Tag Archives: Mexico

Why I Loathe Mexican Soccer

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The below excerpt from this Yahoo article is why I loathe Mexican soccer.

The man with the tri-colored mohawk took a swig of beer, stuck his fingers down his throat and vomited the mixture back into his cup. In the next seat another man, who was wearing a T-shirt with a cartoon drawing of the decapitated heads of Barack Obama and Landon Donovan, poured out what remained of the Corona beer he had been chugging and urinated into his cardboard drinks container.

Then, according to a neutral bystander who witnessed these disgusting acts, the pair stood on their seats, high-fived and hurled their vile concoctions in the direction of Donovan, the United States men’s national team star who was preparing to take a corner kick 15 yards away.

I knew they’re players were dirty hacks who would rather score a goal off a free-kick awarded from a simulated foul than from the run of play, but I didn’t realize their fans were cut from the same or worse cloth.

Late addition: A quote I can’t take credit for.  ”This is why no one takes Mexico seriuosly as a country.”  That made me laugh.

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WC Qualifying: USA 1-2 Mexico

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Expected but still disappointing result.

We didn’t look like the same team that played in the last couple of games of the Confed Cup.  We weren’t terrible, but we definitely weren’t at our best.  Just a couple of quick thoughts on the game.

We lost this game in the midfield.  Our lack of ability to possess the ball in midfield, particularly when transitioning from defense to attack was our downfall.  There were way too many simple giveaways when we passed it straight to them instead of moving the ball methodically down the field.  Too often, we cleared the ball from defense, they reset their attack and came back at us.  If you chase the ball on defense that much for that long of a stretch, you’re going to tire and  defensive breakdowns will happen.  Bradley’s substitutions to bring on Holden and Feilhaber to try to maintain some possession were smart and Holden changed the composure of things in the middle of the park a little, but not enough to invigorate our attack or simply allow us to really hold on to the ball.

We were also missing performances from some players that we had to have if we were going to come away with points.  Dempsey was definitely off his game, Donovan showed flashes but wasn’t consistent throughout, Clark didn’t have a great deal of impact in the middle and Bradley was very quiet until the second half.

I guess the good that I saw was that we didn’t give up a goal early even in a ridiculously hostile environment and we didn’t give up.  We battled for the entire game.  I also have to say that I like Charlie Davies more and more every time I watch him play.  I think its sort of ironic that Freddy Adu and Jozy have gotten so much attention, but I see Charlie Davies as the young striker that’s come in and had the greatest impact on the national team.  His goal looked like a true finisher’s goal and I finally have confidence in someone that if they get through on goal he’s going to put it away a majority of the time.

Our next qualifying test comes against El Salvador in Salt Lake City on Sept. 5.  El Salvador currently sits tied for last in qualifying with five points from six games.  That being said, if yesterdays results from other qualifying matches are any indication noone should be taken lightly; all of the lower placed teams won yesterday.

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WC Qualifying: US 2-0 Mexico

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Huge win last night for the US Men’s National Team over Mexico in Columbus.  It wasn’t the prettiest of wins, mind you, but ill take an ugly win over a pretty draw or loss any day.  I just thought that I’d share a few thoughts on the game and the performance of some of the players last night.

Generally speaking the team played okay.  It wasn’t flashy and it was a little scrappy at times but we did what we needed to do to win.

The defense looked pretty solid as we’re coming to expect from the pairing of Bocanegra and Onyewu in the center.  I continue to be surprised by Frankie Hejduk and his ability to play solidly for the US as a near senior citizen in soccer terms.  You’re never going to get a ton of exciting offense from him, but his defensive ability is something you can continue to rely on.  As has been the case for a long time, left back is still the position of greatest concern for the US.  Heath Pearce is alright in that position but I think its pretty clear that he’s not a renowned crosser of the ball and his defenses work could be improved.

Our midfield played a respectable game with Michael Bradley being a bright spot.  Kjlestan didn’t have the impact on the game people were hoping for following his hat trick against Sweden.  Beasley was pretty active throughout and worked to get into the mix, but I fealt his impact on the game was spotty. Dempsey had a pretty solid game and looked very comfortable on the ball.

Including Donovan with Ching in discussing the attack, we didn’t get enough from them. Donovan was pretty active getting and giving the ball, but we need him to have a greater positive impact on the attack than what we got last night.  Ching didn’t have his typical blue collar performance of holding up the ball and laying it off to the midfielders to then go forward.   He just wasn’t as involved as we’re used to seeing.

For me, Bradley was the man of the match.  In addition to his two goals, he played very solid defensively from box to box and he did it without getting a card.  He has had a tendency to be a little wreckless in his challenges in the past but last night he displayed a great deal of composure in the timing of his tackles and choosing when to go to ground for a slide tackle.  Another thing I really liked to see from him was a willingness to strike the ball from range. Too often as a team we try to find the perfect shot from inside the box and we’ve needed somoeone to take a chance and hit one from distance.  If his confidence and willingness continues to increase along with his ability to hit those shots on frame it could definitely pay dividends in the future.

We came away with a win, but there are a few things that we will need to do better to keep winning games.  When Mexico went down to ten men we should have pressed forward a little more and gone for the jugular.  They just lost their best defender and captain and we didn’t seem to put anymore pressure on them then we were before his dismissal.

Also, we didn’t manage the end of the game well enough.  We were up a man with about ten minutes to play and we started bunkering back just trying to hold onto the lead.  We arguably controlled the midfield through most of the game and should have continued to do so.  Instead we started dropping deeper into our own end and didn’t put enough pressure on their back four or midfield.  That’s something that our strikers, particularly Altidore, who had fresh legs should have been doing.

All in all, a result we should be happy with.  Our record against the Mexicans at home raises to 9-0-2 with this win, and possibly ends Sven Gorin Eriksson’s run as the Mexican national team head coach.  This also puts us in the driver seat for qualification for the WC next summer, which many feel is a foregone conclusions.  Our next qualifier comes next month away to El Salvador.

Oh, and in case anyone hadn’t figured it out before last night, Rafa Marquez is a dirty hack.

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