Haiti 3-Canada 2
Mexico 1 (5)-Costa Rica 1 (4)
The CONCACAF Gold Cup is heating up! On Saturday the knockout stage of the tournament began with two excellent matches between Haiti-Canada and Mexico-Costa Rica. In the end Haiti and Mexico were victorious setting up an exciting semifinal next Tuesday in Glendale, Arizona.
While much was expected of the Mexico-Costa Rica tilt Haiti and Canada was a bit more of an unknown quantity. But the two sides, as they have done all tournament, showed up ready to do battle. In the first half it appeared as if Les Rouges would walk all over the match jumping out to a early 2-0 lead with goals from Jonathon David (18′) and Lucas Cavallini (22′).
But Haiti maintained their composure and in the second found their rhythm. Duckens Nazon (50′) struck first with a bullet from distance to make it 1-0. The score was levelled at two after Herve Bazile (70′) knocked home a penalty kick opportunity. That in turn set up a frenetic final twenty minutes with both sides looking for the winning goal. It would be Wilde-Donald Guerrier that would do the honors scoring the go-ahead goal in the 76th to complete the upset.
With Haiti having secured their spot in the Final Four it was up to Mexico and Costa Rica to determine who would join them. Raul Jimenez put El Tri up just before halftime with a clever finish. But The Ticas showed their CONCACAF Thunder in the second half, earning a penalty after Joel Campbell was fouled in the box. The veteran gaffer Bryan Ruiz lined up to take the kick and buried it into the back of the net putting the score at 1-1 in the 52nd minute.
After the two sides went through the second half and extratime without getting a second goal they moved into penalties. Mexican goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa has a long history of coming up big for El Tri in penalties and Saturday was no different. The Standard Liege keeper made a big save on Costa Rican midfielder Keysher Fuller to end it at 5-4.
Haiti and Mexico will square off on Tuesday at 10:30 pm EST in Arizona on FS1. In the meantime please enjoy some of our photos from both matches from Prost photographer Eric Guzman.
Mexico
Photo Recaps
