Javier Hernandez and Giovani Dos Santos scored two goals each Thursday as Mexico shrugged off a potential doping drama to beat Cuba 5-0 in the CONCACAF Gold Cup.
The victory came hours after the Mexican football federation provisionally suspended five players for testing positive for the banned muscle-building drug clenbuterol. Mexico got off to a slow start, but seized control with three goals in a five-minute span in the second half. Dos Santos had two goals in the flurry, in the 62nd and 67th, with Aldo De Nigris adding another in the 64th.
Hernandez opened the scoring in the 35th and capped it with his 75th-minute strike as Mexico moved atop Group A with six points from two matches. “We knew that game was gong to be complicated,” coach Jose Manuel De La Torre said. “They were going to clog our spaces and counterattack.
But we needed to take care of the important opportunities. “You could see in the first half we weren’t effective. In the second half we took advantage of opportunities and you see the result.” Mexico are assured of reaching the quarter-finals. In the first of the evening’s two Group A matches, Costa Rica snatched a 1-1 draw with El Salvador.
Randall Brenes, who came on in the 80th minute, fired a low shot from inside the penalty area that beat Miguel Montes to keep Costa Rica unbeaten in group play. “We are improving. I think we played 50 or 60 percent better than we played against Cuba,” said Costa Rica coach Ruben Israel, whose team won its opener 5-0.