By Emmanuel Faith 3/3/24
The Concacaf Gold cup has been filled with thrill, glee and a lot of roller-coaster emotions. From mouthwatering goals to mind-bending results, our correspondent Emmanuel Faith, brings us a review of the Group Stage.
Above: Linda Caicedo for Colombia. Photo: Concacaf Twitter
The Concacaf Gold Cup means different things to different countries. For countries like USA and Canada, it is an opportunity to redeem themselves after an underwhelming World Cup performance and for countries like Mexico and Paraguay, it is a chance to show the world what they missed watching at the World cup. In the group stage, there were no dull moments. Below is a peek into what happened across the groups..
GROUP A:
Group A opened with an action-packed goalless draw between Mexico and Argentina. Mexico recorded 15 shots with five of them on target, however the resilience of Argentina’s defenseensured that the match finished without a goal.
USA started their campaign on the front-foot, beating Dominican Republic 5 goals to nil.
The 18-year-old debutant, Olivia Moultrie was the star of the night with a brace while the NWSL 2023 player of the year, Midge Purce bagged a brace of brilliant assists.
The second round of matches were dominant performances with USA putting 4 past Argentina and Mexico putting 8 goals past Dominican Republic, the shock was however in the third round of Matches.
USA locked horns with the Mexico for the slot of the group winner in a well-familiar rivalry where USA had often come out on top but the case was different this time around.
Two emphatic goals from Lizbeth Ovalle and Mayra Pelayo-Bernal at the 38th and 92nd minute gave the Americans their first defeat and acted as a reality check for the team on the journey of getting their rhythm together.
They face Colombia in the quarter-finals and it is going to be a test of their tournament so far.
The Mexicans celebrate their win against USA. Photocredit (Gold Cup on twitter)
GROUP B:
The opening match of Group B was quite contrasting. Colombia continued their brilliant run of sterling performance with a 6:0 win over Panama while Brazil had to settle for a 1:0 win over Puerto Rico thanks to the astounding brilliance of their goal keeper, Sydney Martinez.
This brilliance flowed into the second match as they beat Panama by two goals to one to get their first win of the tournament while Brazil had another narrow win over Colombia to make it two wins, with two goals from two matches.
The Samba queens finally unleashed their scoring boots with a five-nil win over Panama, while Colombia beat Puerto Rico two zero with two astounding goals from Catalina Usme and Linda Caicedo as they set up a thrilling quarter-finals with the hosts, the United States of America.
The Colombian whiz celebrating her second goal against Peurto Rico. Photo-credit (Concacaf on Twitter)
GROUP C:
After a forgettable experience at the World cup, Canada showed the world (or at least the CONCACAF continent) that they are back and back on track with three solid wins over Paraguay Costa Rica and El-Salvador.
There are many traits that makes this Canada team stand out, but one worth mentioning is how clinical they are in front of the goal. In their first match, they scored six goals out of ten shots on target, and in their last match, they scored three goals out of four shots on target.
They’d be relying on this trait when they face Costa-Rica in the quarter-final.
In other matches, Paraguay’s one-nil win in the opening match and a hard-fought 3-2 win in their last match was good enough to set up a quarter-final match with the Mexicans while Costa-Rica beat El-Salvador by two goals to nothing to ensure they picked the last ticket for the best-loser’s category and set up a replay against Canada.
There were a lot of outstanding performers across different matches but Adriana Leon probably should be the player of the stage with five goals and two assists in 3 games.
With 5 goals and 2 assists, Leon has been unstoppable for Canada.
Quarter-finals review:
An intense drama ensued amongst the fans when Costa-Rica tied with Puerto Rico were tied after the Group stage in all tie-breaking criteria per Concacaf rules and were left with a random selection pick to determine who goes to the next round.
It is probably unfair that the fate of a nation and their chance at a trophy is being determined by a ballot pick, and it shows how much revision and revisit needs to happen to the rules guiding this beautiful game.
The hosts lock horns with a burgeoning, impressive team in Colombia who are not scared to play anyone as they showed against both Germany and England in the last world cup.
USA is in a must-win scenario against a continuously evolving Colombia and the big stars on the roster have to show themselves worthy.
While the quarter-final draw being talked about the most is USA vs Colombia, for valid reasons, Brazil locking horns with Argentina in a COMMEBOL match-up and Mexico facing Paraguay are probably thrilling matches to watch out for. The Brazilians are also hoping this tournament acts as a good preparation for the Olympics while the Argentinians always play like they have nothing to lose; to be honest, they don’t.
Mexico sent a solid statement across when they beat the host nation and four-times World Champion, USA and be hoping to make it to the finals but they need to get past Paraguay.
Canada vs Costa-Rica looks like an easy draw on paper,especially because of the three-nil victory recorded during the group stage but this is tournament football, there are no big teams or small teams, just teams that show up and play their best football.
Who are you tipping to make it to the semis? Leave a comment below.
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