Mexico defeats USMNT to claim 2025 Gold Cup title

Some of Mexico’s relentless attack was down to El Tri’s fabulous forward movement: for the first time in this Gold Cup, Mexico looked like every part of the field was linked up and humming. Plenty more of it, though, came from the USMNT’s lack of midfield aggression. Holding midfielders Tyler Adams and Luca de la Torre looked utterly unprepared for Mexico’s movement and struggled to impact the game positively in any way. (Adams was carrying a limiting hamstring injury; de la Torre, unfortunately, just wasn’t up to the task.) 

The USMNT’s lack of strong midfield play has been a connecting thread since it lost its Nations League semifinal to Panama back in March. 

It was a pair of Premier League starters who made the USMNT pay for its lack of preparation. Raul Jimenez, the Fulham striker back to full fitness after a horrific brain injury in 2020, scored first, lasering a tight-angle shot in the 27th minute that USMNT goalkeeper Matt Freese could only gaze at in awe as it plowed into the net. 

Edson Alvarez, the utility man from West Ham United, scored the second in the 77th minute after just managing to keep himself onside for a key cross.

Those two goals were all it took. Neither were down to defensive errors, really; the USMNT back line of Alex Freeman, Chris Richards, Tim Ream and Max Arfsten performed admirably against incredible headwinds. 

They came down to Adams, de la Torre and the USMNT’s inability to hold the ball and give its defense a break. It’s a problem the USMNT has created for itself over the course of the Pochettino era, and it’s a problem that must be solved if the team hopes to challenge in the World Cup next summer.

Losing this final to Mexico was regrettable for the USMNT, but the team has had plenty of bright spots throughout this Gold Cup. Attacking midfielder Malik Tillman remains a special talent, and his performances in this tournament rightfully earned him a big-money move to the Bundesliga’s Bayer Leverkusen. 

Real Salt Lake attacker Diego Luna, despite being largely marked out of this Mexico fixture, has blossomed into a bona fide USMNT star, one whose brightness rivals that of traditional poster boy Christian Pulisic. And this whole makeshift USMNT — a group missing its stars and deemed a “B-team” and even sometimes a “C-team” by its critics — showed that it has plenty of fight and energy left to give. 

Is this USMNT a Concacaf champion? No. But this USMNT is far, far better than its 4-0 loss to Switzerland in early June made it out to be, and that’s promising stuff. If you peer through the smoke, you can see the beginning of something great.

The USMNT has now finished its summer fixtures. It will reconvene in early September for friendlies against South Korea and Japan.