INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) — Eight months and two coaches after Mexico crashed out of an embarrassing World Cup, a lot of the identical gamers triumphantly raised the CONCACAF Gold Cup amid confetti and raucous cheers Sunday night time.

El Tri has reversed its fortunes with beautiful velocity, and its successful objective at SoFi Stadium got here on an end-to-end play that was each bit as dramatic.

Late substitute Santiago Giménez scored after an electrifying dash within the 88th minute, and Mexico gained the Gold Cup for the document ninth time with a 1-0 victory over Panama.

After Edson Álvarez slid to dam Iván Anderson’s cross within the Mexico penalty space, Orbelín Pineda dribbled away and made an amazing go into the middle circle. Giménez, the 22-year-old Feyenoord ahead, dribbled previous Harold Cummings and outraced Cummings and Fidel Escobar into the penalty space.

Giménez scuffed a bouncing left-foot shot over goalkeeper Orlando Mosquera for his fourth objective in 18 worldwide appearances and his second of the event.

“It’s the biggest moment of my career,” Giménez stated. “I just tried to get down the field quickly. We followed our principles throughout the game, and they worked perfectly. The result was great, because there were a lot of competitive teams in this tournament.”

The objective by the Argentina-born Giménez, who got here on solely three minutes earlier, set off a frenzied celebration at a Southern California stadium filled with followers celebrating Mexico’s revival on this biennial CONCACAF event. After Mexico was eradicated within the group stage of the World Cup for the primary time since 1978, El Tri rebounded with a superb event beneath interim coach Jaime Lozano, who took over the beleaguered program solely a month in the past after a Nations League loss to the U.S.

“Today the environment was like being in a World Cup,” stated Lozano, whose contract is just for this event. “It wasn’t like a Gold Cup. I’m dreaming after I saw a stadium like we saw today, and to provide people with the happiness we’ve seen. Again, the team gave everything. We knew that we were writing history, and you have to take these opportunities.”

Mexico, which allowed simply two targets in its matches, has gained this event greater than all different nations mixed. The U.S. has seven Gold Cup titles and Canada one.

Giménez’s heroics ended an inspiring Gold Cup run by Panama, which upset the U.S. within the semifinals to earn its third look within the last. Los Canaleros couldn’t get a number of strong scoring probabilities previous veteran Mexican goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa.

Panama additionally misplaced the Gold Cup last in 2005 and 2013, each to the U.S.

“We gave everything we had,” coach Thomas Christiansen stated by way of a translator. “The team died standing. There is nothing I can regret from my players. Some people remove the (postgame) medals when they are the runner-ups, but I told them they should be proud of the achievements because of the soccer they played.”

While the Gold Cup is infamous for that includes half-strength nationwide groups, Mexico started the ultimate with eight starters who additionally began ultimately 12 months’s World Cup.

Mexico dominated play for a lot of the first half with 14 pictures, however Panama defended capably. Henry Martín appeared to place Mexico forward within the thirty third minute with a close-range objective, however a video assessment a number of minutes after the play discovered him offside.

Pineda and Martín each had tantalizing probabilities within the forty third minute, however Mosquera stopped their consecutive point-blank pictures.

Panama received its finest scoring likelihood shortly after halftime, however Alberto Quintero put his header simply extensive of the far publish. Edgar Bárcenas had one other handsome likelihood within the 87th minute, however missed extensive from outdoors the field.

Moments later, Giménez scored his largest objective for Mexico and gave optimism to followers hoping he’ll be the centerpiece of a brand new technology of Mexican expertise.

Lozano, who coached Mexico’s Olympic group to a bronze medal in Tokyo two years in the past, was employed to steer the Gold Cup marketing campaign by Juan Carlos Rodríguez, who took over as Mexican Football Federation president solely a month earlier. Mexico’s World Cup disappointment led to educate Tata Martino’s departure and Diego Cocca’s temporary tenure earlier than the arrival of Lozano, who largely relied on the core of his Olympic group on the Gold Cup.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino congratulated Lozano on stage and wished him luck for the 2026 World Cup cycle, unaware that Lozano’s contract is now up.

“I would love to be here,” Lozano stated. “It’s a dream to lead my national team in the World Cup, specifically a World Cup that is going to be hosted by Mexico and (the U.S. and Canada). If it is me, I’m going to have to work hard with my coaching staff. If it isn’t me, I’m going to support the team.”

Anybody who thought the absence of the hosts’ nationwide group would result in an anticlimactic Gold Cup last doesn’t know Southern California very effectively: The sellout crowd south of downtown Los Angeles was overwhelmingly dominated by followers of El Tri, which is handled like the house group each time it performs on this space — even in opposition to the American group.

Just a month after pissed off Mexican followers boycotted the third-place match of the Nations League in Las Vegas in opposition to Panama, that passionate base returned in full voice to the Los Angeles Rams’ palatial NFL stadium.

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