Mexico vs. Cuba: Score, Grades and Reaction for 2015 Gold Cup

Oribe Peralta registered a hat trick Thursday in a 6-0 demolition of Cuba at Soldier Field in Chicago to kick off Mexico's 2015 Gold Cup.

The final score doesn't even tell the full story of Mexico's dominance of its opponents. El Tri owned 76 percent possession and bombarded Cuba with 44 shots, 18 of which were on target. In comparison, Cuba had three and one, respectively.

Soccer Morning's Jason Davis noted Mexico's goals-per-shot ratio wasn't all that impressive, to be fair:

In a way, neither team was at full strength as they both kicked off their respective Gold Cup journeys.

Mexico's participation in the Copa America meant coach Miguel Herrera had to essentially form two completely separate squads this summer—one to take to Chile and one to compete in the Gold Cup. As if splitting time among two tournaments wasn't difficult enough for Herrera, Javier Hernandez suffered a fractured collarbone in a friendly against Honduras last week.

Herrera admitted that Hernandez's absence was going to affect the team as a whole.

"Yes there's an impact, but we're just thinking about what's ahead. This is an unfortunate situation we cannot fix," he said, per MLSSoccer.com. "With Chicharito, he was going through a great moment in his career and the injury came, but we’re just moving on."

Herrera's problems are small potatoes compared to what's going on with the Cuban national team. According to ESPN FC, coach Raul Gonzalez Triana and six of his players couldn't arrive in Chicago in time for the match, while Keiler Garcia defected from the team altogether.

A threadbare Cuba team was exactly what the doctor ordered for Mexico considering El Tri had one win to their name since losing to the United States on April 15.

The match didn't take long to devolve into a glorified training session for Mexico. It dominated possession and spent the majority of the 90 minutes patiently probing the Cuban defense to look for just the right opportunity to mount an attack on goal.

Peralta put El Tri on the board in the 17th minute. Disovelis Guerra saved a point-blank effort from Carlos Vela, and Andres Guardado had his shot blocked off the line. Eventually, the ball fell to the feet of Peralta, who didn't miss (via Fox Soccer):

According to ESPN Stats & Info, the goal broke an international scoring drought that had lasted more than a year for the Club America forward:

Andrea Canales of ESPN FC didn't want to go too overboard with praise for Peralta but believes he will help fill the void left by Hernandez up top:

Mexico didn't have to wait long to double its advantage. In the 23rd minute, Cuba failed to clear out a cross from Jonathan dos Santos. After some shambolic defending, Vela found himself with just enough time and space to fire a left-footed shot into the bottom right corner:

Vela's relationship with the national team hasn't always been great in the past, so it must hearten El Tri supporters to see him scoring, even in a one-sided match like this. If he can carry over his club form, Mexico will have a dynamic presence at the top of its attack.

Peralta scored in the 37th minute, and Guardado added Mexico's fourth in the 44th minute to cap off what was a beyond dominant first half for El Tri. You almost had to feel sorry for Mexican goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa, who had virtually nothing to do for the first 45 minutes, per ESPN Tri:

Had Mexico displayed some better finishing, it could've easily been up five or six goals heading into the locker rooms. But give the team credit. In a one-sided match like this, you sometimes see the better squad playing down to the level of its opponent. El Tri didn't hold back against Cuba, at least in the first half.

Once the second half started, Mexico seemed to take its foot off the gas a bit. It didn't attack Cuba with the same kind of venom and settled for just pinging the ball across midfield and the back line.

Soccer analyst Janusz Michallik wasn't exactly complimentary of the on-field action:

Peralta wrapped up his hat trick in the 62nd minute. His header following a Giovani dos Santos pass was immediately deflected by a Cuban defender. As the ball was bouncing slowly toward goal, Peralta made sure to finish the job with a quick tap-in:

The 31-year-old is the first Mexican player to register a hat trick at the Gold Cup since Hernandez in 2011, per soccer writer Juan Arango.

KickTV joked that things could be worse for Cuba:

The Federated States of Micronesia lost 46-0 to Vanuatu on Thursday, so Mexico had a ways to go to top that scoreline.

Gio dos Santos had a potential goal in the 71st minute wiped out because he was offside, so he went ahead and added to Cuba's misery with a perfectly legal goal in the 75th minute, making it 6-0.

It's tough to take much of anything out of the match for El Tri. They were heavy favorites, and their chances of winning rose exponentially after news broke of Cuba's personnel troubles. The Cubans simply didn't have the talent to offer any sort of resistance.

Of course, earning three points in any group-stage match is always cause for celebration, and El Tri now move to first in Group C on goal differential ahead of Trinidad and Tobago. Since three teams can advance out of each group, Mexico are almost assured of a place in the knockout stages already.

Three points against Guatemala on Sunday would erase any doubt.

The future doesn't look nearly as bright for Cuba. It has already dug itself into quite a hole by allowing six goals to Mexico, and it gets Trinidad and Tobago in its next fixture. Its Gold Cup adventure may have been over before it even started. 

Player Grades

Player	Grade
Guillermo Ochoa	C+
Francisco Rodríguez	C+
Diego Reyes	C+
Miguel Layun	B-
Antonio Ríos	B-
Paul Aguilar	B
Hector Herrera	B
Jonathan dos Santos	B+
Andres Guardado	A
Carlos Vela	A-
Oribe Peralta	A+
Substitutes
Jesus Corona (on '72)	C+
Giovani dos Santos (on '57)	B+
Carlos Esquivel (on '72)	C+

Player	Grade
Disovelis Guerra	D+
Yenier Marquez	F
Yeisnier Napoles	F
Jorge Luis Corrales	F
Hanier Dranguet	F
Yasmani Lopez	D
Jorge Luis Clavelo	D
Alberto Gomez	F
Felix Guerra Rondon	D
Ariel Martinez	D+
Armando Coroneaux	D+
Substitutes
Angel Horta (on '67)	D
Dario Suarez (on '55)	D
Liban Perez (on '80)	INC