USA beat dogged Jamaican Soccer Team Reggae Boyz 2-1
Despite a dogged performance from Jamaica’s Reggae Boyz, the favorite USA pulled off a last minute victory to take top honors in the Gold Cup by a 2-1 margin at Santa Clara California on Wednesday night.
Bolstered by goals from Jozy Altidore and Jordan Morris, the hosts pulled off the victory with just two minutes to spare despite a Je-Vaughn Watson equalizer early in the second half.
Motivational skipper Blake out injured
Jamaica was behind the eight ball from early in the game after their motivational captain and goalkeeper Andre Blake, suffered an injury to his right hand during a goalmouth scuffle and had to be substituted by former number on goaltender, Dwayne Miller.
The Jamaicans employed their same strategy of sitting back and allowing their opponents to run at them and held out until close to the half time whistle when Altidore struck a wicked free kick from 30 yards to beat a flailing Miller.
USA in a tizzy
The United States were barely able to celebrate their lead upon the resumption when the Jamaicans came roaring back when Watson muscled his way past Morris to strike an unstoppable volley past veteran keeper Tim Howard to send the United States bench in a tizzy.
But the Jamaicans failed to seize the momentum and reverted to their ultra-defensive strategy which allowed the hosts to regroup and attack relentlessly. The Reggae Boyz did not help their cause with a number of wild clearances and unforced turnovers of the leather. The Caribbean team seemed content to play possum.
The game seemed to be headed into extra time but with two minutes to go, Morris pounced on a poorly executed clearance and fired into the top corner to send the USA squad and supporters into a frenzy as the Jamaicans sunk to their knees in despair.
The winners collected the coveted trophy and $1 million while the runners up were awarded $500,000.
