Manchester United's Javier Hernandez continued his brilliant form with a brace for Mexico on Thursday as Tottenham's Giovani dos Santos also got in on the act. 'Chicharito' followed up his opening day Gold Cup hat-trick against El Salvador by scoring twice as El Tri hit five goals for the second time in two matches to beat Cuba 5-0 in Charlotte.
Mexico suspended five players prior to the match for testing positive for a banned substance but they put their doping incident behind them with many thanks to 23-year old Hernandez who opened the scoring in the 36th minute.
It took Mexico a little while to get into the match following the opening goal but eventually the floodgates opened with Tottenham's Giovani dos Santos making it 2-0 in the 63rd minute with a one-time effort before Aldo de Nigris scored his third goal in as many matches two minutes later.
dos Santos added a fourth in the 68th minute with a fierce finish which inspired Hernandez to score his second of the match and fifth of the tournament to wrap up proceedings about 15 minutes from time.
In the other Group A match at the Bank of America Stadium, Costa Rica scored an injury time equaliser to hold El Salvador to a 1-1 draw.
Rodolfo Zelaya put El Salvador ahead just before half-time and it seemed like they would hold onto a vital win before Randall Brenes scored almost five minutes into injury time to give Costa Rica a handy point which keeps them second on the table.
Today, Group B action continues with Jamaica's clash with Guatemala at FIU Stadium in Miami followed by Grenada versus Honduras.
2011 CONCACAF Gold Cup re-cap
Group ASunday June 5Costa Rica: 5 (Marco Urena 7'/46', Alvaro Saborio 41', Heiner Mora 47', Joel Campbell 71') Cuba: 0 Cowboys Stadium, Arlington, TX - 80,108
Mexico: 5 (Efrain Juarez 55', Aldo de Nigris 58', Javier Hernandez 59'/67'/90+5') El Salvador: 0 (red card: Marvin Gonzalez 90+4') Cowboys Stadium, Arlington, TX - 80,108
Thursday June 9Costa Rica: 1 (Randall Brenes 90+5') El Salvador: 1 (Rodolfo Zelaya 44') Bank of America Stadium, Charlotte, NC - 30,530
Cuba: 0 Mexico: 5 (Javier Hernandez 35'/75', Giovani dos Santos 63'/68', Aldo de Nigri 65') Bank of America Stadium, Charlotte, NC - 46,012
Group BMonday June 6Jamaica: 4 (Luton Shelton 21', Ryan Johnson 39', Demar Phillips 79', Omar Daley 84') Grenada 0 The Home Depot Center, Carson, CA - 6,500
Honduras: 0 Guatemala: 0 (red card: Gustavo Cabrera 61') The Home Depot Center, Carson, CA - 6,500
Group CTuesday June 7Panama: 3 (Blas Perez 28', Luis Tejada 31', Gabriel Gomez (p) 56') Guadeloupe: 2 (Brice Jovial 64'/78' - red card: Mickael Tacalfred 37') Ford Field, Detroit, MI - 28,209
USA: 2 (Jozy Altidore 15', Clint Dempsey 62') Canada: 0 Ford Field, Detroit, MI - 28,209
