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USA vs. Mexico: Match Night Commentary

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The Final we all expected, and have all been waiting for, is here.

The United States and Mexico, arch-rivals and regional powers, face off tonight in the CONCACAF Gold Cup Final at the Rose Bowl (9pm, Fox Soccer Channel).

Mexico enters riding a high-powered attack led by star striker Javier "Chicharito" Hernandez, while the United States is led by a strong veteran nucleus including Tim Howard, Clint Dempsey and Landon Donovan.

Mexico will be looking for a second straight Gold Cup title, while the USA will be vying for a third in four tournaments. Mexico enters the tournament undefeated, while the USA has rattled off three straight shutout wins since a group stage loss to Panama.

If you're looking for some reading on the game, here is my Fox Soccer column on tonight's match, and a look at the recent matches in the rivalry. Also, here is my breakdown of all the key match-ups in tonight's match.

SBI will be providing some pre-game coverage from here in Pasadena, so please feel free to make SBI your place for pre-game discussions.

Let's get it started:

Comments

  1. I have watched Edu play. He had a great season for Rangers. He looked a lot better in Champions league games against Manchester United and Valencia then Bradley did against….. oh I forgot Bradley was on the bench for the last 6 months. My bad.

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  2. You are SERIOUSLY an idiot but nice try. Edu and Jones are a class above Bradley. I thought the the last 6 months made that pretty clear even to little kids like you. I would say compare how they play for their clubs but that’s tough considering Bradley has barely played recently.

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  3. You could see certain players were just excessively fatigued: Bradley, Jones, Dempsey. All 3 looked a step off the pace and were not as sharp as they typically are. Fatigue was evident in their body language.

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  4. Uruguayan, good. Have fun doing nothing in the international futbol scene for the next 20 years. I’d rather lose to mexico than pretend anything about your team. Right, you did well this year; good luck continuing that.

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  5. Respect Manuel, although I’m not sure I agree on howard. Anyways, good luck in the Confed Cup, which I do hope you do well in because what is good for one of us is good for Concacaf. Otherwise, looking forward to the game in the future.

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  6. yeah, I have even said that I root for Mexico outside Concacaf, and I do, but there is nothing but hate coming from south of the border.

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  7. Yes, Mexico lost 14 players at the half, how foolish of me. Never mind, forget what I said about trying to root for the fellow American team, I hope Mexico is an embarrassment at the Confed Cup. It was the notion that persons not there could have made the difference, but maybe that was too subtle a difference for you to appreciate. Anyhow Marco, may you choke on your own feces, may you blow your own nonsense, may you own nothing but misery and absurdity, you horrible person.

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  8. lol most those’s players dont get playing time with there own clubs and they dont deserve to be on the usa mens national team thats beacause when you have a coach that never played soccer and puts his son on the team that can’t play in Europe and has to listen to his own son who should be in the team with him, everyone need to play him the ball cuz a playmaker in germany, lol which hes not, thats what u called fixed, i bet anyone that klinsmann can make usa national team made up of usa players and beat bob bradleys team any day!!!

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  9. “Respect has grown and is continuing to grow between two teams’ fans.”

    I was at the game and this is totally wrong. The mexican fans were throwing beer at the American fans, making lewd gestures, yelling racial epithets, and generally being as miserable as possible.

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  10. We have an excellent right back on the bench in Jonathan Spector. So, naturally when Cherundolo gets injured, we should sub in Jonathan Bornstein who is a left back (and a woeful one who has led to numerous conceded goals over the past few years) and take Lichaj, who has been very promising at left back, and swap him to the right back position where he has less experience and comfort.

    And, we have an excellent right back on the bench in Jonathan Spector. This decision was an awful one.

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  11. Well, we’re all about to find out just how stout Sunil Gulati’s testicles are. My guess is they’re not that stout.

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  12. To all the guys saying tha Bradley and Jones were invisible in the second half, watch the game again and watch how Mexico kept attacking the left side. They didnt even wnat to go throught the middle, they kept hitting the left side.

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  13. US was beat by a better team plain and simple. Mexico had more possession and their forwards torched out back line. Mexico played much a much quicker game than the US did. I hope that the USSF doesn’t just chalk this up as a bad day and lean on the injury excuse. The USMNT has some good role players (Donovan, Dempsey, Timmy) but they won’t be able to carry the team to the next WC. This game was predicable from the very beginning. Mexico is an attacking team with an exploitable defense which the US was able to get ahead of early in the game. I really hope that the USSF takes a hard look at the direction of the team (and specifically the coach) and lays out a roadmap for 2014. Unless Freddie (one of the bright spots of the tourney), Agudelo, Disko and Stu and a capable back line start jelling, real 2nd tier teams like Mexico, Ghana, everyone from S. America will continue to abuse us. At this point, I’m not sure that we have the talent pool (or national team system) to really improve the program. It’s not any one player, it is just were we are as a soccer country. We can get better but the system needs to change.

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  14. No Gio is so amazing because he once had Messi riding the pine AND with his performance in this Gold Cup he will go to a MAJOR team…oh and because he scored a goal that Howard will never forget and will take MEXICO to the CONFEDERATIONS baby!

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  15. They more skilled players but we had a 2-0 lead.

    A coach is supposed to change tactics and win a game. Not sub in a loser who cant defend a turtle on the wing and lose the game 2-4.

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  16. We really are not all that athletic in the middle. For all the ground that Bradley covers, he’s only average at full sprint. And was Jones even playing today? Goodson is a goon, and Boca isn’t the fastest either. That left Dos Santos to run crazy back there. He’s a good player, but they made him look a lot better than he is. This was a bad showing, but let’s not forget that that this is mexico’s best team in probably the past 2 decades, w/ their U-17 WC champion players in their primes of their careers. I think the future is still very bright for the US…

    Watch for Bradley to begin totally revamping this team for the future. Hopefully we are gonna get a lot of looks at guys like Timothy Chandler, Brek Shea, Tim Ream, Ike Opara, Omar Gonzalez, Gale Agboussomonde, Joe Gyau, Seb Lletget, Omar Salgado, Perry Kitchen, Chris Pontius, Luis Gil, Charles Renken (if he’s healthy and still any good), and maybe we can convince either Steve Zakuani and/or Danny Mwanga to play for the US. and maybe in a year or two some of the better U-17 players (Guido, Koroma).

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  17. It sucks to lose to Mexico. Bradley did not pull the right card in turning to Bornstein but I do have to say that this game felt entirely different than other games vs. Mexico. The defense sucked but the US played an attacking brand of football. Against a solid team we have not seen this from a Bradley team. I actually feel encouraged by our attack with Dempsey, Adu, Donovan, and Bradley leading the charge. Lets get Chandler in and find some CB’s and we’ll be alright.

    In conclusion, losing to Mexico sucks bad but I’m not surprised that we lost. In case you didn’t know coming in, they are the real deal. We’ll have to put a few pieces together in the back but we should be fine going forward. I did not feel this way earlier in the tournament.

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  18. Oh please! Who woul’ve thought Ochoa, Maza, Osorio and Sinha were not going to play today. That Hector Reynoso, a 30 year old plus defender and Torres Nilo a 23 year old would replace Marquez and Salcido?

    What the US didn’t park ten in the back after the 2-0 as they always did! Mexico is a better team, PERIOD

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  19. Because most Americans still don’ want to follow a game that doesn’t score enough. At least that’s what my coworkers tell me.

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