Mexico triumphs over USMNT 2-1 in Gold Cup final to repeat as champions

Mexico are Gold Cup champions for the second straight time.

El Tri on Sunday came from behind to beat the U.S. men’s national team 2-1 in the Gold Cup final in Houston, Texas, as Edson Alvarez scored the winner in the 77th minute.

The U.S. opened the scoring first in rather unexpected fashion. In just the fourth minute, midfielder Sebastian Berhalter, son of former head coach Gregg Berhalter, whipped in a deep cross from a free kick that Chris Richards headed in.

Richards’ header bounced underneath the crossbar and just angled in enough to where VAR couldn’t turn it around. It also marked the second Berhalter-to-Richards set-piece connection as it happened in the group stage in a win over Saudi Arabia.

But after that, it was all Mexico with the momentum.

Eventually the pressure paid off in the 27th minute. Midfielder Marcel Ruiz slipped in a pass to striker Raul Jimenez, who turned and fired home with his weaker left foot as Tim Ream couldn’t close it down in time.

The U.S. did manage one more big chance in the closing seconds of the first half, but right-back Alex Freeman couldn’t sneak it past Luis Malagon.

Mexico mostly dominated the second half as well, forcing the U.S. to do much more defending than its previous contests in the tournament.

The U.S. did well to clear out balls in its defensive third, but often failed to hold it up with Patrick Agyemang up top, leaving Malik Tillman to carry the burden without a true link-up partner.

El Tri then took the lead in the 77th minute off a free kick of its own. Johan Vasquez flicked back a header into the penalty area, which Alvarez dove for to drill into the net. After initially being ruled offside, VAR confirmed Freeman kept Alvarez on.

The U.S. had two chances at the end to equalize with Agyemang and Freeman, but the former couldn’t hit the ball cleanly and the latter took too long to make a play in transition.

El Tri had brought their A team to the Gold Cup under head coach Javier Aguirre, and were the expected champions prior to the tournament beginning due to the quality across the competition.

Mauricio Pochettino’s U.S. side missed several key starters and personnel, such as Christian Pulisic, Yunus Musah, Weston McKennie, Sergino Dest, Folarin Balogun Antonee Robinson and more. The reasons varied, from wanting rest to needing injury rehab and the parallel Club World Cup tournament also in the U.S.

With the 2026 World Cup on home soil the next set of competitive games for the U.S., Pochettino will need to evaluate which players from this run stood out to deserve more call ups in the future. Forward Diego Luna and goalie Matt Freese were among the main standouts, but the drop in quality was evident in certain positions.

Mexico now has 10 Gold Cup wins, the most in Concacaf history. El Tri also repeated as champions, the first nation to do so than Mexico themselves in 2011. Mexico beat Panama in the final in 2023 after the U.S. failed to advance in the semifinals.

The U.S. has seven wins all time in the tournament, the last coming in a 1-0 win over El Tri in 2021.

Mauricio Pochettino is an Argentine soccer manager who has taken over the head job of the United States men’s national soccer team vacated by Greg Berhalter. Here are five things you may not know about Pochettino as he prepares to don the red, white and blue.