U.S. v. Mexico

Link to the Feilhaber goal: http://youtube.com/watch?v=ywTqJLGebbc

 

Solid link to Feilhaber's goal and I will have to email that to all the friends in the office who support Mexico. Haha, they won't hear the end of it from me.

 

Its close, but doubt it was him. Did he look like he was above or below the drinking age?

 

That is Chicago. In less than 20 years Chicago's population will be at least 50% hispanic. And that is why you will likely never see a key CONCACAF match in Chicago anytime soon. There is NO home field advantage despite the match being played in the US.

This is why you see World Cup qualifiers being played in places like Columbus, Salt Lake City, Mobile, Alabama, etc. These are a few of the places where it will be a pro-US crowd.

 

The biggest positive I take form the final is the ability of this side to fight back from being a goal down. Howard bossed the back line, Feilhaber had a moment of brilliance, Bradley adapted his tactics, Donovan and Beasley worked the wings, Boca was making some great tackles... All culminated into a fantastic second half.

Great job and looking forward to the Gold Cup.

 

Sounds like it was a great match to attend.

As to the attitude of the Mexico {ummm SOME of them are H'umurrican, ya know} fans, sounds like it's just like the last qualifier in Columbus. Intentionally not given blocs of tickets, so they were all interspersed. We all had a good time and no incidents to speak of. I dont care if the venue is over half hispanic as long as the rowdies from the border barrios dont show up.


I really like what has happened to the team since Bradley took over, there's a different feeling about the teams and matches on the messageboards. Sometimes the right choices result from the wrong reasons.

 

Looked above to me but I only saw him briefly from a distance.

 

Me too. It seems like a team with more energy and poise than the previous iteration. Some of it is no doubt due to the different personell on the team but I have to think that Bob Bradley has something to do with it as well.

 

Chang is right about one thing: If Castillo, Guardado, Dos Santos and Vela all develop up to their potential, that's going to be one scary group for a long time.

Clark is a solid player; even when he was playing for the Metrostars at 20 you could tell that he had a lot of talent. I was figuring the switch was just straight-up to keep Mastroeni from getting sent off, but it wound up being exactly what we needed.

Definitely some Ewing Theory going on when Borgetti came off. They sure could've used him late in the game when they were serving high balls into the box.

I've never been to a US-Mexico game, but my understanding is that they're generally a good group that get spoiled by a few really bad apples.

FulhamFC.com game article - warning: here be pictures of shirtless Frankie Hejduk.

 

Great game. One thing is I really cant wait till we get Convey back. Dempsey and Donovan up top are deadley. Convey will provide excellent service along with Feilhaber. I love the way Donovan connects with Beasley. Boca deserves to be the perminat captain he looked like a true leader. FFC should be excited about those two.

 

Boca or Howard would both be excellent captains IMO. Coin toss. Either one would do a fantastic job leading the side.

 

Just got back to Minnesota and can confirm it was crazy atmosphere. Two hours before the game the EL station I got off at was ringing with ME-HEE-CO. I haven't attended very many big sporting events but this and Chelsea v Fulham are my top two. I can't say which was better because they are very different from one another. An international match has a different feel to it then a club match.

Crowd was at least 90% Mexican, perhaps more, and it was LOUD! I had one other American fan in my row and the next closest was 5 or 6 rows away. When Mexico scored it was extremely loud, every one was jumping around, and I got beer all over me. It was miserable . At that point when they scored it was quite a bit louder than anything I'd ever seen in England or otherwise.

I thought we'd lost at halftime and the Mexi's around me were rather smug about it all. When Benny scored I think they were just shocked and then outragged. There was beer and food being thrown at the pockets of American fans, including one poor family in the section over which got absolutely dosed. I think its one thing to chuck some beers at Sam's Army, but to target a family which includes two kids, is rather messed up. The field was well watered aswell. You may have been able to see on TV the swarm of beers thrown at the US players after they scored and then at the bench after the game. I'm afraid the poor refs got the worst of it trying to leave the field.

Just a ton of fun being out numbered like that and then winning. I sat on the aisle seat so every time one of the few US supporters came up the aisle high fives were exchanged and things like "My American brother!" shouted. Which simoutanously led to the 50 or so around yelling "PUTOS!".

Overall it was very good natured stuff though. People around congratulated me on the win. The beer throwing was a bit ridiculous but I never felt my saftery was threatened. Most were just demoralized after word. I peaked near the end of the game but after it was over I was simply exhausted. All the yelling jumping up and down just knocked me out. It was tense from beginning to end and I was very nervy until the Mexico goal and then after our second.

Btw, wasn't me wearing Fulham kit, I was wearing my US kit, I did see one guy in a black FFC strip though.

 

Good to hear you had a safe trip and were able to witness a fantastic final.

Promising future this group has and hopefully the Copa isn't a let down.

 

I'm just totally ticked that we can't give our guys a home crowd. I'm going to contact USSOCCER and see if I can start up a webpage/group of Baltimore area US Soccer team fans to get them organized. I figure we can buy group tickets, organize buses, etc. Sam's army does their part, but most of all, we need to get butts in seats.

[/rant off]

 

Spencer, where was your seat?

 

I was in the second tier behind the goal(same end as Sam's Army).

 

Great video from ussoccer.com:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nymHkp3K58E

 

The game was great. I was once again impressed with Boca's play, and was even pleased with Beasley for once. I think I am starting to like him over his previous WC games I have seen.

I absolutely love Feilhaber in the middle. He seemed to be everywhere, and his goal was AMAZING. It caught me so off guard that when I saw the ball hit the net, all I could yell was "HOLY $hit!!". That's the kind of goals I love to see, and wish we took more shots from OUTSIDE the 18.

I was even glad to see some mutual respect given by the players at the end of the match with some jersey switching.

Now on to the Copa America! Which in a best case scenario won't be a blood bath.

 

Anyone else catch the article on Soccer365.com about Feilhaber attracting a host of new clubs from Europe to sign him? Most notably Ajax, Lille, Monaco and Paris St. Germane have been in contact with his agent. Fantastic news and can't wait if he moves onto another side that provides him more first team action.