USMNT v. Mexico, August 12th

Yes the ref decided that the smog and altitude hadnt sufficiently depleted Benny of oxygen so he assisted.

 

What a thoroughly agonizing match to watch after the 9th minute. I really despise the bunkering strategy, especially with so much time left in the match. But if you're going to do it, at least play for the counter. The US was hoofing every ball down the pitch with little thought of connecting with a forward and zero thought of linking thru a midfield player. This team is capable of playing a possession game, they've shown it before. If nothing else, just bounce the damned thing back and forth in the middle of the pitch for a bit to relieve the pressure and regroup. Oh well.

Hard to knock any of the players too much given the conditions. That said, I've got no use for Ricardo Clark starting on this team. Too bad Bradley doesn't play for mexico, b/c Clark continues to mark him better than he did anyone on the opposition.

With Moreno, the one-sidedness of the yellows in the first half was crap. I understand the home field advantage bit and thought his eating the whistle wasn't so bad given the rivalry except that he seemed to lose most of the control in the last 15 minutes. All of this might be easier to stomach though, if it ever seemed we had a home field advantage against mexico, either in calls or support.

Disagree with Don on the play-by-play man. He said so many patently stupid things that I lost count. He either knows very little about the US team or he's a moron. Dempsey rarely plays 90 in big games? Holden coming in to pair up top with Charlie? Arena still coaching the team? Just a few of the pearls. I feel like Steve on Newcastle when I harp on US announcers but for the love of all things holy, is it that hard to find a good one?

It's funny, I'd conditioned myself for the loss and still came away from this one pissed off. I hate losing to mexico. :twisted: Even if they did outplay us and deserve the win.

 

It didn't matter if Ching or Jozy started today, we couldn't get the ball up front for them to do anything today.

NBC owned the rights to this game. From what I read, ESPN looked into buying this game, but the asking price was 3-4 times the normal price for these type of games as NBC wanted to keep the game and promote their new station Mun2.

 

Feilhaber charged at Torrado. He's lucky he didn't get a boot to the stomach. Seriously, if we're going by rules both players should've been sent off. This hurts more than helps.

The ref didn't blow this, the American players did. Quit making excuses.

 

For the love of all things holy, I got up at 0430 for this?!?

I'll start with one postive, Charlie Davies is my new hero.

After the goal by Castro -- good for him It came out of nothing, Howard had no chance -- we forgot how to pass the ball, except for about a four minute stretch in the second half. I've been patient with Bradley and will remain so, but an image that came to mind to me several times was Fulham under Sanchez. We needed two goals and had to know it, or be reasonably sure, and we just weren't tactically ready for it.

The second goal was a lapse. If DeMerit and Gooch pull stunts like that in the year ahead, they'll see a lot more pine time. I thought Dolo was the only one that had a good game on the back line. Possibly he and Davies were the only ones that had a game that they were capable of playing. I saw everyone kind of slow down after the first Mex goal, and thought crap, the oxygen demon is at work here.

I knew that Moreno would give a lot of home cooking to El Tri, not that it didn't stop me from cursing him and his mother many times. I thought Boca's YC would not have been given anywhere else but there. We knew that was the deal when we got off the plane though. And yes, Feilhaber was lucky he did not get a YC. Yeah I'm pssed, but it is like paying taxes -- that's what you have to do, so you fight through it.

Oh, and anytime I hear Balboa talk, it's like having balloons rubbed together into a megaphone right in my ear. no one underlines the obvious like he does -- the Tim McCarver of soccer announcing. And I was so surprised to find out Deuce is not a 90 minute player. Shows what I know.

Surprised by LaxAttacks stat about Mex and comebacks.

Crap, this morning did not get off to a good start.

 

Well, having given everything time to settle...

NBC was obviously playing their hand against the carriers to promote Mun2.. contrary to BC's point, it shows how high National team soccer IS on the totem pole.. about mid-way to two thirds up. Enough to piss a WHOLE lot of people off when they cant get it.
TW SW Ohio only puts greet announcements of major outages on their lines. They put this 'outage' announce on before two. OTOH, they could have carried it free by slotting it on a PS lower channel.

The game: I believe it was Bradleys strategy all along to play 'prevent'. He must have felt that the refs would be cowed by the venue and tight midfield marking would result in even more cards than we got. Leaving us at a disadvantage next match.

Certainly that was not the team strategy that beat Spain and played Brazil tight. Problem is our guys dont know how to revert to laissez faire football.
- evidence: Who got the cards?

 

I'm actually not as ticked by the result as most of you.

Let's face it, we were a quarter step and 2 inches away from a Davies hat-trick (the close offsides and the cross that just missed his diving header) and winning this game.

Timmy only made one better than average save; the two goals were on a wonder strike and the result of a lucky bounce. I'll take that.

Yeah, I was bummed that Ching started, but after seeing Jozy out there, it was clear why. If only this game had been the 14-Oct one... (i.e., a fit in-form Jozy, a healthy Edu, J.Jones, etc.)

As far as tactics, I actually understand the bunkering after the first goal. We defend well. If we had held the 1-0 lead into half-time, El Tri would've been booed off the pitch. That would've been a huge psychological edge going into the 2nd half.

IMO, we play this game 10 times, we win 3, tie 5 and lose 2. I'll take those odds.

 

If I recall correctly, the incident was like this:

Feilhaber charged and pushed Castillo for trying to get Davies off the ground, and Torrado jumped in to go after Feilhaber.

