Brazil came into the 2012 Olympics as the favorite to win gold, and they were expected to overwhelm Mexico when the teams met on Saturday in the Olympic final.
Mexico had other plans, and needed less than a minute to show that they weren't going to be content with Olympic silver.
Santos Laguna striker Oribe Peralta scored a goal in the first minute before adding a second-half header goal to help Mexico jump out to a 2-0 lead. Brazil struggled to deal with Mexico's movement and energy, and could have been down even more of a pair of Marco Fabian chances didn't miss narrowly. A late Hulk goal spoiled he shutout, but it wasn't enough to keep Mexico from posting a 2-1 Olympic final victory at Wembley Stadium.
The victory gave Mexico their first Olympic soccer gold medal.
Brazil never was able to flash the attacking qualities expected of a squad stacked with top young talent. Chelsea signing Oscar struggled mightily while Neymar was unable to take over the game against a tough Mexican defense.
The loss kept Brazil from winning their first Olympic gold, and reports suggest the loss could cost Brazilian national team coach Mano Menezes his job.
The Olympic gold caps an impressive run for Mexican youth national teams. The Under-20 team finished third at the Under-20 World Cup while Mexico's Under-17 team won the most recent Under-17 World Cup.
What did you think of the match? Impressed with Mexico's performance? Disappointed by Brazil? Which players impressed you the most?
Share your thoughts below.
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un$&@ingbelievable. They are world beaters. We are on the couch.
That attitude is what is wrong with this country. Yes be creative in games, do not restrict children to kick and run in games or play a kid who has more size than skill but every game counts. From the street to the playground, rec, club, development academy, college, pro. It all counts. Our kids don’t care, we lose, they play xbox, coach in flip flops with the funny accent, goes to the pub, grabs a pint with his chums, and laughs at all the soccer mums who don’t know a lick about soccer but continue to sign checks because the club coach allows Bobby to play and have a nice time. Time for MLS to pony up and develop players. If you can’t cut it, there’s always the local club. Oh yeah, ask the girls on the Olympic gymnastics team if the Karoly’s are really nice people.
TOP TEN !!!!!!! Not even close…not even close. They’ll have to do better than beaten a struggle El Salvador team 2-1. In two years they’ll be second in the hex. You guys are brainwashed.
Agreed.
As much as I hate Mexico, I was happy to see the Brazilians in full disappointment mode.
A…giant.
That said, this is certainly how you lay claim to having a golden generation.
Well done Mexico. Literally the only time I ever want to say that.
See Argentina. +1
Any team can beat Argentina. They are more poorly coached than the US. They have a lot more talent but will not likely win a WC in Messi’s career. Too bad.
First of all I saw no mention of them being crowned WC champs anywhere above. They are mentioned as likely to make a decent run at the WC. They are as likely to make a decent run as any American team, including Brazil. Hell, they have a better chance than Argentina which can’t put together a legit team at all. They are playing really well. Not just the under 24 team but the full national team as well. There is only one, maybe two, super power teams. Spain. And maybe Germany. The rest are all wild cards. Don’t be a hater.
Mexico’s youth teams have long been impressive. World Cups and now Olympic gold. Their senior squad is still disappointing by comparison.
Congratulations Mexico. CONCACAF now holds gold in men’s and women’s. Pretty cool.
Again, let’s remind everybody that the Olympics are U-23 except for the overage players. So yes, GB and Spain were there and they didn’t win. But those aren’t the teams you’ll see at the WC.
..AND IN ASIA
congrats to Mexico. last 2 years have been great for them. the future looks bright and it wouldent be surprised if 2014 they are a top 4 team. Times are changing. Honduras, a team that wasent expected of much knocked out spain and gave Brazil a fight. The asian teams have showed that they have grown by leaps and bounds. countrys in conmebol are leveling out the playing feild with Brazil and Argentina.(uruguay,peru,ecuador,colombia etc) USA is no exception..Bradley(roma) Dempsey(TBD) a crop of young guns on the way. ITS all Gravey in the AMERICAS!
