Mexico rebounded form their 1-1 draw with to beat Guadeloupe 2-0 in front of 24,000 fans in Glendale, Arizona on July 12th. The win assured the Mexicans of top spot in Group C in the Gold Cup with seven points. Mexican manager Javier Aguirre served the first of his three-game suspension in this match after kicking out at Ricardo Phillips of Panama on the sidelines during Mexico’s last game. He’s eligible to return for the final on July 26 if Mexico qualifies.

“We qualified and we feel good,” Aguirre said through an interpreter. “We seemed lighter on our feet and more confident. I hope that we stay that way.”

Mexico will take on Haiti in the quarterfinals on July 19 in Arlington, Texas, while Guadeloupe, who finished in second place in the group with two wins, will meet Costa Rica on the same day and in the same locale.

This was the second straight eventful game for Mexico as two Guadeloupe players were shown red cards by the referee.

Mexico went back to attacking football in this game and dominated it from the opening kickoff. It paid off in the 41st minute as Gerardo Torrado took a pass from Efrain Juarez at the top of the 18-yard box and then hammered a right-footed shot past Guadeloupe’s keeper Yohan Bus just inside the left post for his second goal of the Cup.

Any hopes of a comeback by Guadeloupe were washed away when they lost their composure late in the game and had two players sent off the pitch within three minutes of each other. Defender Alain Vertot was given his marching orders after receiving his second yellow of the game in the 71st minute for hauling down a Mexican attacker. Then in the 82nd minute, substitute Ludovic Gotin, who came on in the 63rd minute for Mickael Curier, was shown a straight red for a dangerous tackle and went to join Vertot in the shower.

It didn’t take Mexico long to take advantage of playing against nine men, and Miguel Sabah headed a cross from Pablo Barrera in the 85th minute to slam the door on Guadeloupe, who were also missing four injured players and another who was suspended.

In the other Group C contest, in Glendale, Panama clinched a berth in the playoffs after thumping Nicaragua 4-0. Panama ended in third place with four points, from a win and a draw and qualified as one of the top two third-place teams.

The turning point was probably when Franklin Lopez was sent off in the 45th minute with his second yellow card. The score was only 1-0 then, after Blas Perez banged one home in the 34th minute, but Haiti then pumped in three more goals against the 10-man squad.

The next three goals came in 10-minute intervals as Gabriel Gomez scored in the 56th minute and Luis Tejada added two more in the 75th and 87th minutes.

The quarterfinal schedule is as follows:

July 18th – Canada vs. Honduras at Lincoln Financial Field; Philadelphia

July 18th – U.S. vs. Panama at Lincoln Financial Field; Philadelphia

July 19th – Guadeloupe vs. Costa Rica at Dallas Cowboys Stadium; Arlington, Texas

July 19th – Mexico vs. Haiti at Dallas Cowboys Stadium; Arlington, Texas

Chaos during the Gold Cup 2009 in group c match

It was bound to happen sooner or later. You just knew things would turn a little physical and nasty after a relatively calm Gold Cup tournament so far. Well it all came to a boiling point in a red hot Reliant Stadium in Houston, Texas on July 9th as Panama held Mexico to a 1-1 draw in their Group C match before a pro-Mexican crowd of 47,000.

Three players and Mexican manager Javier Aguirre were sent off before the final whistle blew, and when it did blow, there were quite a few punch ups in the crowd and a lot of rubbish thrown onto the pitch.

It was a scrappy game from the get go and Mexico’s Luis Noriega and Panama’s Armando Gun were both sent off just before half time as a minor scuffle took place after Gun had taken down Giovani Dos Santos in a tackle.

It was just shades of things to come as more trouble started when Ricardo Phillips of Panama ran the ball into touch just in front of the Mexican bench with about 10 minutes to go in the game. Aguirre put his foot up though and impeded Phillips. The player and Aguirre then got into a bit of a shoving match and a few other players, some who were on the sidelines, got into it and came over to see what the fuss was. Phillips was then given a red card and Aguirre was sent off of the bench. While things looked like they had gotten back to normal on the pitch, some of the supporters decided to duke it out and the game was held up a few minutes.

