Oribe Peralta, Carlos Vela and Gio dos Santos – all of whom will need to shoulder more of an offensive burden with Chicharito sidelined – all scored, with Peralta bagging a hat trick as Mexico notched an astonishing 44 shots. Cuba came into the contest in disarray after learning that forward Keiler Garcia was missing from the lineup, apparently after having defected, news reports said.
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“We pressed well, we covered the ball in good areas of the field, we got the goals and we kept possession well”, the ex- Canada coach said.
Playing in the same city he now calls home, the first-year Chicago Fire midfielder and defender netted his first worldwide goal and delivered a Man-of-the-Match performance for the Soca Warriors, leading T&T to a 3-1 win over Guatemala in the side’s 2015 CONCACAF Gold Cup opener at Soldier Field. Peralta opened the scoring with a right footed shot from the center of the box in the 17th minute after seizing control of a headed pass from teammate Guardado. Offensively and defensively he did very well, but in the second half, his game went down. “Every team wants to win their first game in the group stage”. Mexico has met the United States in three of the last five finals but the El Tri have been experiencing a rough patch of late as they have been hit by some key injuries and came into this tournament riding a seven-match losing streak. Garcia is believed to have deserted Wednesday and did not show up for a team breakfast Thursday morning.
With three points in hand, Trinidad and Tobago will depart Chicago and travel on to Phoenix, Ariz. for its next match in Group C action, facing Cuba at 5:30 p.m. Connecticut on July 12.
After going 460 minutes without a goal, Trinidad and Tobago then made it two in three minutes.
Guatemala pulled a goal back through Carlos Ruiz’s upper-90 finish from 12 yards out in the 62nd minute, but a comeback wasn’t in the cards for Los Chapines, who now find themselves with an extremely uphill path out of Group C.
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Jan-Michael Williams, Aubrey David, Sheldon Bateau, Daniel Cyrus, Radanfah Abu Bakr, Khaleem Hyland (Andre Boucaud, 77′), Joevin Jones (Lester Peltier, 80′), Cordell Cato, Kevan George, Kenwyne Jones (C), Atualla Guerra (Willis Plaza, 63′).
