Sports
Column: Mexico scored a 'historic' Gold Cup win over U.S. women. How we got to this point
For years the dominant U.S. women’s soccer team has been warning anyone who would listen that the rest of the world was catching up.
On Monday, the Americans finally got caught, with Mexico pushing the four-time world champions all over the field in a 2-0 win that was more historic than it was surprising.
“Over the last five years or so you’ve just seen it,” striker Alex Morgan said. “Ten years ago, 15 years ago was way different with the scorelines than it is today. Teams are continuing to improve and evolve and can compete at the highest level.
“From the bottom to the top, there’s just not that much of a gap anymore.”
Whatever gap remained closed with a thud in a CONCACAF W Gold Cup group-play game at Dignity Health Sports Park, with Mexico outhustling, outrunning, outshooting and completely outplaying a U.S. team that has clearly lost its swagger.
“Mexico was a better team,” Morgan said. “Mexico just beat us all around with their aggression, with getting to the first and second balls, with executing set pieces, throws-ins, restarts. Whatever it was, they did that very well.”
And as a result, the Americans’ lost for the first time in 56 games in California, for the first time in 22 games anywhere and for the just the second time ever to Mexico.
Before Monday it had been 16 months since the U.S. had given up two goals in the same game and 23 years since it had lost to a CONCACAF opponent at home.
All that is gone now.
“It’s a historic victory,” midfielder Jacqueline Ovalle, whose goal in the 38th minute put Mexico ahead to stay, said in Spanish. “I think this is the start of a new era. Women’s football in Mexico is growing little by little. We’re making giant strides. We’re competing with the best players in the world.”
The seeds for Monday’s win, Mexico’s first over the U.S. since 2010, were planted in the summer of 2022 when its soccer federation fired women’s coach Monica Vergara after a disastrous performance in qualifying for the 2023 Women’s World Cup and 2024 Olympics. A month later Pedro López, who helped build Spain’s world championship roster while coaching four junior national teams there, was named Vergara’s replacement.
Mexico hasn’t lost since.
“The obvious thing is the change in leadership,” forward Diana Ordóñez said “We’re not afraid. We went into this game to win. What happened was no surprise. Mexican football has changed a lot.”
Coming into the tournament López hinted that his team was ready for big things, calling Mexico a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
“Clearly that wolf was seen today,” he said afterward.
For the U.S., meanwhile, the result set alarm bells ringing. Whether it’s because the U.S. is declining or the rest of the world is advancing, the fact is the Americans, after reaching the finals of the five Olympic tournaments, have just one bronze medal to show for their two most recent trips. And last summer they exited the World Cup in the round of 16, their worst performance ever.
On Monday, the U.S. was dominated in the midfield and mounted little in the way of offense, testing Esthefanny Barreras — the first Mexican keeper to shut out the U.S. — just once. And the longer the U.S. chased the game, the more its poise turned to panic.
The first score came after a free kick, with Karla Nieto lobbing a ball forward for Ovalle. The Mexico attacker surprised U.S. defender Becky Sauerbrunn and took her attempted clearance off her chest, then raced into the penalty area to send a soft left-footed chip over goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher and under the crossbar.
Mayra Pelayo, who came on in the 81st minute, put the game out of reach in stoppage time, driving a right-footed shot from distance over Naeher into the upper right corner of the goal.
The victory was something of an inside job though. Eleven of the 15 players Mexico used were either born in the U.S. or played there, including Ordóñez, who was born in Riverside; Pelayo, a Florida native; and Barreras, who is from Phoenix.
Ordóñez and Pelayo were both called up to U.S. age-group national teams but chose to leave and play for Mexico at the senior level.
“Beating the U.S. for the first time on their turf is a special feeling,” Ordóñez said, switching to English. “Since I was a kid I played for the United States. Then I changed shirts and now I represent Mexico. To beat the United States is something unforgettable.”
Mexico, which recruits heavily in the U.S., has proved wildly successful at coaxing dual nationals to play for a senior team that has improved dramatically from the days when its roster was filled with dual nationals who spoke no Spanish and didn’t know the words to the national anthem.
Mexico has also benefited from the investment made in its domestic league. The team it brought to the W Gold Cup featured 20 players from the Liga MX Femenil and just three from NWSL. Compare that to the roster Mexico used in Olympic qualifying in 2016, the year before the Liga MX began play. That team featured seven players from American colleges, five who had no team affiliation and one who played for an amateur youth club in the San Francisco Bay Area.
“Women’s football in Mexico is growing,” said midfielder María Sánchez, another dual national who was born in Idaho and has played professionally in both the U.S. and Mexico. “We have a league. We have more players in leagues like the NWSL. We can compete against the best in the world like the United States.”
