2025 Gold Cup Recaps: Panama Hammers Guadeloupe Early; Guatemala Outclasses Jamaica
Group C provided us with our first upset and more spectacular goals as Panama and Guatemala go top of the group.
The winning ways of the 2025 Gold Cup continued, with Panama and Guatemala both earning three points in the Group C doubleheader yesterday from Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California.
Guatemala’s victory was so tremendous it sent the official unofficial San Marino team twitter account into a euphoria…I think they like the similarities in the two national flags.
PANAMA 5, GUADELOUPE 2
Panama scored four times in the opening twenty-plus minutes of the match capped off by a Ismael Diaz laser and an Eduardo Guerrero penalty enroute to a 5-2 victory in their Gold Cup opener over Guadeloupe.
The Canaleros capitalized early on a miscue at the back with Jorge Gutierrez making a solo run down the endline before centering to Cristian Martinez for the opener six minutes in.
Matthias Phaethon nearly equalized practically from the kickoff as he forced Panama’s Orlando Mosquera to make a slightly awkward save at his near post. But Guadeloupe would not be able to deny Diaz his brace, as he calmly finished an Amir Murillo centering pass at close range in the 13th before finishing off a corner sequence with an absolute rocket from the top of the box in the 17th to put Panama up by three.
VAR intervened and awarded a penalty off a handball as Nathanael Saintini’s hand clearly came up and struck a potential shot by Jose Luis Rodriguez. Guerrero stepped up and dispatched the penalty to give Panama a four goal lead.
Guadeloupe was able to get off the mark in the 29th with an exquisite Goal of the Tournament level strike via Jordan Leborgne who looped a shot off the post into the top far corner after Thierry Ambrose chested down a ball with his back to goal at the top of the six.
The Gwada Boys got another via the spot, after VAR review determined Panama’s Jose Cordoba tripped up Raphael Mirval going towards goal. Florian David dispatched the penalty to bring the deficit down to two before Panama’s Tomas Rodriguez nodded home from close range in stoppage time for the 5-2 final.
Orlando Mosquera recorded four saves in the victory while his counterpart in the Guadeloupe net Brice Cognard was credited with two saves against the Canaleros 8-for-23 shooting.
GUATEMALA 1, JAMAICA 0
Usually bombastic flair and dynamic attacking play is something we should associate more with Jamaica. Oscar Santis and Guatemala decided to flip the script on the Reggae Boyz though.
Santis’ first half goal on a backheel through ball from Darwin Lom in the first half was enough to dispatch another woeful Jamaica display on the continental level, giving Los Chapines their first ever Gold Cup win over the Caribbean side in front of a mostly blue sash jersey California crowd..
Lom and Santis almost had Guatemala in front in the 18th minute, when Lom battled through several defenders in possession at the top of the box to lay off the ball to midfielder Kevin Ramirez. The ensuing chipped ball from Ramirez was met on the full volley by Santis to slam home the first time shot, only for the flag to go up and confirm he was a half step offside.
Santis would not be denied in the opener however, as in the 32nd minute the same trio was at it again, this time Ramirez sliding the ball over to Lom at the top of the box whose backheel found Santis cutting in from the right to slot home past Andre Blake in the Jamaica net for the opener.
Guatemala nearly found a clincher in the 70th minute, when a quick counter off a turnover saw Santis center a ball into the box for an exquisite diving header by substitute Rubio Rubin was denied thanks to a superb save by Blake at full stretch.
Blake’s three saves kept Jamaica in the match, but they failed to generate much from the run of play and despite numerous set pieces chances failed to threaten Nicolas Hagen (2 saves) in the Guatemala net. Their best chance came in stoppage time when Dexter Lembikisa put in an excellent backpost cross that was met by Ethan Pinnock on the doorstep but he couldn’t keep the header down as it flashed over the bar.
The 1-0 final was somewhat of a shock result given that Jamaica had just beaten Guatemala in World Cup qualifying in Kingston just a week ago. The Reggae Boyz will rue a tepid at best 2-for-15 shooting display but did however see the return to competitive play for star man Michael Antonio who has been out for months recovering from a serious car accident.
GROUP OVERVIEW
For Guatemala, they now control their own destiny and will almost certainly advance with any positive result in their next game against Panama. I don’t expect the Canaleros to rollover however, as they will look to shore up the top spot in the group with a win of their own. Jamaica now faces a must win against Guadeloupe and probably will have to run up the score to get on the right side of any goal difference/goals for tiebreakers. Guadeloupe can ill afford another start like they had today but they did recover nicely even if Panama took their foot off the proverbial gas.
Group D action continues on Friday June 20th with Guadeloupe-Jamaica at 7:45 PM EDT from PayPal Park in San Jose, CA with the nightcap being Guatemala-Panama at 10 PM from Shell Energy Stadium in Houston, TX.