Houston-Mexico beat the United States 2-1 on Sunday night for its tenth record of the Concacaf Gold Cup, with Edson Álvarez scoring a broken goal in the 77th minute after a video review reversed an off-game call.
Chris Richards put the United States ahead in the fourth minute, heading in a free kick of Sebastian Berhalter for the second time in the tournament, but Raúl Jiménez tied the score in 27 with his third goal of this Gold Cup.
Mexico received the free kick when Diego Luna called Alexis Vega on a flank. Johan Vásquez launched the restart through the mouth of the goal and Álvarez beat the defense, redirecting the 3 -yard ball just inside the distant post of Matt Freese. While the play was initially called out of play, the VAR granted the goal, and Mexico defended its 2023 title while improving 6-2 in the golden cup finals against the United States.
Patrick Agyemang had the two -minute opportunity in the detention time, but did not make a good contact in his short -range shot that was blocked by goalkeeper Luis Malagón.
A 70,925 crowd at the NRG Stadium was approximately 70% pro-mexico and booed the players of the United States when they left for warm-up prior to the game. Mexico dominated with 60% possession and had 12 corner shots for Americans.
This was the last competitive match for the United States and Mexico before being organized with the World Cup next year with Canada.
The United States, which has seven titles of the Gold Cup but none since 2021, used an initial alignment with only a handful of players currently projected as World Cup headlines, missing journalists due to vacations, injuries and the Club World Cup.
Coach Mauricio Pochettino used his absence to evaluate the players who could press to start the work during the friendlies this fall and next spring, and Luna and AgyeMang emerged as a contestants for the places in the World Cup list.
Richards put the United States to the front when he directed Berhalter’s free kick from approximately 40 yards of the crossbar. The ball bounced directly and simply crossed the goal line.
Jiménez scored his 42nd international goal, third in Mexican history. Explained the defense and uniform Marcel Ruiz’s pass, hitting Freese of approximately 10 yards in a shot that could have cut to defender Tim Ream.
Jiménez celebrated by grabbing a T -shirt of Mexico No. 20 with “Diogo J” in honor of Diogo Jota, his former Wolverhampton teammate who died in a car accident on Thursday in Spain. Jiménez ran to a corner, sat down with the shirt and imitated playing a video game.
