Mexico fought back from conceding an early goal to beat Mauricio Pochettino’s United States and defend their Gold Cup title in Houston, Texas.
Former Tottenham and Chelsea manager Pochettino saw his team gain a fourth-minute lead through Crystal Palace defender Chris Richards. He headed in from Sebastian Berhalter’s free-kick, with the ball bouncing down off the underside of the crossbar and just crossing the line.
But the US advantage only lasted 23 minutes as Fulham striker Raul Jimenez equalised with a first-time shot on the turn into the roof of the net from eight yards out, following Marcel Ruiz’s intelligent reverse pass.
Jimenez celebrated the goal by sitting on the turf with a ‘Diogo J 20’ shirt in front of him as a tribute to his former Wolves team-mate Diogo Jota, who died in a car crash on Thursday aged 28.
Mexico dominated the second half and got the winner in the 77th minute with a diving header from Edson Alvarez, although it had originally being ruled out for offside before the video assistant referee showed the West Ham defender was onside.
The Gold Cup featured 16 nations, 15 from North and Central America as well as Saudi Arabia, who had been invited to compete. All but one of the matches have been held in the United States, with the other one staged in Vancouver, Canada.
Pochettino took Tottenham to the Champions League final in 2019 and had been appointed boss of the US national team in September 2024, four months after being dismissed by Chelsea.
