Angel Valdes | July 14, 2023
This Sunday, July 16, the teams of Panama and Mexico will meet once again in the Gold Cup where they have had very dramatic and controversial matches, now they will face each other for the first time in the final of the tournament to decide the champion, that is why we bring you the history of confrontations between these two teams in this regional event of Concacaf.
The first time they met in the Gold Cup was on June 13, 2007 in the group round with a 1-0 Mexican victory with a goal from Carlos Salcido at the then Reliant Stadium in Houston.
Then on July 9, 2009 they tied 1-1 also in the group round where the annotations were by MIguel Sabah and Blas Peréz, once again at the Reliant Stadium in Houston, in this match there was a controversy between Ricardo Phillips and DT from Mexico Javier Aguirre, when Aguirre kicked the Panamanian who pushed him and both were expelled.
On July 7, 2013, they met again in the group round at the Rose Bowl with a 2-1 victory for Panama with a double by Gabriel Torres, the Mexican goal was by Marco Fabian, in that same tournament at Cowboys Stadium they became to measure in the semifinals with a 2-1 Panamanian victory with annotations by Blas Perez and Roman Torres, the discount goal was by Luis Montes.
On July 22, 2015, they met in the semifinals in one of the most controversial matches in the history of the Gold Cup with referee Mark Geiger being the protagonist, the game ended 2-1 in favor of Mexico, Román Torres had advanced Panama and in In replacement time, the referee called a non-existent penalty in favor of the Mexicans, tying the game through Andrés Guardado, and then another penalty in extra time that Guardado would score again.
In total 5 games where Panama has won 2, tied 1 and lost 2 with 6 goals for and 6 against the Mexicans, the difference in this 2023 is that the winner will take the Gold Cup trophy.
