Mexico midfielder Mayra Pelayo-Bernal, proper, celebrates her purpose with defender Karen Luna throughout a CONCACAF Gold Cup ladies’s soccer event match towards the USA, Monday, Feb. 26, 2024, in Carson, Calif.
AP Picture/Ryan Solar
CARSON, Calif. (AP) — Mexico beat the USA for the second time ever, getting objectives from Lizbeth Ovalle and Mayra Pelayo for a 2-0 victory Monday night time within the CONCACAF Ladies’s Gold Cup.
The U.S. entered the sport 40-1-1 towards its rival, with its solely earlier loss a 2-1 choice throughout Ladies’s World Cup qualifying in 2010.
It was the primary loss for the U.S. beneath interim coach Twila Kilgore, who took over after the staff’s dramatic exit from the Ladies’s World Cup final summer season within the spherical of 16. Emma Hayes will take over for Kilgore this spring.
Mexico, which didn’t qualify for final yr’s World Cup, completed atop Group A within the Gold Cup whereas the USA completed second. Each groups superior to the knockout spherical.
“They went out they usually have been daring, they have been courageous with the dream of taking part in a superb recreation towards the USA,” Mexico coach Pedro Lopez Ramos stated.
Ovalle, who performs for Tigres of Monterrey, put Mexico forward within the twenty eighth minute. U.S. defender Becky Sauerbrunn tried to defend Ovalle however kicked the ball proper at her. Ovalle floated a shot over goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher and two U.S. defenders and into the web.
It was the primary purpose conceded by the U.S. to a CONCACAF opponent in 33 matches.
“I feel it simply reveals how far the sport is coming and there’s no simple video games anymore. And if we don’t care for enterprise and we don’t execute, that is to be anticipated,” Kilgore stated. “We’ll step up and take possession in that and I feel anytime you might have a gaggle that’s keen to take possession in issues like this, it’s a superb factor for the way forward for the event. All the things’s nonetheless on the desk and we’ll be motivated, that’s for certain.”
Sauerbrunn took full accountability for the purpose, each on the sector and within the locker room afterward.
“As a veteran, you understand, you might have some tough days on the workplace and tonight is certainly a tough day,” she stated. “However fortunately, you’ll have one other day on the workplace and it’s simply what you make out of it.
Mexico almost scored once more in first-half stoppage time however Karla Nieto’s shot from distance hit the crossbar.
Kiana Palacios had a superb likelihood to offer Mexico a cushion however her shot hit defender Abby Dahlkemper and bounded away.
By that point, Mexico might really feel its momentum.
Pelayo scored from distance in stoppage time and Mexico’s gamers celebrated wildly on the sector.
“If we lose within the quarterfinals, then the gorgeous win of right this moment is ineffective,” Lopez Ramos stated via a translator. “I hope that this isn’t an remoted second.”
The USA noticed success from its youngsters within the first two video games of the event. Olivia Moultrie, 18, scored twice in a 5-0 victory over the Dominican Republic and Jaedyn Shaw, 19, scored a pair in a 4-0 victory over Argentina.
However Mexico performed surprisingly powerful and the USA couldn’t rebound after conceding that first purpose.
“I might say 2010, in that recreation, taking part in in Cancun, that stadium, I feel we have been all slightly bit shocked by that results of qualifying for the World Cup,” stated Sauerbrunn, who performed in that loss 14 years in the past. “I might say tonight that we by no means take any opponent with no consideration. I feel they’d a recreation plan they usually executed it higher than than what we had for our recreation plan. In order that’s all on us.”
That is the first-ever Ladies’s Gold Cup, created to offer ladies’s groups within the CONCACAF area extra aggressive matches. Twelve groups performed group-stage matches throughout three cities: Carson, San Diego and Houston.
Argentina beat the Dominican Republic 3-0 earlier Monday in Group A.
The groups can be re-seeded following the group stage, so Mexico and the USA should wait to study their opponents within the quarterfinals.
“The truth that everybody in that locker room can say they performed an element in it’s a large deal,” Diana Ordonez stated afterward. “We’re simply actually proud however we all know that we nonetheless have work to do.”
