Mexico rout Reggae Boyz 5-0

MEXICO CITY : Omar Bravo scored in the 37th minute to start a rout yesterday as Mexico cruised past Jamaica 5-0 and advanced to the semifinals of the CONCACAF Gold Cup football tournament.

Jamaica’s bigger, more-physical team had trouble moving the ball against Mexico, and the home team looked sharper from the opening whistle. The speedier Mexicans ran circles around the  Jamaicans and pushed the ball deep into their zone again and again in the early going. “Sometimes things go your way. Today everything went our way,” Mexico coach Ricardo Lavolpe said. “The situation was difficult, there was a lot of pressure. But my players responded  and played a great match.” After several near-misses, Jesus Arellano took the ball to the right of the goal, shook off a pair of defenders and launched a centering pass that Bravo headed into the centre of the net, igniting the small crowd of 20,000 at the Mexican capital’s 105,000-seat Azteca Stadium. Rafael Garcia lined up on the right side and rocketed a free-kick from outside the box past Jamaican goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts three minutes later.

Things only got worse for Jamaica in the second half. Jared Borgetti, Juan Pablo Rodriguez and Salvador Carmona worked the ball around the box to allow Daniel Osorno to punch a close-range   offering into an open net from the left side in the 53rd minute. The goal came less than a minute after Osorno entered the match for Bravo. Borgetti caught up to a looping pass from Octavio Valdez and scored from the left side to make it 4-0 in the 61st minute and Rodriguez added a goal 19 minutes later to complete the romp. “This is a very new and very good Mexican team,” Jamaica coach Carl Brown said. “We knew it was going to be very tough.” Costa Rica pounded El Salvador 5-2 in Foxboro, Massachusetts, on Saturday to advance to the Gold Cup’s final four. The Costa Ricans will battle Mexico at Azteca on Thursday for the right to advance to the final. Mexico looked confident and well-coached against Jamaica, a  far-cry from the flat and disjointed matches they played in outlasting Brazil 1-0 and settling for a scoreless draw against  Honduras in the Gold Cup’s opening round.

Jamaica were without one of their top offensive weapons, Onandi Lowe, who was forced to sit out after receiving a red card against Guatemala on June 15. The visitors’ offensive struggled   to find its rhythm without Lowe and had almost no shots on-goal during the hot, sticky afternoon. The Gold Cup is the championship of North and Central America and the Caribbean. The other semifinal match will be played in Miami on Saturday and pits the United States against  Brazil, a special invite to the tournament. Jamaica advanced to the Gold Cup’s semifinals in 1993 and 1998, but was eliminated by Mexico both years. The Mexicans went on to win the tournament in 1998, the last Gold Cup victory for   the squad that has traditionally been the region’s top football power.