USA v MEXICO

I am tired of Mexican broadcast pieces before US matches!

 

Lol... hard to believe!

 

Dos a cero...otra mas. What the $#@*&&^ hell?!?!?!? Congratulations to the USMNT on punching their ticket to Brasil tonight. I know this is talking out of school, but please don't let the US play Ghana again...

Great goals, a clean sheet and I saw about 60 minutes of the match at different stretches, so please correct me if I'm wrong (which is never, but politeness never hurt).

We are going to Brasil!!!!!

 

Also, Landon Donovan remains indispensable. A great victory; now the hard work begins.

 

What a night. Came home from work and hit play. A nervous first half and then pure glory. There's still a lot to sort out before next summer, but for now, I'm going to enjoy this.

 

Yay for the boys in Red, white, and ba-lue :flags-waveusa: :flags-usa:

WE ARE GOING TO BRAZIL!!

 

EJ was the man, Omar was invauable in the back with perhaps his most complete showing in a US shirt and Timmy was Timmy. The rest of the squad looked a little nervous on the ball with too many easy give-aways until ......... EJ scored. It has to be said that was big showing by the entire squad with so many missing pieces and Klinsman calling on the depth he developed during the Gold Cup. Bedoya was not brilliant but he was not overmatched and Goodsen slotted in next to Omar without missing a beat. However, I want to give kudos to Beckerman for putting in a professional shift. He was not Bradleyesque and he never will be but he was solid all night.

Congratulations to the US and it must be said to Costa Rica as well for qualifying last night.

 

EJ is indeed a beast, dude has added a ton of muscle without losing a step. We were calling for Kevin Bacon in the chat, but JK hits his magic button and Mix comes on instead and puts the match away. Besides the others mentioned above, have to give kudos to Jermaine Jones for his bounce back performance. Tracked back and covered the back four on numerous occasions, and you can tell he has finally settled in and feels a part of the team to the point of really being a leader which he is at Schalke.

If you said before the Hex started that one of the two Concacaf giants would find themselves with couple matches left calling 911 and hitting the panic button does anyone think it would of been Mexico? :shock:

 

Great result. Agree with the thoughts above, but in addition:

We missed Bradley badly, but Clint did a good job of showing for the ball high, making the one touch pass, then making a run to receive the ball in his proper position up the pitch. That's an effective way to work around a very defensive midfield pairing. Berbatov and Ruiz could take notes from that.

Agree on both Jones and Beckerman. They covered the fullbacks and made sure we didn't leave acres of space on the wings for Mexico to exploit in transition. Good to see us clean that up after the Costa Rica match. That's something else Fulham could take note of.

I was also impressed with JK's decision to play our best attackers in a rotational false number 9. EJ was up top most of the way, but w/o Altidore, that was an effective way to ensure we always had one of our best 3 attackers (EJ, Demps, Landon) forward and often had more than one of them in the box. It also confuses marking among the back four.

Diskerud impressed me more than he has before. I missed a good bit of the Gold Cup, so if I missed a great performance by him prior that's my fault.

EJ looked like he was launched out of a cannon when he went up for headers. Unfortunately, catching all that air ultimately led to him leaving hurt, but it also produced a goal and another good shot on net.

For the longest time I've felt the USMNT mirrors Fulham quite often, for better or worse. Glad to see that's not the case now. I love that when we get up a goal we look to spring the counter aggressively and aren't afraid to keep attacking and go for the 2 goal lead.

Dempsey shouldn't take another pk, esp with Donovan out there. It's his Achilles' heel.

Did anyone stick around ESPN and catch Sportscenter after the match? How far have we come that they kept an updated tracker on screen of Honduras/Panama, then went back to the broadcast crew after that match to show the US team come out and celebrate qualification with the fans that remained? It's nice to see the sport and the team get coverage they deserve and the celebration was fun to see. We don't get to see that side of the guys much unless you hunt the web for package pieces.

Can't believe Panama is one win at Azteca from eliminating Mexico from WC qualification altogether. Almost as unbelievable as Mexico being winless at Azteca this round.

Good turnout in the chat room.

 

So, correct me if I'm wrong, but if a World Cup knockout stage game goes to penalty kicks, won't Clint eventually have to take one if it goes far enough? As good as he is, can't he MAKE himself into a better penalty kicker?

Pretty much the only downer (and a minor one, given the circumstances) on a glorious night for American FUTBOL!

Was a wee bit concerned after the showing in CR, but Columbus is just, well,,,,magic!

Hope we can keep the momentum going 'til next summer in BRASIL!

SHOCK THE WORLD!

COME ON YOU YANKS!

 

The rankings are not completly irrelevant because they are used to determine which countries get seeded for the drawing. However, because FIFA can determine the formula and which dates the rankings are pulled from for use in the formula where the US is seeded now may or may not be irrelevant.

I am not sure if this is helpful or will confuse the situation more.

http://www.noshortcorners.com/2013/09/a ... d-cup.html

 

I figure they heat up the ping pong balls.