For a moment it looked as though the United States were going to coast past Mexico, shock the 93,420 fans in attendance and walk away as the best team in the Concacaf region.

It was a very promising 15 minutes for the Americans.

After scoring two early goals, reality eventually set in for the US team as Pablo Barrera scored the first of his two goals midway through the first half to spark Mexico to a 4-2 victory at the Rose Bowl in the Gold Cup final, earning El Tri a trip to the Confederations Cup in Brazil in 2013.

Andrés Guardado and Giovani Dos Santos also scored for Mexico, while Michael Bradley and Landon Donovan scored the only two goals for the United States.

Barrera put the Mexicans on the board in the 29th minute and scored the deciding goal shortly after half-time after dominating US defender Jonathan Bornstein in the box and finding the far post.

Guardado had scored the equalizer on 36 minutes and Dos Santos put the game away in the 76th with a brilliant piece of skill.

Just eight minutes into the game, Bradley scored on a header from a corner kick from Freddy Adu, whose nifty ball handling outside the box set up the opportunity. Adu delivered the ball to the near post before Bradley redirected it past goalkeeper Alfredo Talavera.

Fifteen minutes later, the US shocked the tournament favorite once again as Donovan recorded his first goal of the Gold Cup. US’s all-time leading scorer fired in a left-footed strike from the middle of the box after receiving a perfectly placed ball from Clint Dempsey.

It was Donovan’s 46th international goal, fifth against Mexico and record-setting 13th in the Gold Cup.

Both Adu and Donovan were in the starting lineup after coming off the bench in the previous game to spark the Americans to a 1-0 victory over Panama in the semi-finals, replacing Juan Agudelo and Sacha Kljestan. Adu hadn’t dressed for the group games and played only 24 minutes for the national team in two years entering the game.

The 22-year-old, once considered the savior of US soccer and later a major bust, was subbed out in the second half after another solid performance that certainly earned him the respect of his teammates, coaches and fans.

Bornstein, on the other hand, has certainly fallen out of favor following an extremely poor performance against Mexico. After he came in as an injury replacement for Steven Cherundolo in the 11th minute, the US looked lost against the Mexican attacking players, who have been dominant throughout the tournament.

Mexico coasted through the group stage – outscoring opponents 16-2 through three games – but faced tougher competition in the knockout stages. El Tri fell into an early one-goal hole against Guatemala in the quarter-finals before earning a 2-1 victory and needed two goals in extra time to defeat Honduras 2-0 in the semis.

The United States struggled in the group stage but got stronger defensively as the tournament went on. Following an embarrassing 2-1 loss to Panama in their second game, the Americans, led by goalkeeper Tim Howard, entered the final coming off three straight clean sheets.

That’s before they met names like Barrera, Dos Santos, Guardado and Chicharito, who have combined for 17 goals.

Coming off a 20-goal season with Manchester United, Chicharito recorded a hat trick in the first Gold Cup game of his young career and went on to lead the tournament with seven goals, four shy of matching former Mexican striker Luis Roberto Alves’ record set in 1993.

But not everything would be so positive for El Tri throughout the tournament.

Following its opener, starting goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa and starting defender Francisco Rodriguez were among five players suspended for testing positive for clenbuterol. Bench players Edgar Duenas, Christian Bermudez and Antonio Naelson were also banned from the team, leaving Mexico with only 17 players for three games before it was allowed to add five more players prior to the semifinals.

Still, Mexico made it to the final for the third straight tournament, where it met the US twice.

The two teams split the last two Gold Cups, with the Mexicans destroying the Americans 5-0 in 2009.

In 2007, the US won the silverware, earning a trip to the 2009 Confederations Cup where it finished second behind Brazil.

While the game was played on US turf, the majority of the fans in attendance were cheering for Mexico, which in a way has proved to be “America’s team” throughout the tournament.

Mexico sold out Cowboys Stadium in Dallas, Soldier Field in Chicago and Reliant Stadium in Houston. It even drew 46,012 fans in Charlotte, a town not necessarily known for its soccer.

The only other games the Americans sold out were against Guadeloupe at a 20,000-seat Major League Soccer stadium in Kansas City and against Panama in Mexico’s undercard match in the semis.