LOS ANGELES: Defending champion Mexico booked their spot in the quarterfinals of the CONCACAF Gold Cup Sunday by blanking Curacao 2-0 and stretching their tournament win streak to eight straight games.
Mexico finished first in Group C with two wins and a draw for seven points. Jamaica was second with five points and El Salvador finished third with four points.
Jamaica and El Salvador both punched their tickets to the quarterfinals after playing to a 1-1 draw earlier Sunday.
Mexico will next face Honduras on Thursday in Phoenix, Arizona with the winner advancing to the semifinals. Jamaica squares off against tournament surprise Canada in the other quarterfinal on Thursday.
The US, who won Group B, will battle El Salvador on Wednesday while Costa Rica faces Panama.
There was little riding on Sunday night’s match as Curacao had been eliminated before the game when El Salvador tied Jamaica.
Angel Sepulveda and teenager Edson Alvarez scored for Mexico who fielded a team that featured just one player from their 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup squad.
Sepulveda scored halfway through the first half in front of a crowd of 44,000 at the Alamodome Arena. Mexico then held on until 19-year-old Alvarez scored his first international goal in the 91st minute to seal the victory.
Mexico is seeking its eighth Gold Cup title having won previously in 1993, 1996, 1998, 2003, 2009, 2011 and 2015.
Jamaica finished the knockout round with one win and two draws.
Nelson Bonilla opened the scoring in the 15th minute for El Salvador, who avoided a defeat which would have seen them playing Group B’s Martinique in an elimination round tiebreaker.
Bonilla scored on a left footed shot to the far post at the Alamodome arena. It was the first goal given up by the Jamaican defense in the tournament.
Darren Mattocks tied it up in the 64th minute for the Reggae Boyz with a perfectly-placed low, hard shot that beat El Salvador goalkeeper Derby Carrillo. It was Mattocks’ fifth goal in six Gold Cup contests.
El Salvador returns to the quarterfinals for the first time since 2013 as they failed to advance out of the knockout round in 2015.
Elsewhere, the US brought in added reinforcements for Wednesday’s quarterfinal match. The Americans are one of the pre-tournament favorites and they hope to take advantage of reigning champs Mexico fielding an inexperienced B squad.
US coach Bruce Arena called up forward Clint Dempsey and Jozy Altidore, midfielders Michael Bradley and Darlington Nagbe, and goalie Tim Howard.
Mexico breezes past Curacao into Gold Cup quarterfinals
Mexico breezes past Curacao into Gold Cup quarterfinals
History-chasing Djokovic and Alcaraz to meet in Australian Open final after epic semifinal wins
- Carlos Alcaraz striving to become the youngest man ever to complete a career Grand Slam
- Novak Djokovic is aiming to be the oldest man in the Open era to win a Grand Slam title
MELBOURNE: Novak Djokovic finally beat one of the two men who have been blocking his path to an unprecedented 25th Grand Slam singles title when he edged Jannik Sinner in five sets Friday to reach the Australian Open final.
To get that coveted No. 25, he’ll next have to beat the other: top-ranked Carlos Alcaraz.
They’re both chasing history in Sunday’s championship decider, with the 22-year-old Alcaraz striving to become the youngest man ever to complete a career Grand Slam.
The top-ranked Alcaraz also had to come through a grueling five-setter. He fended off No. 3 Alexander Zverev 6-4, 7-6 (5), 6-7 (3), 6-7 (4), 7-5 in a match that started in the warmth of the afternoon Friday and, 5 hours and 27 minutes later, became the longest semifinal ever at the Australian Open.
That pushed the start of Djokovic’s match against Sinner back a couple of hours, and the 38-year-old Djokovic finally finished off a 3-6, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 win just after 1:30 a.m.
“It feels surreal,” Djokovic said of his 4-hour, 9-minute triumph. “Honestly, it feels like winning already tonight. I know I have to come back … and fight the No. 1 of the world. I just hope that I’ll have enough gas to stay toe-to-toe with him.
“That’s my desire. Let the God decide the winner.”
Djokovic was at the peak of his defensive powers, fending off 16 of the 18 breakpoints he faced against the two-time defending Australian Open champion. It ended a run of five losses to Sinner, and a run of four semifinal exits for Djokovic at the majors.
“Had many chances, couldn’t use them, and that’s the outcome,” Sinner said. “Yeah, it hurts, for sure.”
Alcaraz and Sinner have split the last eight major titles between them since Djokovic won his last title at the 2023 US Open.
Nobody knows how to win more at Melbourne Park than Djokovic. He has won all 10 times he’s contested the Australian Open final.
He said he saw Alcaraz after the first of the semifinals was over and he congratulated him on reaching his first final at Melbourne Park.
“He said sorry to delay,” Djokovic later explained. “I told him ‘I’m an old man, I need to go earlier to sleep!”
Djokovic, aiming to be the oldest man in the Open era to win a Grand Slam title, was kept up late.
“I’m looking forward to meeting him on Sunday,” he said.
Final 4
With the top four seeds reaching the Australian Open men’s semifinals for just the fifth time, Day 13 was destined to produce some drama. The season-opening major had been a relatively slow burn, until the back-to-back five-setters lasting a combined 9 hours and 36 minutes.
Alcaraz and Zverev, the 2025 runner-up, surpassed the 2009 classic between Rafael Nadal and Fernando Verdasco as the longest ever Australian Open semifinal.
Medical timeout
Alcaraz was as close as two points from victory in the third set but was hampered by pain in his upper right leg and his medical timeout became contentious.
He said initially it didn’t feel like cramping because the pain seemed to be just in one muscle, the right adductor, and he needed an assessment.
He navigated the third and fourth sets and was behind in the fifth after dropping serve in the first game. He kept up the pressure but didn’t break back until Zverev was serving for the match. He then won the last four games.
“I think physically we just pushed each other to the limit today. We pushed our bodies to the limit,” Alcaraz said. “Just really, really happy to get the win, that I came back. I just rank this one in the top position of one of the best matches that I have ever won.”
Believe
Asked how he was able to recover despite being so close to defeat, Alcaraz admitted he was struggling but said kept “believing, believing, all the time.”
“I’ve been in these situations, I’ve been in these kinds of matches before, so I knew what I had to do,” he said. “I had to put my heart into the match. I think I did it. I fought until the last ball.”
Zverev was demonstrably upset about the time out out in the third set, taking it up with a tournament supervisor, when his rival was given the three-minute break for treatment and a massage on the leg.
After the match, he maintained that he didn’t think it was right, but he didn’t think it should overshadow the match.
“I don’t want to talk about this right now, because I think this is one of the best battles there ever was in Australia,” he said “It doesn’t deserve to be the topic now.”
