It wouldn't be difficult for anyone who spent much time at all watching the 2011 Gold Cup that Mexico was the best team by a pretty large margin. The USA showed a lot of fight in coming back from the defeat at the hands of Panama, but the sense I got after every game was, "they're gonna have to do a lot better than that to beat El Tri." In the end, they didn't.
USA talked a good, confident match coming in, and they even jumped on top of Mexico 2-0, but it all went downhill from there. Cherundulo went out and Bornstein replaced him. A nightmare of a defensive effort later, Mexico took the totally deserved win 2-4.
So Mexico reestablishes themselves as the dominant team in CONCACAF. Now. let's face it, not a great tournament from the USA. Things need to get better heading in to World Cup Qualifying. We can't be "just happy to be here." I still stand by my opinion that the USA has gone as far as Bob Bradley can take them. Yes, he made some nice tactical choices during the tournament, but in the end the Achilles heal of defense and maybe player selection cost the USA a chance at Silverware.
Congrats to Mexico, they certainly earned it.
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