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U.S. v. Mexico

Filed under: Imported

In case anyone is inexplicably interested in my random thoughts concerning Sunday's match ...

Certainly a disappointing result. It could have been worse. The U.S. defense was miserable throughout the game, loose and indecisive. Oguchi Onyewu and Greg Berhalter in central defense is a tandem I hope to never witness again.

I thought Kasey Keller was somewhat to blame on the first goal, though, being as he appeared to be tangled in the back of the net at the moment that the ball crossed the line. Keller more than redeemed himself in the second half, coming up with at least three big-time saves that kept the game from being a complete ass-whooping.

Give the Mexicans credit. With the exception of a 15-minute period at the start of the second half they controlled the game. Prior to kick-off there was all kinds of talk about how the Americans had gotten into the heads of their southern neighbors. But after Eddie Lewis' fabulous goal, when it would have been easy for the Mexicans to wilt psychologically, they instead began playing with renewed vigor and intelligence. The U.S. never had another decent scoring opportunity.

I'm completely befuddled by Bruce Arena's coaching decisions. Starting EJ up top by himself was a failure. He was constantly surrounded by defenders and ineffective. The absence of Corey Gibbs from the central defense was inexplicable. He must have some unreported illness, like ebola. None of the subs used by the U.S. provided any kind of spark. Why no Josh Wolff or Clint Dempsey or Clint Mathis (who didn't even make the gameday roster)?

Bruce taps Pablo Mastroeni as man of the match. I can't disagree. He was tenacious and smart, tackling hard without fouling unnecessarily or getting involved in spats. Steve Cherundolo and Lewis also played extremely well. DaMarcus Beasley deserves credit for tirelessly tracking back on defense (as he always does) and breaking up several Mexican scoring threats, but he was a non-factor offensively.

All I can figure is that Arena didn't really give a shit about winning this match. For all the symbolic weight of the contest, as far as he's concerned it's just another World Cup qualifier. So the squad lost to Mexico at Azteca? So will every other team in the qualifying group. The key is to get three points on Wednesday at home against Guatemala.

Posted by Paul Demko at March 28, 2005 7:52 PM

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