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USA U23s cruise to 2-0 win over Mexico

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Photo by Rick Yeatts/ISIphotos.com


By FRANCO PANIZO

With both the U.S. men's national team and U.S. women's national team claimed shutout wins, U.S. Soccer just needed a victory from Caleb Porter's Under-23 side to enjoy a dream leap year day.

Porter's team got that win and it did so in convincing fashion against a formidable foe.

The U.S. U-23 side cruised to a 2-0 win over rival Mexico's U-23 team at FC Dallas Stadium in Frisco, Texas on Wednesday night, capping off a marquee day for U.S. Soccer and its fans.

The goals came a minute apart in the first half. Juan Agudelo knocked in a corner kick from Mix Diskerud in the 35th minute, and Diskerud followed that up with a goal of his own when he deflected a Freddy Adu shot from range that made its way into the back of the net.

The game wrapped up the U.S. team's February camp, the last one before Olympic qualifying takes place in March. The United States went 3-0 during its friendlies during this camp, ousting FC Dallas, 2-1, before topping NASL club San Antonio Scorpions, 3-0. 

That string of positve outings was completed with a thorough triumph over Mexico's U-23 team. Playing in a 4-3-3 formation, the Americans outpossessed their southern foes from the opening whistle. Quick combination passes from the likes of Agudelo, Diskerud, Joe Gyau and Freddy Adu helped paved the way for the result.

The U.S. team was also pretty sound defensively, with Mexico really only threatening on shots from range. Led by captain Ike Opara, the Americans' defense outmuscled and outplayed an El Tri attack that included Mexican-American left back Miguel Angel Ponce and the highly-touted Marco Fabian.

Mexico picked things up late in the game, as Porter opted to make a flurry of substitutions. The Americans still managed to record the cleansheet, with Bill Hamid serving as the goalkeeper in the first half and Sean Johnson in the second.

With the Mexicans chasing for much of the game, the United States frustrated its opponent by keeping possession for large stretches, so much so that American fans at the stadium could be heard chanting "ole" on certain passing sequences.

The ability to keep possession eventually helped the Americans find their breakthrough. Ten minutes before halftime Diskerud served a corner kick from the left that Agudelo powered home past goalkeeper Liborio Sanchez, silencing the pro-Mexico crowd in attendance. 

Diskerud then got a goal of his own when he slightly redirected Adu's shot from 25 yards out, resulting in fans chanting "dos a cero".

Porter now has tough decisions to make as he has to pick a 20-man squad for the start of Olympic qualifying on March 22 in Nashville, Tennessee.The U.S. team will play in Group A against Cuba, Canada and El Salvador.

Comments

  1. Yes Klinsmanns system. I know it’s hard for a Bob Bradley poster boy to admit. First off, Bob Bradley almost always played a 4-4-1 formation or if he did experiment with other formations, he always reverted to a 4-4-2. This was especially true when we were down or tied. Under Klinsmann, we have played almost entirely in a 4-5-1, 4-3-3 or a 4-2-3-1 or a variation of. Bradley and others tried to experiment but never had the patience to stick with it. Klinsi has. The high line the defense played with 10 offsides against Italy. You name an occassion when we’ve pulled that off in any other game. The vast majority of our goals are coming in the run of play, instead of set pieces. And from what I can see, passing has greatly improved especially out of the defenders and midfielders.

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  2. You do realize that BB was a VERY popular coach with the players, right? That they bought into the system just fine and beat the number one team in the world while playing for him. There is no such thing as a JK “system”. Players have said as much in recent interviews.

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  3. You bing up a good point…when i saw brek play vs italy…he was at times unwatchable. His decision making withthe ball was slow and wreckless many times giving up posession That being said…gyau is young and still learning but what i like the most is that if his thought process is slow and misses the chance to attack quickly…he makes a smart play by “resetting”. You will see class wingers do this without compromising posession. Good point

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  4. uh, mexico beat us again in azteca during wc qualifying and bludgeoned us by a total score of 7-2 in the last 2 gold cup finals.

    anyhow it’s good to see the us strike back!

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  5. He played a few great linking passes. Which is great bc they could go unnoticed bc that’s what you would expect from a pro CB

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  6. Ponce and Bocanegra wouldn’t make it to the final squad for the US.

    Eventually (like with Ocegueda) we will become the first choice and they’ll get only our rejects/overlooks.