Mexico seems to be winning a lot of these tournaments, lately.
Do they have a golden generation emerging?
This doesn’t mean that Mexico is suddenly a world power and will be competing for the Jules Remet anytime soon but it is a great victory and additional affirmation (U17 and U20 success as well) that Mexico is on the right path. Congratulations Mexico and I hope that this motivates the USA to work even harder to catch up.
GREAT BRIATAIN AND SPAIN WERE AT THE OLYMPICS? Why didnt they win?? oh yeah..they didnt take it seriously right (sarcasm)
Brazil has something to take away from this tourney too. You can have all the talent in the world but if you can’t work as a team you can lose to a less talented team.
Mexico is a good team, and they deserve whatever praise put on them today. They beat a pretty stacked Brazilian team and should become the measuring point for all team in Concacaf. We can spout nonsense about how there has been teams like Nigeria that has won multiple youth tourney over the year but never amounted to anything. You have to start winning somewhere and what better place then your youth national team. Eventually some of these kids who has been custom to success at the lower level will move up and work hard to gain the same success in the senior level. It’s just a matter of time, country like Brazil, Spain and Italy just didn’t come out of nowhere. All those country always had good young talent and Mexico has shown over the last few year they are beginning to have good young talent.
No
Mexico always plays Brazil tough and often beats them kudos to them for that cause our sr team can’t do that.
Who they can’t beat Is Argentina who we happen to usually play tough.
technically the kits had Myan print not aztec.. But meh.. who care’s right?
Bitter?
No just tire of everyone annointing Mex world cup champs based on meaningless tournaments.
A perfect comparable of Mexico is Nigeria. Winner of of multiple kiddy cups including the Olympics and a pretty good senior team , but nothing close to a superpower team whose going to win the next 3 World Cups. They will struggle to get out of the round of 16 just like us.
Wouldn’t it be cool to see Miguel Ponce waving both the American and Mexican flags on the podium?
Exactly wrong. Games for 5 yr old are meaningless. Practice of doing balls skills matter more. Learning step overs, the Crutyd,, Maradona, Beckenbaur moves to perfection. Games are to practice those skills against competition In youth games, not to win to impress soccer moms into spending more money.
Bitter? Just a bit? You should try and show that you’re bigger than that. Instead, you do what’s easiest: Hate. Even the greatest of enemies all throughout history have been able to show respect.
It’s not Sunil fault. Blame 80% of club team coaches who play run and gun soccer so they can win meaningless regional championships win impress soccer moms who know nothing about soccer but like winning because they want the $$.
They should be more focus on technical skill. Even thou the women won most teams have more ball skills ( like Japan). I can honestly say whet I live out of all the club teams only about 4 are dedicated to teaching technical ability.
+1
OMG. Keep it real it’s a glorified u-23 win which players who played in Euro were not avail for. They are a good youth team nothing more. How many World Cups have been won by previous golfs medalist Cameroon and Nigeria?
Most of those players are benchwarmers for their club.
And now we are going to play them in Aztecs where we couldn’t beat a highs school team because of the smog and altitude and then we really won’t hear the end of this talk abouth the great mex team that wins kiddy cups which dont translate to Sr World Cup wins
It’s kind of like seeing one of your classmates whom you didn’t really like do very well for himself. On the one hand, you’re kind of bitter and jealous. On the other hand, he still went to your alma mater, and you can’t help but root for other people from your school a little bit (especially when your school has always been less known and less respected).
I think the proper response is to be gracious and polite in public, but in private, use the bit of anger to work that much harder and make sure that you’re the one succeeding the next time around. I’m hoping our boys come out with a chip on their shoulder at the Azteca and come away with a result (a draw would be great).
That’s awful. Knocked out cold. Good thing the medical staff were so quick to react or he could have suffocated on his tongue.
I’m no Doctor, but it looks like he may have seriously injured his neck. Hopefully it’s just a nasty stinger that paralyzed him for a short while.
Sunil may rot in hell. Let us know.
