Mexico beats USMNT 2-1 to win 10th Gold Cup

It's a second consecutive Gold Cup title for Mexico after Edson Alvarez's winner pushed them past the United States men's national team on Sunday in Houston with a 2-1 victory. Chris Richards scored the opening goal only four minutes into the match, following an excellent delivery from Sebastian Berhalter, but the USMNT weren't able to find anything from open play after that. Mexico responded with Raul Jimenez equalizing in the first half before Alvarez ended up getting the winner. Mexico became the first team to become back-to-back Gold Cup champions since they did it in 2011, while the same questions remain for Mauricio Pochettino's squad.

While the USMNT were able to get past sides like Guatemala and Costa Rica, more is needed to topple Mexico and the USMNT were ineffective going forward and struggled to defend on the night. Of course, things may have been different if regulars like Christian Pulisic were at the tournament. With less than a year to go until the World Cup, improvement will be needed quickly. Even bright spots like Diego Luna couldn't find the game facing Mexico as the USMNT are still trying to figure out what their ceiling is.

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As this camp comes to a close, there are positives for Pochettino to take away as Matt Freese and Diego Luna have pushed themselves closer to the World Cup squad, while Chris Richards and Malik Tillman increased their standing. Even intriguing things like Berhalter's grit and set play delivery have shined. I mean, what an excellent delivery to Richards for the opener.

It stings to lose to Mexico in a final, but these are losses that can sit with members of the team and help push them to be better. USMNT players looked dejected following the game, and that feeling will hopefully bring growth. This may be their last competitive match ahead of the World Cup, but plenty of tough tests are on the horizon. Not only will players get moves to new clubs, but there will be friendlies facing South Korea and Japan as well. Both of those teams have already qualified for the World Cup and will provide the USMNT with proper challenges, but they'll need to take those kinds of matches seriously and win to show that they can hang with true World Cup squads because that's the biggest question looming over Pochettino and the team.

According to the source: CBS Sports.