Gold Cup’s Grand Finale: All good things must come to an end

By Morgan J. Wolf

The 2017 Gold Cup will be remembered for various reasons, but mostly for being extremely exciting, marked with many highlights and the emergence of some new stars. The final in Santa Clara provided a fitting end to a great tournament.

Going into the match, many people thought that the United States would run rampant over Jamaica. What actually happened was quite different. Consider that Jamaica is a really well-organized team, one that can provide tough opposition to anyone, as Mexico knows.

And we learned that even when ReggaeBoyz’s captain and goalkeeper extraordinaire Andre Blake went down with a hand injury, the team’s backups are pretty good too, as Dwayne Miller filled in admirably for the former MLS Goalie of the Year. Miller perhaps could have done more in Jozy Altidore’s free kick, though.

Throughout the game, the US did seem more effective on the ball, but Jamaica was equally as effective at denying spaces.

Altidore scored on a picture-perfect free kick right before first-half injury time, but Je-Vaughn Watson answered within five minutes of the beginning of the second half to level the game. That started a scramble that became increasingly more and more frantic as time ticked on to score the tie-breaking goal.

Though Jamaica put in a game effort to try and stop the US., and stop them they almost did, it wasn’t enough as Jordan Morris buried a laser of a shot into the net in the 88 ^th minute to break the tie and give the U.S. a lead that they only had to protect for five minutes.

Throughout the Gold Cup, fans have been treated to awe-inspiring displays of goal-scoring prowess and defensive clinics, and they’ve witnessed some of the most heated rivalries the soccer world has to offer (seriously, these countries went at it). Needless to say, they now can look forward to next summer’s World Cup in Russia.