The U.S. Men’s National Team (USMNT) could not keep a lead earned in the fourth minute, as Mexico came back to win the 2025 Gold Cup Final 2-1 at NRG Stadium in Houston, TX.
El Tri won a record 10th Gold Cup crown through captain Edson Álvarez’s header, though they had to wait for the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) to award the goal in the 78th minute. They outplayed the U.S., dominated 60% of the ball, outshot the U.S. 16-6, and did not even concede a single corner.
The U.S. scored through a tried and trusted technique — Sebastian Berhalter’s setpiece finding Chris Richards at the near post. Unlike the Saudi Arabia goal, Berhalter was positioned further back, but the No. 8 still found Richards around the penalty spot with a whipped free kick.
The Crystal Palace center-back feigned right and lost his marker by going behind him, blasting his header against the underside of the crossbar and barely into the goal for his second of the tournament.
The goal sent the U.S. bench onto the field to celebrate, settled the home crowd’s nerves, and gave the Americans a much-needed lead to protect while being on the front foot.
Some big names, such as usual captain Christina Pulisic, were missing from the squad due to a congested club schedule, and it looked like they would be okay without them. Despite the loss, throughout the tournament, names such as Richards, Berhalter, Matthew Freese, Malik Tillman, and Diego Luna have staked a claim in Mauricio Pochettino’s thinking to play in front of a home crowd at a historic competition next summer.
The squad is young too — the average age of the starting XI in the final was 25.5 years, and it is massively skewed by 37-year-old Tim Ream. Mexico was the experienced side, with a backline containing no one younger than 26, and Premier League and international-tournament-proven leaders in Álvarez and striker Raúl Jiménez.
And it showed as Mexico started to grow into the game. An Alexis Vega corner on 23 minutes was played short and found 16-year-old Gilberto Mora at the edge of the box. He had a good look in with a curled effort, testing Freese, who had to dive left and save a ball that could have been deflected.
Jesús Gallardo played a pass to Marcel Ruíz through two U.S. defenders in the 27th minute, who then invited Jiménez to go one-on-one with a slipped through-ball past Richards and Alex Freeman, taking them out of the game. It left Ream chasing across the box to his former Fulham teammate Jiménez, but the 34-year-old striker turned adeptly and smashed his left foot through the ball, into the roof of the net.
Jiménez honored his former Wolverhampton Wanderers teammate, the late Diogo Jota, with his signature FIFA celebration and a Mexican jersey with ‘Diogo. J 20.’
El Tri had a chance to double their lead with half an hour played, as Max Arfsten was caught out of position in the midfield. It allowed Jorge Sánchez to race behind and find Mora, who again tested Freese with a stinging shot to his gloves. It was Freese’s fourth save of the match, equaling his save tally all match against Guatemala.
However, the U.S. arguably had the better chance just before the half, as Berhalter played a quarterback pass over the top of the Mexican defense. Freeman won the foot race, but his header was saved by Luis Malagón’s head.
It started a scramble as Mexico couldn’t clear, but the U.S. could not find a clinical pass or shot. Patrick Agyemang and Freeman fell to the ground, Berhalter crossed it back in once, Agyemang was on the floor again, and Luna blasted a shot into Row Z to end the sequence.
Mexico came out hot, asserting control over possession. It led to Roberto Alvarado’s left-footed effort just curling past the far post in the 50th minute. Arfsten had a similar chance on the left flank three minutes later, cutting in and shooting. His curler was not far from the top corner.
El Tri continued to have half-chances at a second goal, but Freese did well to make two more confident saves to regain possession for his team. The U.S. had a penalty shout waved off in the 65th minute when Sánchez had his hand on the ball while attempting to tackle Arfsten. However, it was deemed his “planted hand” when falling, thus an unavoidable action while winning the ball.
It cost the U.S., as just 12 minutes later, Vega found Johan Vásquez at the near post, who flicked it towards Álvarex to nod home. However, it was immediately ruled for offside pending VAR review.
The free-kick had a few moving parts — Alvarado feints to take the free-kick, which was the signal for Vásquez, who started in the middle of the queue, to drift toward the near post. Álvarez started in an offside position, just beside Ream. While Vega played the ball in, Álvarez pushed off Ream to give himself a yard of space in front of the six-yard box. However, César Montes went to block Richards, instead of Freeman, who was allowed to drift and play Álvarez onside.
The U.S. had one last chance in the 90+2nd minute, as Damion Downs left a ball played over the top to Agyemang, who could not get a clean connection and saw his half-attempt cleared by Vásquez.
Mexico completed the comeback to beat the U.S. for the first time in a competitive match since the 2019 Gold Cup Final and make it back-to-back Gold Cup triumphs. Jonathan Dos Santos scored that match’s only goal in the 73rd minute to separate the two rivals, with only Walker Zimmerman and Ream remaining from that squad.
