LAS VEGAS, Nevada – A place in the 2023 Concacaf Gold Cup Final will be on the line on Wednesday night when Jamaica meet Mexico in the semifinals at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Gold Cup knockout round matches between these two sides are nothing new. Jamaica’s first Gold Cup Final appearance in 2015 came against Mexico in what was a 3-1 victory for El Tricolor.
Two years later in the 2017 tournament, the Reggae Boyz returned the favor by eliminating Mexico in the semifinals 1-0 on a late Kemar Lawrence free kick.
That Jamaica win serves as their only triumph against El Tricolor in eight Gold Cup matches, with the other seven ending in six defeats and a draw.
There have been many other recent match-ups between the two nations, including a pair of 2-1 Mexico wins in Concacaf World Cup Qualifying for Qatar 2022 and a pair of draws (1-1 and 2-2) in Group A of League A of the 2022-23 Concacaf Nations League.
Needless to say, there will be few secrets when these teams take the field on Wednesday night.
Jamaica arrive at the encounter with three wins and a draw thus far in this Gold Cup, including a solid 1-0 victory over Guatemala in the quarterfinals in which GK and 2017 Gold Cup Golden Glove Award winner Andre Blake kept a clean sheet with six saves.
Up top Jamaica have an abundance of talent. Demarai Gray has three assists in this Gold Cup, while Leon Bailey has created problems for opposing defenses with 10 shots taken.
Mexico rebounded from their 1-0 loss to Qatar in their group stage finale with a 2-0 quarterfinal win versus Costa Rica.
Orbelin Pineda found the back of the net, giving him six goals in 16 Gold Cup matches, while midfield lynchpin Edson Alvarez was his usual superb self and now has 267 passes in the tournament, completing 92 percent of them.
With so much attacking star power and defensive toughness on both sides, an electric 90 minutes await in Las Vegas.
Match Officials Jamaica vs Mexico
Referee: MARIO ESCOBAR (Guatemala)
1st Assistant Referee: LUIS VENTURA (Guatemala)
2nd Assistant Referee: HUMBERTO PANJOJ (Guatemala)
4th Official: BRYAN LOPEZ (Guatemala)
VAR: RICARDO MONTERO (Costa Rica)
AVAR1: ISMAEL CORNEJO (El Salvador)
Mexico wins the historic series with J-27 W-19 D-5 L-3 (GF-68 GA-15).
Mexico and Jamaica drew both matches in the Concacaf Nations League 2022/23 in Group A of League A: 1-1 (Leon Bailey; Luis Romo) at the National Stadium in Kingston (June 14, 2022) and 2-2 (Orbelín Pineda and Hirving Lozano; Bobby Decordova-Reid, Edson Álvarez own goal) at the Azteca Stadium (March 26, 2023).
Mexico won the last two matches in the Concacaf qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022: 2-1 (Ernesto Vega and Henry Martín; Shamar Nicholson) at the Azteca Stadium (September 2, 2021) and 1-2 (Daniel Johnson; Henry Martín and Ernesto Vega) at the National Stadium in Kingston (January 27, 2022).
They will face each other for the ninth time in the Gold Cup.
Mexico wins the series with J-8 W-6 D-1 L-1 (GF-20 GA-4).
Matches in the Gold Cup
Mexico 4-1 Jamaica (Benjamín Galindo x2, Luis Alves, Carlos Hermosillo; Roderick Reid), Group A, LA Memorial Coliseum, Los Angeles (28-June, 1991).
Mexico 6-1 Jamaica (Luis Salvador x3, Octavio Mora, Luis Alves, Ignacio Ambriz; Hector Wright), Semifinals, Estadio Azteca, México D.F. (22-July, 1993).
Jamaica 0-1 Mexico (Extra-Time) (Luis Hernández), Semifinals, LA Memorial Coliseum, Los Ángeles (12-February, 1998).
Mexico 5-0 Jamaica (Omar Bravo, Rafael García, Daniel Osorno, Jared Borgetti, Juan Pablo Rodríguez), Quarterfinals, Estadio Azteca, México D.F. (20-July, 2003).
Mexico 1-0 Jamaica (Alberto Medina), Group C, Reliant Stadium, Houston (13-July 2005).
Jamaica 1-3 Mexico (Darren Mattocks; Andrés Guardado, Jesús Corona, Oribe Peralta), Final Match, Lincoln Financial Field, Philadelphia (26-July 2015).
Mexico 0-0 Jamaica, Group C, Sports Authority Field at Mile High, Denver (13-July, 2017).
Jamaica 1-0 Mexico (Kemar Lawrence), Semifinales, Rose Bowl, Pasadena (23-July 2017).
