The evening opened with El Salvador taking on Cuba. Coming in to the match both teams were basically in need of a big win to even have a chance of moving on into a place in the quarterfinals but even a massive win would likely have not been enough for Cuba who were yet to pick up a single point. Apparently someone did tell El Salvador that with only 1 point from their first two matches they needed to crush Cuba because they came out flying and went straight to work on trying to repair their goal difference from the damage that Mexico had done to it. El Salvador opened the scoring only 11 minutes in when Zelaya was on the spot to score his first of the game and second of the tournament. His goal would be followed up by another from Romero on the 28th minute that saw El Salvador take a 2-0 lead into the break. If that score line had held until the end of the match both teams would likely have been going home without help from the other groups as El Salvador were still sitting on a -3 goal difference.
The second half was a real cracker though as El Salvador again went straight on to the offensive. Blanco scored in the 69th minute, Zelaya added his third of the tournament in the 70th but just when the route seemed to be on Cuba put a dent in their hopes. Cuba were certainly going home at this point but that did not stop them from pulling one back in the 82nd minute through Marquez. The Cuban rally, if you can even call it that, did not last long though as only a minute later El Salvador restored their 4 goal lead through Hernandez and then a 90th minute goal from Quintanilla was just enough to bring their goal difference back to 0. With El Salvador sitting on 4 points and a goal difference of 0 they look to be in decent shape to have a hope of advancing but for Cuba the 6-1 defeat was the end of a rough tournament. The Cuban team only managed to score that 1 goal while conceding 16 on route to 3 straight loses. Hopefully it was at least a learning experience for the team and they have done well with apparently only one player defecting so far!
The second game of the night saw Mexico taking on Costa Rica with top spot in the group on the line. A win or a draw would have seen Mexico finish in first place but only a win would do the trick for Costa Rica. Costa Rica also knew that with El Salvador winning by 5 they needed to ensure that they did not get destroyed by Mexico to avoid falling down in to third place. It all set up for an exciting match but in the end it was more about Costa Rica struggling to hold on to second place then a battle for the top spot. Mexico reversed their normal trend and came out scoring in the first half, instead of waiting for the second half like they have of late. Mexico opened the scoring 16 minutes in through Rafael Marquez and when Guardado added goals in the 19th and 25th minutes it looked like the route was once again on. Before the end of the half Mexico would make it 4-0 through Pablo Barrera. It looked like they were a sure thing to go through from the group on top and really just had to coast through the second half. For Costa Rica though they now found themselves ahead of El Salvador by only 1 on the goal difference.
Costa Rica came out a lot better in the second half, either that of Mexico came out a lot worse with nothing left to play for. They seemed fully intent on making sure that Mexico did not expand their lead at all and they were battling for that second place finish in the group. In the 68th minute all of that hard work was rewarded when Marcos Urena scored a goal that gave them a 2 goal cushion again despite being down 4-1 in the match. Both teams seemed to be fairly content with this scoreline and the match sort of fizzled out down the stretch as it was clear that Mexico would be winning the group and Costa Rica had done enough to hang on to second place. For the first time in the Gold Cup Chicharito did not steal the show as he was held off the score sheet before being substituted.
So we have one group all figured out and we know that Mexico and Costa Rica will be through to the next round for sure but El Salvador are going to have to wait and see how the next two days of results go before they know if they are going to be in the quarterfinals. Cuba on the other hand are going home for sure. Group A sure did provide us with a lot of goals as they combined to score an massive 29 goals despite Cuba only chipping in with 1.
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