Mexico (2-0-1) still has a long way to go to win the Gold Cup, although Monday’s victory means it won its group, giving it a better seed in the field for this weekend’s quarterfinals, while the U.S. (2-1-0) advanced as the group runner-up. The pairings for the knockout rounds will be determined when group play in the 12-team tournament concludes Wednesday.
Mexico, López promised, won’t be resting on its laurels regardless of who it faces next.
“If we lose in the quarterfinals, then the beautiful win of today is useless,” he said. “We go down in history as the team that only beat the United States one day.”
Maybe. But they could also go down in history as the team that proved the U.S. is no longer invincible.
“It just shows how far the game is coming and there’s no easy games anymore,” interim U.S. coach Twila Kilgore said. “If we don’t take care of business and we don’t execute, this is to be expected.”
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Russell Wilson has had his share of ups and downs in his NFL career.
He helped the Seattle Seahawks to a Super Bowl championship in 2013 and was named to the Pro Bowl four times. But the last few years of his career arguably did some damage to his legacy as he’s spent the last three seasons with three different teams.
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New York Giants quarterback Russell Wilson watches from the sidelines during the second quarter against the Philadelphia Eagles at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., on Oct. 9, 2025. (Brad Penner/Imagn Images)
Wilson is still on the free-agent market as he looks to latch on to a new team for 2026. However, former NFL star Aqib Talib implored Wilson to hang up the cleats.
“Do your TV thing, Russ. It’s over with, man. Once you’ve got to decide, do I even want to play?” Talib said on “The Arena: Gridiron.” “I think you don’t really want to play. I hate when guys get to the later part of their career and then they start doing the bounce-around thing and they’re not going to win. There was no chip in New York. That’s just going to be another stop on your resume.”
Wilson reportedly garnered some interest from NFL teams.
New York Giants quarterback Russell Wilson stands on the field before a game against the Philadelphia Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, PA on Oct. 26, 2025. (Bill Streicher/Imagn Images)
He told the New York Post that the New York Jets were one of them.
Wilson also was reportedly a candidate to take Matt Ryan’s spot on CBS’ “The NFL Today” after Ryan left to take a front office job with the Atlanta Falcons.
Wilson has 46,966 passing yards and 353 passing touchdowns in 205 career games, but the 2025 season with the New York Giants was one to forget.
Wilson started three games and made some bizarre decisions in a loss against the Chiefs. Jaxson Dart was named the starting quarterback. As he came in to take a few snaps while Dart was being checked for a concussion, Wilson was booed.
New York Giants quarterback Russell Wilson watches from the sidelines during the second half against the Denver Broncos at Empower Field at Mile High in Denver, Colo., on Oct. 19, 2025. (Ron Chenoy/Imagn Images)
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Should he end up signing with another team, Wilson will be entering his age-38 season.
A lot has changed since Jacori Perry attended Morningside High School.
Perry is now a renowned artist who goes by the names Mr. Ace and AiseBorn.
The school is now known as Inglewood High School United.
And the lecture hall on that campus now features a large, ornate mural of a soccer ball being grasped by the hands of two people — freshly painted by the 2004 Morningside graduate as the city of Inglewood prepares to host eight World Cup games at SoFi Stadium starting next month.
Local artist Mr. Ace works on his mural at Inglewood High School United on May 11. The artists, whose real name is Jacori Perry, attended the school when it was known as Morningside High more than two decades ago.
(Eric Thayer/Los Angeles Times)
“If you told me that I would be back here painting one of the walls on this campus when I was in high school, I don’t think that I necessarily would have foreseen it,” Mr. Ace said as he was putting the finishing touches on his mural last week. “So I’m a little in amazement about just the way life works in that sense.”
He was one of several Los Angeles-based artists to participate in a Road to World Cup Community Day last month at Inglewood High United. Many of the artists — including Juan Pablo Reyes (“JP murals”), Michelle Ruby Guerrero (“Mr. B Baby”) and Angel Acordagoitia — sketched designs on portable panels (12-feet by 8-feet) and picnic tables for community members to paint.
The picnic tables will remain at the high school in front of Mr. Ace’s mural. The mobile murals will be placed throughout LAX to welcome visitors arriving for the World Cup.
Kathryn Schloessman, CEO of the Los Angeles World Cup 2026 Host Committee, said in a news release that the event was “just one example of how the energy of the World Cup can be felt in neighborhoods across our region.”
“Students, artists, and volunteers came together to create a work of art that will live on well beyond the end of the tournament,” Schloessman said. “It’s a reflection of the creativity, diversity, and community pride that makes our region so special as we prepare to host the world for FIFA World Cup 2026.”
Community members were encouraged to take part in the painting process, no matter their skill level.
