Mexico Rally to Clinch Gold Cup Title

Everton's American custodian Tim Howard kept goal for his international side last night as they were beaten by Mexico in the final of the 2011 Gold Cup. Goals from Michael Bradley and ex-Everton loanee Landon Donovan had put the U.S. in a strong position, but Mexico rallied and replied with four goals of their own to take the title.

The U.S. took the lead early on, when a ninth minute corner from Freddy Adu (remember him?) was headed home by Michael Bradley. The outstanding Adu then fed Clint Dempsey, who crossed for Landon Donovan to double the American's lead.

Mexico, though, were still in control of the game. Taking advantage of the lack of pace in the American defence was Javier 'Chicharito' Hernandez, who ran the back four in front of Howard ragged. His energy and enthusiasm gained reward when, on 28 minutes, he found Pablo Barrera, who wrong-footed Howard to half the U.S. advantage.

Mexican winger Andres Guardado added a second on 35 minutes to level the match. It didn't take long after the break for El Tri to go in front - it was just four minutes after the restart when Pablo Barrera surprised Howard, scoring with the outside of his boot to make it 3-2.

Mexico added some gloss to the result with a fine fourth goal, after a solo run and finish by Giovanni dos Santos. It was a deserved result as the U.S. were made to pay for poor defending and - unlike Howard though it was - some poor goalkeeping. Mexico's energy and determination saw them clinch the Gold Cup title and gain a spot in the 2013 Confederations Cup.

After the game, Howard said: "they’ve got some special players. I thought we’d knocked the stuffing out of them at 2-0 really, it hit them where it hurt, but take your hat off to them they are a good bunch of players.

“Our game plan worked to a ‘T’ they came out and possessed it and spread us out but we picked and chose our spots and when to get them. Our combinations were really good up front and it's beyond me how they rallied back from that.

"We felt good about what we were doing, playing from a good shell and then springing and breaking and we did that really well, there was no sense in retreating we didn't want to do that.

"Every team in this tournament has sat back and waited on them, and they just picked them apart we didn’t want to do that, going for the third goal was just being aggressive.”

Howard was clearly hurt by the defeat and was seen leaving the field gesturing angrily, after having suffered regular taunting from the predominantly Mexican crowd during the match. Howard also felt that CONCACAF - a governing body prone to a spot of controversy - were wrong to hold the awarding ceremony solely in Spanish.

In an interview with Yahoo! Sports, Howard vented his ire: "CONCACAF should be ashamed of itself. I think it was a f***ing disgrace that the entire post-match ceremony was held in Spanish. You can bet your (butt) if we were in Mexico City it wouldn't all be in English."

So the season has ended in disappointment for our no.1 - but cheer up Timmy H, there are more important things in life. Everton, for one.