He is a figurehead president. One vote out of 15 on the USSF board. There are 14 other people you need to talk to while you are with Sunil if you want to really nail down blame.
Buy you watched and here you are making a comment. I’m sure if USMNT would won it you would not feeling the same way.
Congratulations Mexico Olympics 2012 champions.
Good for Mexico. Their success only brings more prestige to CONCACAF and by extension the USMNT.
I understand the competitive aspect behind all the weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth by the US fans.
However, the reality is while Mexico is a good benchmark to shoot for, their success only directly affects us when we have to beat them to qualify for the Confederations Cup or if we meet them in the World Cup. It seems to me we rarely have to beat them to qualify for the World Cup. Otherwise a strong Mexico is only a great thing for the US.
And we all know that “inferior” teams beat “better” teams in tournaments all the time.
Look at what a well organized Mexico just did to a Brazil with superior talent.
I feel like a lot of people are getting carried away with this. No disrespect to Mexico, but the Olympics are basically a glorified U-23 tournament. Beating Brazil is tough, no doubt, but let’s hold off on crowning Mexico WC 14 champs, or even semi-finalists. A lot can happen in two years, and, oh yeah, the rest of Europe will be there with senior teams! Spain, Germany, Italy, France, England, Croatia, Portugal…
Considering the way Honduras reaped all sorts of hurt onto Brazil, whose eventual victory seemed more luck-driven than an overwhelming preponderance of skill, I’m not crazy surprised that Mexico was able to pull it off.
That doesn’t mean that Mexico is about to start winning World Cups (doesn’t mean they won’t, either) or that Brazil isn’t still a major power, but stars certainly did align somewhat for Mexico’ gold.
The Gold medal is not as impressive as beating a star studded team like Brazil, that wanted to so badly to make history and win their first Gold medal at an Olympic game, with mostly home grown players. Wow….
I think they won because they went back to those sweet athletica kits! Full Aztec print 🙂
It really helps when your Soccer President shows determination and vigor to develop the program at all levels….. he only decided to do that with Jurgen only after we started to lose habitually.
+1 exactly
Double true. It all matters. Every single game matters. From 5 year old kids playing on Saturday mornings, to teenagers playing into the night at the city park. Every game builds the game. Be patient. It will happen.
I have to agree with you, Sunil Gulati is not a soccer guy, he’s a freakin Economics professor (no joke) and only works part time as President. We are on a downward spiral. Get ready to get that a** whooped south of the border on the 15th, it will still be entertaining to see all the goals scored on us, wish we would’ve played someone else so the Mexicans can’t celebrate after they run us out of the stadium.
If only we could blame one person for all of our US soccer woes. For me it would be you. I blame you for not developing your own skills to enable you to carry the US on your back to a World Cup final. Seriously, if it only took one person, we would be there. It takes thousands.
hey, at least we’ve beaten Mexico for the last two Gold Cups, where results really count….no wait….its the other way
Congratulations! Well deserved! Time to recognize Mexico a top ten team in the world.
“who cares that Mexico is winning or coming close to winning all these tournaments, while our youth teams fold like a lawn chair and fail to qualify for the U-20 and Olympics?”-delusional Americans fans everywhere…. “none of the soccer powers (of which we are nowhere close to being) care about these tournaments, therefore why should we?”
Rivalry aside, I love to see Mexico play well on the world stage. Of course I would love for the US to smash them in the friendly, but when we aren’t playing each other I cheer for Mexico.
I hope Sunil gulati rots in hell
Literally has been managing over a period of US Soccer where the only strategy was keeping the status quo
Hired coaches based on their ability to keep the status quo
Molded MLS to keep the status quo
In the meantime MExico wins gold and looks great for WC14
“…. sigh.”
Signed,
-American Soccer Fans Everywhere
hate…HATE to see mexico win, but good for CONCACAF. other countries around the world forget about us, think its all uefa on conmebol.
now its on the USA to catch up, and show something in ’14 qual games, and maybe something during this upcoming friendly
Lets catch up!!!!
the giant of concacaf