Mexico coach pleased with attitude in rout of weak Cuba

La Sele (The Selected)reached the quarterfinals of last year’s World Cup, keyed by reliable forward Bryan Ruiz (Sporting CP, Portugal) and young star Joel Campbell (Arsenal, England)… When you look at some of the players, some of the coaches, some of the teams that we’ve had over the past few years… there’d be certain cases along the way where we deserve a little bit more respect. The 26-year-old outmuscled Hanier Dranguet for a bouncing ball in the left side of the box and snapped off a left-footer into the right side of the net to make it 2-0. Goodson made it interesting in the 68th minute, but the Panamanians held off several late threats. The United States is definitely the favorite.

It’s the US and Mexico’s cup to lose.

Oribe Peralta scored a hat trick while Giovani dos Santos, Andres Guardado and Carlos Vela scored a goal each in the rout for El Tri, who finished with 18 shots on goal to Cuba’s one. If he is to make his move to the MLS, the Gold Cup could be the flawless platform to show American fans just what a talent he is.

Mexico have not tasted victory in seven matches, while Cuba’s winless drought is at four games ahead of the meeting in Chicago on Thursday. Though no one realized at the time, but it was the first of dos et cero results between the two archrivals.

Mexico added a fourth just before the halftime whistle. Six Cuba players and manager Raul Gonzalez Triana had logistical problems that reportedly prevented them from leaving Antigua after an Olympic qualifier. But they must be wary of the challenge the United States received in their opener against Honduras. Mario Ivan Guerrero (30′) had given Honduras a first-half lead, but John O’Brien (86′) equalized and defender Oguchi Onyewu (90’+2) headed home a free kick in stoppage time to complete the comeback. Romario called Keller’s performance, “the greatest performance I have ever seen by a goalkeeper”.

In truth, if Mexico had failed to win the game there would have been a country-wide uproar, but the clinical and efficient manner in which Miguel Herrera’s men put the match to bed – especially in the first half – should still be praised.

Cuba team has 16 members available for the Group C starter against Mexico, and subordinate trainer Walter Benitez will be the leader of the squad. He netted in the 11th, 21st, 39th, 54th, 76th, 84th and 87th minutes.

Six time winners Mexico will be host USA’s biggest threat at the 2015 edition of the prestigious regional competition and El Tri will be determined to deny them a chance to draw level on their record number of successes. Peralta got his head to it and it seemed to be going in on goal but a defender was racing to clear it on the goal line and Peralta added a litle extra tap to ensure it went in.