The last few minutes were played out and it looked like the final whistle would come soon, but then Blas Perez of Panama was hit by an object thrown from the crowd in the last minute. He was given treatment, but was then hit again with another unidentified flying object as he was being stretchered off the field. This caused more flare ups in the stands.

As for the actual football match, Dos Santos set up Miguel Sabah on a nice two on one counter attack to put Mexico ahead in the 11th minute. Perez then tied the score at 1-1 in the 28th minute after a scrambly play in the Mexican box. Perez managed to stab at the ball while it was in mid air from just a few yards out and it ended up in the back of the net.

All in all there were three yellow cards given to Panama, one to Mexico, and two red cards each. But funnily enough, there were only 14 fouls committed in the game between both teams.

The result means that Mexico, with four points, needs a point from their last group game against Guadeloupe on July 12 to guarantee a spot in the quarter-finals. If they lose and Panama beats Nicaragua, then the Mexicans will be out.

Guadeloupe has already made it to the quarterfinals as Stephane Auvray and Ludovic Gotin scored a minute apart to beat Nicaragua 2-0, keeping them top in Group C with six points. The goals came in the 58th and 59th minutes.

Mexico has done quite a bit better since the often-sacked Sven Goran Eriksson was rightly booted out as manager in April. They now play an attacking style like they used to and it paid off in their opening Group C game of the Gold Cup in as they beat Nicaragua 2-0 in front of 32,000 fans on July 5th in Oakland, California.

Javier Aguirre is the new boss and he’s definitely not the same as the old boss. He watched as his young squad pressed the action and created numerous chances against the defensive-minded Nicaraguans in his fifth game in charge of Mexico.

The game got of too a bard start for the Mexicans though as striker Carlos Vela, who plays for Arsenal in the English Premier League, injured his leg just minutes after the kick off. He collided with a Nicaraguan and fell to the ground. He went off for a few minutes, but then came back on and it looked like he might be okay, but he then went off for good in the 10th minute as he was substituted. The 20-year-old took an ambulance to the hospital for X-rays and it’s not clear yet if he’ll be back for the next game.

“When he fell, he got his foot stuck and got a twinge in his leg,” Aguirre stated after the match. “We hope it’s only a scare. We hope we confirm there’s nothing broken and he can continue with us. If it’s a worst-case scenario, we’ll tell you guys who we’re bringing to replace him.”

Just before half time, Nicaragua midfielder Armando Reyes fouled Israel Martinez from behind in the penalty box and Luis Miguel Noriega scored his first international goal on the ensuing penalty kick. It was Noriega’s official national team debut. Second-half substitute Pablo Barrera then doubled the score in the 86th minute and that closed the door on the hopes of any comeback by Nicaragua. Barrera tapped the ball into the net from about seven yards out on a great cross from Alberto Medina on the right wing.

The Gold Cup is an important event for the relatively young and inexperienced Mexican side and they will use it to try and get back on track for the remaining World Cup qualifiers after Eriksson derailed them. Their next qualifier is on Aug. 12 and it will be a huge game played before about 100,000 fanatics in Mexico City. Mexico sits in fourth place in the CONCACAF qualifying standings for next year’s World Cup in South Africa with a 2-3 record, which is unusually low for them, and only the top three teams will make it.

If they can’t get back in the groove, it’s possible they could miss the World cup and that will be seen as a national disaster back in Mexico. However, they have an amazing unbeaten record of 22-0-1 against the US at home so it should be quite a game as the US is pretty hot right now.

However, Aguirre said they’re only concerned with the Gold Cup at the moment and he was happy to see his side attack all game long, outshooting Nicaragua 18 to 6. Giovani Dos Santos had a great game for Mexico as he wasn’t afraid to take defenders on with his dribbling skills and speed.

Mexico lost the 2007 Gold Cup final to America and both countries have won the tournament four times each.

Mexico’s next Gold Cup match is July 9th in Houston, Texas, against Panama, who were beaten 2-1 to Guadeloupe in the first match of the double header in Oakland on July 5th.