Today the EEUU faced Mexico in the final of the Gold Cup, the continental championship of North and Central America and the Caribbean. Mexico have been the undisputed kings of the region, and have started to take a bigger place on the world stage in the Copa America and World Cup, playing one hell of a game against Argentina last summer. However, in the last six years, their big local rivals to the north have lost all fear of Mexico and become a thorn in their side. In the Americas, a rich diversity of geography allows many teams to use a venue as a stronghold, in a steamy jungle, on top of a mountain, or for teams sponsored by SPECTRE, the inside of an active volcano. Six years ago we finally decided to do the same thing, and played a world cup qualifier against Mexico in Columbus, Ohio in February. With two key players leaving the game early, Josh Wolff and Clint Mathis came off the bench and went nuts en route to a 3-0 win. The biggest match the two teams have ever played was in the World Cup the following year, and the EEUU won again, 2-0, and after taking their balls in that game, every meeting since has been a grudge match, but the only place we can't beat them is the Azteca in Mexico City.
Those were the stakes today when the two teams met at Soldier Field, in front of what looked to be a crowd of Swiss cycling enthusiasts, judging by the couple in the Swiss jersey and maillot jaune I saw on ESPN. Mexico took an early lead by exposing a couple weaknesses of the Norteamericanos, the first being the defenders playing a high line and leaving space behind them, and being stupid. If you're going to play an offside trap, keep the guy offside, don't do what a US defender did on Mexico's goal, which was to see somebody making a run behind him and chase him down right at the moment of the pass, playing him onside. The speed that allowed that mistake ironically allowed a defensive recovery, giving him nowhere to go, but there was another problem. Nobody seemed to cover the back side of every Mexican attack, leading to numerous opportunities, and this one went in.
The US had opportunities, despite bizarre finishing, and came back with a penalty won by Brian Ching and converted by Landon Donovan following some sort of pre-shot meditation, like in that last Rambo movie where he's chilling with the Buddhist monks when he's not stick-fighting. On a US corner kick, Mexico cleared the ball out of the box but straight to a lurking Benny Feilhaber, who volleyed it across the box to the back post in a beautiful winning goal. It might have been 3-1 a couple times, like when Brian Ching broke down the defense, pulled back and chipped a shot over the keeper, only to hit the near post, something of an accomplishment on its own to miss the goal. In the closing minutes Landon Donovan picked up a cleared Mexican corner, and faked out the only defender anywhere near him so badly the guy fell down, took the ball the whole way and dropped it off for the wide open Damarcus Beasley to do his best Patrick Kluivert impression and put it over the bar... come to think of it, he has been playing in Holland, maybe Amstelboy's cousins can get drunk and piss on posters of him too.
So there it is, 2-1 over Mexico and kings of CONCACAF, spanking Mexico (and Canada in the semis) just in time for the 4th of July. Hopefully this will have them riding high going into the Copa America, which is really the big show. The US will rest European based players and let MLS players go back to their clubs during that tournament, instead opting to play... well, I don't know who's left, but I hear it's a really young team. Stars and Stripes forever.
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