If American goalkeeper Tim Howard and his teammates weren’t happy with the result of Saturday night’s Gold Cup final, they certainly weren’t enamored with what transpired afterwards. Howard cursed tournament officials because the post-game ceremonies were in Spanish.
“CONCACAF should be ashamed of themselves,” Howard said after the U.S. lost to Mexico, 4-2. “I think it’s a [expletive] disgrace that the entire post-game ceremony was in Spanish. You can bet your [butt] if we were in Mexico City, it wouldn’t be all in English.”
The ceremony before a mostly pro Mexican-crowd of 93,420 at the Rose Bowl was emceed by Fernando Fiore, a commentator for Spanish-language network Univision. Though Fiore reportedly mostly spoke in Spanish, he also used English throughout, including when the U.S. players were presented with their runner-up medals.
The Mexicans earned gold by overcoming a two-goal, first-half deficit, putting on a scintillating show of high-octane attacking. Howard, who had to take the ball out of his net four times, soon calmed and went on to praise his archrivals.
“They’ve got some special players,” he said. “I thought we’d knocked the stuffing out of them at 2-0, really hit them where it hurt. Take your hat off to them. They are a good bunch of players.
“Our game plan worked to a ‘T.’ They came out and possessed it and spread us out. We picked and chose our spots when to and when to get them. Our combinations were really good up front. Again, we hit them. It’s beyond me how they rallied back from that.”
Other U.S. stars marveled at their foes.
“They’re as dynamic as any [Mexican] team that I’ve ever played against,” forward Landon Donovan said. “They’ve got a few guys who can change the game in a heartbeat.”
Mexico, which entered as the tournament favorite, lived up to its potential as the best national team in years, if not in generations.
“There’s no better moment than victory,” Mexican coach Jose Manuel de la Torre said. “Everything else is in the past now.”
U.S. coach Bob Bradley had a different perspective.
“When you let it get away, it’s an empty feeling,” he said.