2013 Gold Cup champions, on Oct. 9 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, for a spot at the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup in Russia.
The only way Mexico had been able to score in the knockout rounds before Sunday was from the penalty spot, all three by Guardado, and two of those came late on after questionable decisions.
Against Costa Rica in the quarter-finals, a scoreless game was moments from going to a penalty shootout when Guardado converted a penalty in the final minute of extra-time. Mexico had been the better team, but that was not the case in the semi-finals.
Down to 10 men, Panama were on the verge of victory when a disputed hand-ball set up a penalty for Guardado in second-half stoppage-time and he scored another for the winner in extra-time.
Mexico had gone 272 minutes since one of their players had scored from open play when Guardado put them ahead for good on Sunday. Jonathan dos Santos found Paul Aguilar out wide with a free-kick and Aguilar crossed it to Guardado, whose left-footed volley made it 1-0 in the 31st minute.
It was his sixth goal of the tournament, one behind Clint Dempsey of the US.
Guardado, voted the top player at the tournament, had also been the last Mexico player to score in open play with his goal in the 88th minute against Trinidad and Tobago in Mexico’s final group match.
Any chance of a Jamaica comeback quickly evaporated after halftime. Just over a minute in, Corona, who had failed to convert two good chances in the first half, stole the ball from Michael Hector and pushed forward. The 22-year-old forward hit his left-footed shot from the edge of the penalty area under the legs of Wes Morgan for a 2-0 lead.
Corona was selected as top young player of the tournament.
Another mistake by Hector in the 61st minute put Mexico 3-0 up. He messed up an attempted clearance and the ball fell to Peralta for an easy tap-in.
Shortly after, Guardado came off to a thunderous ovation from the crowd of 68,930 at Lincoln Financial Field, home of the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles.
“We really managed the game in the correct way,” Herrera said.
Darren Mattocks scored a consolation in the 80th minute for the Reggae Boyz.
Jamaica coach Winfried Schaefer proudly held out the medal hanging around his neck.
“For me, this is not the silver, this is gold,” Schaefer said. “Nobody gave us a shot.”
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