Soccer-Injured Dos Santos to miss Gold Cup quarter-final

By Arturo Silva CHARLOTTE, North Carolina, July 16 (Reuters) - Mexico's Giovani Dos Santos will miss Sunday's CONCACAF Gold Cup quarter-final against Costa Rica with a thigh injury, team doctor Gerardo Aguilar said. Dos Santos, who has just become a LA Galaxy player, was injured during Wednesday's 4-4 thriller with Trinidad and Tobago that left Mexico in second place in Group C behind the Caribbean islanders at the end of the first round. Aguilar said if scans on Thursday showed the muscle was ruptured, recovery would take longer than the 3-5 days predicted. Coach Miguel Herrera rued Mexico's failure to close out the match after they had led 2-0 early in the second half and 4-3 in stoppage time, conceding a last-gasp equaliser. "In the second half we stopped doing what we did well in the first half and what's regrettable was not being able to keep our lead," Herrera told reporters. "(The result) was due to us, we provoked their reaction, we needed to be smarter in the final minutes, we didn't control the match and in the end you're left bitter because they drew." Trinidad's coach Stephen Hart said Caribbean teams had lost their fear of the big guns from North and Central America. "It shows that we no longer fear these kinds of teams, the score is real," said Hart, whose team face Panama before Mexico meet Costa Rica in a doubleheader at the MetLife in East Rutherford on Sunday. Four Caribbean teams reached the last eight, Trinidad and Tobago, Group B winners Jamaica, Group A runners-up Haiti and Cuba, who went through as one of the two best third-placed teams. "I think football has moments, these teams are in a good moment and if you make the most of it you'll get results to help you qualify," Hart said. Cuba overcame the defection of two players and visa delays for several more of their squad to upset Guatemala 1-0 and line up a quarter-final with hosts the United States in Baltimore on Saturday which is followed by Jamaica against Haiti. (Additional reporting by Carlos Calvo in Mexico City; Writing by Rex Gowar; editing by Justin Palmer)