For the seventh time in its history, Mexico’s the CONCACAF Gold Cup champion as the best team in North and Central America and the Caribbean.

Mexico defeated Jamaica by a score of 3-1 in the Gold Cup Final in Philadelphia on Sunday. The victory capped off a tournament of struggles and controversy for the Mexican team. Ultimately the bumpy road was the one worth taking as the Mexicans left with the Gold Cup and a chance to compete in the FIFA Confederations Cup.

Andres Guardado kicked off the scoring in the 31st minute to put the Mexicans ahead 1-0. Jesus Corona started the second half in Mexico’s favor with a 47th minute tally, while Oribe Peralta added a goal of his own in the 61st minute. The Jamaicans managed a goal in the 80th minute off the foot of Darren Mattocks in the 80th minute, but it would only merely prevent a shutout as Mexico took the championship in a 3-1 final.

While the weekend was a triumph for Mexico and a reassuring sign of security for head coach Miguel Herrera, it was a nightmare for the U.S. Men’s National Team and Jurgen Klinsmann. The Americans lost in penalty kicks to Panama in the third place game on Saturday in Chester, PA by a score of 1-1, with the PK’s going 3-2 to Panama’s favor. The 4th place result is the United States’ worst finish in the CONCACAF Gold Cup since 2000. Although the U.S. looked to be the team to beat after friendly victories over The Netherlands and Germany and a strong group stage, a shocking upset to Jamaica in the semifinals and the subsequent loss to Panama derailed the Americans’ Gold Cup campaign.

Mexico will now face the United States in a playoff to determine CONCACAF’s representative in the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup. The match will reportedly be played in October at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, CA. Although the match would be on American soil, the home field advantage will likely be neutralized by the Mexican team’s strong support in Southern California as well as by fans making the short trek across the border. The winner will then compete against the world’s best in Russia in 2017.

USA Soccer has had a tough last few games. At the beginning of the month, they tied with Switzerland 1-1 after a Jozy Altidore red card. Prior to yesterday’s victory, the club is 1-4-3 in their last eight matches and in those games have given up 13 goals past the 80th minute mark.

That is why this home game against Mexico was so important to boost confidence: it is a statement match that proves USA is still as good as their World Cup performance. Best of all, this important victory was done before an ecstatic crowd of 64,639 screaming soccer fans in San Antonio.

The match was closely contested going into the second half, but it was youngster Jordan Morris who opened up the floodgates with his first international goal. He scored when Gyasi Zardes‘ pass was deflected off a defenseman to Morris and he had free range in front of the net.

And the second goal put the game away in the 72nd minute.  Juan Agudelo beautiful played a midfield pass from Michael Bradley, worked around the defender and put a 20-yard strike into the back of the net.

The two goals by Jordan Morris and Juan Agudelo pushed their undefeated streak against Mexico to six (3-0-3). On top of this, they have a current undefeated streak of 21 when on home soil. There next game is against the sixth-seed Netherlands on June 5, which shall be an interesting test for the struggling team.

The USA Soccer team has had a bad stretch of games, but things were looking up during their international bout with Switzerland. After a closely contested match, Brek Shea was able to score on a free kick during the 45th minute.

However, Switzerland began to pick up momentum late in the second half when Jozy Altidore decided to direct some choice words at Italian referee Luca Banti. The f-bomb tirade, which was caught on camera, started when Jozy was called for a foul on Francis Moubandje. 

Jozy, who was not happy with Luca’s refereeing, released a string of curse words that resulted in a red card.

As a result, USA had to play a man down for the final 22 minutes. And at the 80th minute mark, the worst possible thing happened: Switzerland’s Valentin Stocker scored the equalizer. The game ended with a 1-1 tie, making this another disappointing showing for Team USA.

As previously mentioned, this has been a really bad stretch of games for the team. They are 1-4-3 in their last eight matches and have given up 13 goals past the 80th minute in those contests. It looks like head coach Jürgen Klinsmann will have to regroup his team before their next match against Mexico on April 14.