JA football too boring for me to care or watch them play, too predictable and seldom ever gambles. Tnt always an unpredictable side that alone makes the team fun to watch, with JA expect to see no goals or 1 with 10 men behind the ball defending. I see some people are fixed on Mexico not earning the cup but they just won the final.
People forget that the best team can have bad days, unfair calls and get unlucky. it's all part of the game and how you deal with that will either reap fans or hate from supporters. What Panama did on and off the pitch was distasteful and it made our region look mediocre. Exposed us in a big way with international headlines for the wrong reasons. Panama for me has the team to be in the finals but not the discipline or the fan base to rival mexico or usa in terms of support.
I don't see anyone here is saying that Mexico didn't deserve to win the finals. But I do see people like myself who are saying that Mexico did not deserve
TO BE in this particular finals.
Mexico is a very good team, which most will not dispute. However, this particular Gold Cup tournament was one that proved to be highly suspect with the officiating, and rather corrupt. The game-changing calls made in Mexico's favor in the Quarter-finals, and then in the Semi-finals were not just bad calls...they were blatantly deplorable. We have to face the fact that regional tournaments such as these are tied-in very much to TV ratings, corporate sponsors, and other monied interests. Having a Gold Cup finals between smaller-population states (Jamaica vs a Panama or a Costa Rica, for example), would not have been the ratings bonanza that tournament organizers would have been counting on.
This begs the question --- if down the road, a tiny population country like Grenada, by some miracle qualified for the GC and fielded a team that threatened to make it far in the GC during the knock-out phase....would the game be officiated FAIRLY if that particular match were close (tied, or with Grenada up 1-0), against a US or Mexico in the dying minutes of the game?
The blatant deplorable officiating in this tournament at important junctures in the matches, has taken away somewhat the credibility of this tournament.
After-all, would "Fox Sports" or major corporate sponsors benefit from say for example a "T&T vs Barbados" Gold Cup finals? Based on what we have witnessed here in 2015, if T&T and B'dos were leading in their respective knock-out matches in close games against any of the 3 major regional populous countries (USA, Mexico, Canada), I don't believe a T&T vs B'dos final would ever be allowed to happen.
Mexico definitely deserved to win today's final against JA --- this isn't in dispute. But Mexico did not deserve to even make it to this particular finals. Monied corporate interests decided on Mexico being in this finals.
When a tournament's credibility is dishonored and tarnished, everyone loses.