Day 5 of Gold cup action saw Jamaica take on Guatemala and Grenada take on Honduras at FIU Stadium in Miami. The night kicked off with Jamaica looking to claim a second win which would basically assure them of a place in the next round of play while Guatemala were looking to build on their surprise draw from the opening round of play. The first half of the game did not have all that many talking points with Jamaica holding a slight edge in the run of play but the best chances of the half for both teams went to waste as no one seemed interested in getting their shots on target.
This started to pick up in the second half of the game and Jamaica almost opened the scoring thanks to an impressive run through the defense by Jason Morrison but the Guatemalan keeper Jerez came out well and managed to stop the shot with his legs. Minutes later another good run through the middle of the field by Jamaica forced a second good save as it appeared that Jamaica had taken the initiative in the second half. It took until the 65th minute for Jamaica to finally get the breakthrough they were looking for as Demar Phillips slid a shot in off the far post from a very tight angle. The keeper almost got enough of his toe on the ball to turn it wide but in the end Jamaica took a 1-0 lead. The talking points would not end there but instead the goal seemed to ignite the game. On 70 minutes the referee was sadly fooled by a flop from the Jamaican attacker who was looking to win a free kick against the last man back. The referee bought his very soft fall and ended up sending off Cristian Noriega with a second yellow card. The diving of Jamaica had seen Guatemala reduced to 10 men and from then on it looked like there was only going to be one winner. Jamaica began to push forward even harder and on 78 minutes Demar Phillips was in the middle of the box to tuck in his second goal of the game which was enough to see Jamaica cruise to a win. Their 6 points from 3 matches have them top of the group now and in position to advance. For Guatemala though things are not looking as good with only 1 point from their opening two matches. If they want to make it out of this group then they are going to need to be Grenada in the third round of play.
Speaking of Grenada, they took to the field in the second game of the night to play Honduras. Grenada came in to this one with a single Gold Cup goal to their name and found themselves with the unenviable task trying to slow down a Honduran team who were sure to be frustrated after their opening match ended in a draw. The match could not have started better for Grenada though as they finally ended their goalless drought in this competition with Clive Murray hitting the crossbar but then following up on his rebound to slot home his teams first. Sadly though if you love Grenada or like me just enjoy cheering for the underdog it was all downhill from there. Honduras would respond with 2 goals in the 27th minute and another in the 36th. By the time that halftime arrived I had almost forgotten that Grenada had been in the lead and had started so brightly.
The second half was all Honduras as they would build on their 3-1 advantage with Carlos Costly scoring in the 66th and 71st minutes to round of his hat trick having scored one in the first half. Escobar and Ramos would both come off the bench to get involved in the scoring and help to round off a dominant 7-1 win. Grenada put up such a good fight for close to half and hour but once Honduras got rolling it was clear that they did not have an power to slow them down. The Honduran onslaught is not only bad news for Grenada but also for the rest of the teams in the Gold Cup since if this signals a turnaround for the team they will be much more of a force as the rounds move on. The defeat all but seals Grenada's fate as they have no points and a -10 goal difference so unless they destroy Guatemala in the final game they will be going home. For Honduras though the final match day will be a big one as it will determine who is going to come out of group B in first place. A Honduran win sees them take first place in the group but any result for Jamaica sees them go through in first.
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