“We made it easy enough for people that have zero experience to a proficient level of experience, for them to all be involved,” said Reyes, who designed and helped paint two mural panels and three tables. “We did the sketch, and then I tried to dab a little bit of color — whatever color is supposed to be there, I dabbed a little bit of color right there, so they would have a guide. …
Students and community members help paint a mural panel during a Road to World Cup Community Day event May 2 at Inglewood High School.
(Dawn M. Burkes / Los Angeles Times)
“I was right there, kind of supervising, making sure that everything went as planned. And if anybody has questions, they’re more than welcome to let me know about them. But, yeah, it’s pretty easy for them to kind of be involved and feel that sense of ownership and have a sense of pride that, ‘Yeah, I was part of that mural-creation process.’ It’s a rich experience for them.”
Acordagoitia sketched several table-top designs for the public to paint at the event.
“They did great,” he said of the community members. “They helped a lot. They were asking questions. They got all the other colors correct. So, yeah, they were excited. A lot of kids were excited to see the live painting, because now kids are used to being on their phones. So that was a great experience for them.”
Acordagoitia also opted to paint a mural panel on his own because “it was a little more technical,” involving portraits of his 8-year-old son, a nephew and a friend.
“I wanted to focus more on the youth because that’s really our future,” he said. “So that’s, that’s the main thing about the mural, just about the kids, soccer, culture, community. It’s exciting for me, because I grew up playing soccer and to include soccer with art, it’s just a dream come true.”
Guerrero said “the community was a big help in filling in all the background colors that I need in order to build the detail and layers” on the two mural panels she designed.
“My whole style is based on culture. And I think that there’s a connection there with the World Cup and how I feel like it brings together all the culture and just, like, celebration,” Guerrero said. “It kind of goes hand in hand with the type of work I do, because my stuff is really festive, celebrating culture. And just as an L.A.-based artist, I think the collaboration made sense.”
The four artists also took part in another Road to World Cup Community Day in downtown L.A. at Gloria Molina Grand Park on March 14. At that event, the artists sketched designs on large sculptures shaped like soccer balls and an oversized picnic table, also for community members to paint.
While Mr. Ace opted to paint his permanent mural at Inglewood High School United on his own, he was sure to include the community theme into his work.
“The idea was really centered around just creating something that was community-based — something that represented the World Cup but also represented some sense of community,” he said. “And so what I did was try to create something that was symbolic, very direct in terms of its relationship to soccer and figuring out through that how to create something simple that [brings] into that a sense of community. And that’s how I landed on the two hands holding the soccer ball.”
Local artist Mr. Ace works on his World Cup-themed mural at Inglewood High School United on May 11.
(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)
Back when he was a student on that campus, Mr. Ace said he was always involved in art and knew he wanted a career as an artist. He struggled to come up with the right words to describe how it felt being back there creating a work of art to be shared with the students, all of the community and everyone who happens to see it on the way to a World Cup match.
“I guess there’s no words to really describe it,” he said. “I think if any artist gets the opportunity to paint at their own high school — especially if they’ve been doing large-scale works around the city, the country or the world — I think that is a little touching. When it’s attached to something like the World Cup … you know, a large part of my childhood was spent in Inglewood, so coming from my circumstances and life, I think it’s even more intriguing.”
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The best Indianapolis 500 finish could be subjective, depending on which driver a fan was rooting for to win.
It certainly is in the eye of the beholder.
So take this list for what it’s worth. One view of the 10 best finishes in Indianapolis 500 history. Of course, it skews to more recent decades when the runs have come a little faster and the finishes have had a tendency to be a little closer.
We’ll add one each day to this list of fantastic finishes ahead of the 110th running of the Indy 500 on May 24 (12:30 p.m. ET on FOX).
10. Ericsson outduels O’Ward (2022)
After a red flag, Marcus Ericsson held off Pato O’Ward in a two-lap shootout. The shootout didn’t last two laps, though, as there was a crash on the final lap behind them. Ericsson had a comfortable lead when the red flag came out for a crash with four laps to go, a situation where in past Indianapolis 500 races, they likely would have ended the race under caution with Ericsson as the winner.
9. Foyt survives chaos (1967)
How does a driver who wins by two laps end up on this list? It’s because the win nearly didn’t happen on the last lap. A big crash with cars and debris littering the frontstretch just ahead of Foyt as he came to the checkered flag forced him to navigate through the wreckage for the win.
8. Sato can’t catch Franchitti (2012)
This was one of those finishes where the leader holds on for the win, but boy did the leader have to hold on. Takuma Sato tried to pass Dario Franchitti early on the final lap but to no avail and Franchitti sped off for the victory. This was one of those Indy 500s that made you hold your breath all the way to the checkered flag.
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