Andres Guardado of Mexico leaps in the air in celebration...

Andres Guardado of Mexico leaps in the air in celebration after scoring against Costa Rica during a 4-1 Gold Cup victory. (June 12, 2011) Credit: Getty Images

It's no long shot that the goal of the 2011 Gold Cup -- so far -- would come off the boot of a Mexican player. When a team scores 14 goals in just three games, odds are that one of them would look pretty good.

Andres Guardado ... the award is yours. The Mexican midfielder's first of two goals Sunday night against Costa Rica was not only a thing of beauty, it helped further the notion that Mexico -- by far -- is the team to beat at the 2011 Gold Cup. 

 "El Tri" steamrolled past Costa Rica, 4-1, to sweep through Group A with nine points and that intimidating, 14-goal differential. Costa Rica finished tied with El Salvador with four points, but advanced by goal differential because of its earlier 5-0 win over the Cubans. El Salvador will have to wait until Tuesday night's group play finishes to see if its four points and zero goal differential holds up as one of the top two third-place teams. Two of them advance to the quarterfinals.

Group B will be decided tonight when Grenada (0 points) takes on Guatemala (1 point) while Jamaica, which leads the group with six points, faces Honduras (4 points). Look for the last two teams to take it a little easy on each other, as both are favored to advance and won't want any injuries hampering their chances in the later rounds.

Group C, home of the United States, wraps up play Tuesday night when Panama takes on Canada and the U.S. faces Guadeloupe. If the U.S. wins, they can avoid Mexico in the next round. Whether they finish first or second involves plenty of math. This Canadian writer did it quite nicely.

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