This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Health & Fitness

Gold Cup Group Play - Round 1

Inaugural blog. First look at the 2011 Gold Cup

Welcome fellow Futbol fans. Looking forward to some good, intelligent and fun debate about Futbol in Latin America. I'll kick off my blog with a recap of the first round of our flagship event: Copa de Oro (Gold Cup). Winner gets to play the Confederations Cup.

First round of group play is done and, so far, no big surprises. The big two—Mexico and the United States—cruised through their first games.

Mexico had a hard time during the first half against El Salvador, which held the tie after the first 45 minutes. But the second half was a different story. El Salvador couldn’t stick to the full field press they successfully held during the opening period and it was a matter of time for Mexico to break through. Very little time.

Find out what's happening in Bolingbrookwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Chicharito showed why he is by far the best Mexican player today. Giovanni dos Santos seems to be awakening after hibernating for the past year. His Spanish League second-half run will help both his national team play as well as his contract for next year.

After an unfortunate showing against world champion Spain, nobody knew what to expect from the the U.S. team against Canada. Jozy Altidore took care of business and brought the team’s morale back up. Nothing flashy but it got the job done. Canada didn’t show much until the last 30 minutes and the U.S. should have scored at least twice more. Still, a win is a win.

Find out what's happening in Bolingbrookwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Honduras couldn’t take care of business against a nine-man Guatemala team. Not sure what to make about Costa Rica yet since Cuba is, well, Cuba. We’ll know more on Thursday after they face El Salvador, and then on Sunday when they face Mexico at Soldier Field.

Lavolpe vs Mexico….this one has revenge written all over it.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?