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  7. this was such a good game for US fans! the ball skill these players had is some of the best i have ever seen from US players. absolutely amazing play from our midfield and forward. my olympic starting xi:

    Gyau, Jozy, Adu
    Morales, Mixx, Corona
    Chandler, Opara, Williams, Dolo
    Hamid

    i’m sorry Shea, but Gyau and Adu just look better right now. this could change, but man it would be hard to sit either of them (hard enough sitting Agudelo!). and that midfield combo worked SO WELL together. i don’t really even know who i would take other Dolo as an over aged player. Bradley could probably slide in place of Mixx. Porter is going to have a tough job trying to finalize his team! we could also use Johnson as one of the over aged players instead of Dolo:

    Gyau, Jozy, Adu
    Morales, Mixx, Corona
    Johnson, Opara, Williams, Chandler
    Hamid

    and now that i type that out, i like this second line up much more. are you kidding me?! how fast would this team be! plus, Shea, Agudelo, Boyd, etc. on the bench. amazing.

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  8. Anyone who think Shea isn’t going to start is kidding themselves. From everything I read Shea has been the most impressive U23 at all the camps.

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  9. Are we really that elite that we are suppose to hold most of the possession against a top ten 10 playing them at home I don’t get it. If it was BB it would had been 70/30 to Italy. The fact that we even tried to play possession soccer against Italy in Italy and was able to do it for the first 60 minute (possession was pretty even)says something about JK. He at least got the players believing in his system something that Bradley couldn’t do if Bradley was really trying to implement a possession style team.

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  10. Let’s not get into this who found who game, because you could also say that many of the mainstays under Bradley’s tenure were Bruce Arena finds such as Dempsey, Donovan, Beasley, Bocanegra, Onyewu, Dolo.

    Every coach from Bora, Sampson, Arena to Bradley has talked about improving the possession game and it has improved greatly since the 1990 World Cup and yes I’m old enough to have watched this. However, we’ve always been a team that relied heavily on long balls, set pieces and counters for goal scoring.

    I think under Klinsmann and his commitment to playing a possession game, we are starting to bear the fruits form the changes he’s implemented. Let’s not forget he had tumultuous start to his USMNT coaching tenure and a growing voice of posters were not happy when we were losing or drawing games in 2011. Look at the result last 4 games all wins with 3 games on the road, 2 of which were in Europe and one in Panama.

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  11. Great game. Stylistically, it was exactly what many of us would like to see more of from USA soccer. The 2d half was not quite as beautiful as we tired, Mexico pushed more guys into attack, and the game opened up and became more chaotic. I love what I saw from Mixx, my MOTM. He showed none of the defensive lassitude and physical frailty that he was rumored to have. He did his job well defensively and allowed his technical ability to shine when he was on the ball. He looked really, really good. Gyau sprayed some of his first touch, which is not unusual for such a young fast player, but his burst at the endline is unreal. It seems like there’s no way for him to get around his man (or often men), surely he will run out of room, then suddenly he’s past them and in the box. Adu played a great all around game and so did Agudelo who showed great aerial technique on his goal, and elusive ball handling on several occasions. The backline looked solid and calm on the ball. Corona has a nice blend of speed and technical skills. Morales was very strong and composed on the ball. Ike certainly showed the athleticism he’s renowned for, but didn’t get any chances to show skills on the ball, which is what we all wonder about with him.

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  12. Agreed. Huge room for improvement w/ the college game and changes needed… first on the list being what was already mentioned, sub rules. All I am saying is that because we now seem to be putting together a decent academy system, doesn’t/should mean scuttling college soccer. I personally think the vast majority of Nats will undoubtedly come from the Academies, but there is room for both and a need for both. And… I think the accountability an alternative presents may well force college into rethinking a few things. Without competition, we all get complacent.

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  13. Does anyone here post on Wikipedia? Joseph Gyau has a page however, it will be deleted in 7 days if its not improved. The reason is that it says he hasn’t played in pro league. I believe he’s come off the bench for Hoffenheim recently.

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  14. and the rediculous rules that arent like the rest of the world plays

    the same stupid substitution rules are also in place in high school soccer.

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  15. I hope so too. He should be the right Assistant to for JK plus he will be the next in line to take the USNMT. But lets not overrate him yet for one win. Let give him time to take this team where it should be and become one of the best coach the USA will have in the future. I LOVE IT!!! GO USA and Happy for the three USA team won.

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  16. I got to the game late, Ives had me taping Univision, not Telefutura. At 18 min in, Mexico was dominating possession and had a strong run, but no real good chances. The Mexican fans were cheering Ole on every pass, I was thinking this was going to be a long night. Then Gyau got the ball, the US got a corner, Aguedelo and Dix scored and had another header from a corner kick narrowly saved. After that Mexico seemed to loose composure and the US did well to frustrate them.

    From what people are saying, the US must have looked better in the first 18 minutes than the stretch I saw before the first goal.

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