 

It wasn't the bunkering as much as the manner of clearance. The clearances looked like a penalty kill in hockey when down two men. As soon as they got a foot or head on the ball, they knocked it in any direction away from net they could. It wasn't necessary to immediately give the ball back to mexico on a lot of those. Putting the ball out of bounds would have been more beneficial in many instances.

 

The ref was horrible, but he was not the reason for the loss.

I remember my friend and I were laughing at the commentary about the refs calls, and we seemed to agree that it sounded as if they meant that the ref was doing a good job except when he had to make a call.

 

Nice
http://sports.yahoo.com/sow/news;_ylt=A ... &type=lgns

 

Very nice and thank you Eric for posting and Ives for writing.

And to those of you who think the Americans can expect this, Benny should have been sent off, and those yellow were "richly" deserved come back to the reality of what is right, what it decent.

Yes, I know the US will not get the calls, but I dont expect them to be mauled with no repurcussions. The Mexicans had no business even touching Davies when he was down. The ref didnt do anything so Benny pushed them off of him. Benny's shoving happens all the time (not as overt but it was in reaction to something very overt). However, hands around someones throat is as violent as you can get and that is an automatic red. Of course that didnt happen and then we saw the winning goal.

I'm not pissed about the way our guys played. I'm pissed with CONCACAF, FIFA, and the fact that Davies, Dempsey, Gooch, and the others have to haul their you know whats over to Mexico City for a freaking farce. To quote Ching, "if you're American and you're not pissed then you have a problem". I was at the Mexico-USA WC qualifier in Columbus last Feburary and it was 40% Mexican if not more. Those Mexican fans were excellent. The fans at Azteca behave the way they do because FIFA allows them to (you guys allow them to with oh this is "rich", this is the beautiful game that we Americans have deprived ourselves of - horseshit). That thug aguirre can kick a panamanian player b/c CONCACAF allows him to. THis is not sport, this is not a beautiful game, this is a gang rape.

If you can look at the photo of Benny being strangled and think that a yellow is okay then you are a misguided soccer (I sorry it's football) whore and I pray for your soul (if I ever decide to become the praying sort).

I say next time we just take the loss and boycott the whote game altogether. Why should our players be slaves to a day of depravity in Mexico City.

 

Mo must be dropping some red white and blue acid, jesus christ I've never seen such a revisionist look at a game before.


First of all Benny charged.CHARGED, AT the Mexican players. After this he shoves them. If we're going to give Torrado a red, then Benny deserves a red for acting like an idiot.


Second of all Torrado merely put his hand on Feilhaber's throat. To say he choked him would be wildly overstating your case. Benny acted like a drama queen.


3rd of all, this is football and a man's game. If you can't take some cups of beer thrown at you then gtfo. I'm tired of hearing Americans cry foul at the way away fans treat Americans. It's as if people think that they should roll out the red carpet and cheer the US on. I don't see any other country on earth bitch about this other than Americans. Just because we decide to have a kid friendly atmosphere in our stadiums doesn't mean we should expect the same. This is a damn rivalry. Rivalries involved hatred. This involves cups being thrown at you. DOn't like it, don't watch. It's that simple.

 

And obviously you hate the US MNT and if that's what you like then maybe you should turn your eye to professional wrestling.

And you know what 24, I've been to the Cottage and it is a kid friendly atmoshpere and they wouldnt tolerate this sort of shit. So maybe you should find another team that is more hooligan like - say redstar belgrade, rangers, juventus, or most Italy side for that matter. I dont think Fulham fans wouldnt appreciate a chokehold on Danny Murphy the way you seem to feel it fitting for Benny.

 

SO not only is this gang rape, but it's wrestling? I've heard alot of things in my life, but I've never heard something like what we saw yesterday being compared to gang rape and wrestling. Unbelievable.

 

Donovan has swine flu?

http://www.soccerbyives.net/soccer_by_i ... virus.html

 

wow negative ned is back. sure didnt miss ya!

look, all this match showed to me was more of the same. we cant hold a lead. the mexicans in mexico are dirty. officiating sucks. bob bradley is lawrie sanchez's long lost brother, blah blah blah.

the only thing we can hope for in 2010 is for UEFA to continue its loopiness (seriously -- Slovakia, Denmark and Greece are leading their groups while Hungary, NornIron, and Macedonia might qualify?!?!?) and then get a draw with one or two of those teams. We've yet to defeat an AFC or CAF team in the World Cup.

hey hey Fulham start this weekend!! :banana: :banana:

[ps -- the USA only has 10 points from 6 games. for 06 we had 15 pts in 6 games. in for 02, 12. wow.]

 

Good thing too, I'm ready to stop thinking about this loss and move on. Last thoughts after my anger has somewhat subsided are that despite the loss, we made some progress. We lead for the first time in Azteca. Not for long, but we did. It's only a matter of time before we win there. And let's not forget, Mexico hasn't beaten our 1st team squad in the US in ages. And we've beaten them on the big stage, World Cup 2002. This win was vital to them, not a huge minus for us. Let's keep our heads up, lads, and get ready for Premier League 2009!

 

I'm not too terribly torn up that the US didn't do what has never been done before at Azteca. I would have liked to seen more "aggression" but given Mexico's game plan, a terrible ref, and the altitude, I understand the decisions. Even so, it took an unstoppable shot and a fluky bounce to a free Mexican player for the US to lose.

As far as I'm concerned, the US will qualify even if they only do the job at home. Mexico on the other hand, well, nothing is guaranteed at 4th place! Hopefully, Costa Rica will defend Saprissa properly.

Expletives. Nothing but expletives here.

Seriously, I hope he gets healthy for his own sake.