Mexico Beats U.S. In Gold Cup Final

Mexico rallied from an early 2-0 hole to defeat the U.S. 4-2 in soccer's Gold Cup Final Saturday night in Pasadena. Michael Bradley and Landon Donovan scored early goals for Uncle Sam's team, but Mexico's aggressive attack proved to be too much. Here is more from Leander Schaerlaeckens of espn.com.

Mostly, this defeat was the design of Dos Santos, who had carved up the U.S. midfield and defense with such gleeful chops. He emphasized this in the 76th minute when he received the ball deep in the U.S. box ahead of (again) Bradley. Dos Santos kept it away from Howard as the U.S. keeper frantically scrambled on all fours, before skipping past Bocanegra and curling the ball into the far upper 90 for Mexico's fourth goal.

It was a fitting exclamation point to a masterful performance by Mexico, which never panicked, never wavered and, ultimately, never did look like it would lose this match.

The usual steady Tim Howard had a terrible night goal keeping for team U.S.A. He looked both confused and flat footed on several of the Mexican goals.

Clint Dempsey was fair, assisting on Donovan's goal. He missed a shot on goal, nailing the crossbar. Overall though, it was a forgettable performance by Dempsey.

Carlos Bocanegra, who has been tremendous throughout the Gold Cup, simply could not keep up with the speedy Mexico club. Despite being in good position most of the night, he was consistently outrun.

Perhaps the one bright spot for the U.S. was the play of Freddy Adu. He matched the Mexican's speed, as well as their crafty method. Adu had a hand in both American goals as well, with his tremendous corner play, and even better set-up play. Maybe the U.S. will finally begin to see the Freddy Adu they thought they'd see 7 years ago.