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Mexico tops Japan to reach Olympic final

Peralta (Reuters Pictures)

Continuing the country's recent trend of success on the youth international level, Mexico will play for Olympic gold.

Mexico battled back from an early deficit and got a goal and an assist from Oribe Peralta to post a 3-1 victory over Japan in their semifinal match at Wembley Stadium Tuesday, sealing a place in the Olympic final against either Brazil or South Korea.

Mexico fell behind on a 12th-minute strike by Yuki Otsu after an intricate passing sequence set up the Borussia Monchengladbach midfielder at the edge of the area. Marco Fabian pulled Mexico level in the 31st minute, though, heading home a flicked-on header off a corner kick. It was the first goal Japan had allowed all tournament after four clean sheets against Spain, Morocco, Honduras and Egypt.

Peralta, the Santos Laguna teammate of U.S. striker Herculez Gomez, put Mexico ahead to stay in the 65th minute with an upper-90 blast from outside the box after pouncing on a turnover in Japan's end, and Javier Cortes capped the victory, dribbling through the right side of the area after a feed from Peralta and beating goalkeeper Shuichi Gonda from close range.

Japan could not match its female counterparts' feat of reaching the Olympic final, and instead will play for bronze against the Brazil-South Korea loser. For Mexico, which has succeeded despite having Javier Hernandez not made available for the tournament and Carlos Vela passing on the Olympic invite, playing for Olympic gold will be a first in the national team's history.

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What did you think about Mexico's performance? Think El Tri will win the gold?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. You are always here denigrating anything that isn’t US Soccer related so I’m glad to see you slither around in the mud trying to find a way to shoot the Mexicans down yet again while they just keep proving you, and plenty of others wrong.

    Not only is your assumption misguided and incorrect, it’s also myopic.

    Mexico has never taken youth development seriously, not even after the 2005 U17 WC triumph. It wasn’t until after the 2008 Olympic Qualifying fiasco and the 2009 U20 WC failure that they decided to change things up and look at them now.

    There is absolutely no question about the fact that they are improving rapidly at all levels. That should be cause for concern on our side.

    It’s time for us to pull our weight.

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  2. Thanks for that ridiculous piece of nonsense history.

    Fact: Olympics 2012 Gold medal game (soccer), Mexico vs Brazil.

    Viva Mexico!

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  3. +1

    CONCACAF grows even stronger with the performances of Mexico and Honduras.

    Great to see Santos Conca-Champ Peralta with the go-ahead goal. Hopefully a US team dethrones them in this year’s edition.

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  4. I’m sorry, I’m Latin and love the USMNT whether it’s all good, or all crap. I’m from Chicago, so even if my rival teams do well, I CAN CARE LESS! I’m not going to cheer for them or give them a little props. I absolutely hate the Packers and Cardinals in general. Wisconsin & Missouri, Yuck. 🙂 Nothing makes me happier than to see them suffer. Call me selfish or an ugly sore loser fan… But that’s the way I have always been and I’m fine with it.

    So I proudly say this to the Mexican national team… F&%%&%* and your steroid meat! … I actually feel good saying that.

    On another note. Mexico goes through these periods where their Futbol all of a sudden speeds up at a good level, then after a few years of good performances, they fall flat to the floor. It’s the Mexican national teams history. They have never been able to be steady historically. That is a fact! Anyone who has been brought up watching Mexican Futbol for most of their life’s know exactly what I am talking about. They are not consistent. In 5-10 Years they will sit flat on their faces for 10 or so years. It’s just the way it is.

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  5. Perhaps you’re unfamiliar with it but this is a pretty common expression where I’m from. So … no, i wasnt calling anyone a cowboy. Take it easy, “partner”. LOL

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  6. Wow a lot of freaking idiots here who glorify a stupid ‘friendly’ and then diminish the importance of Olympic. Mexico is for reals right now and aside from Salcido, Gio and Corona the rest of this U-23 are not starters in the MNT. That’s the scary part and ohh the new generation U-17 is damn good and the U-20 is freaking scary (they were U-17 champs). Meanwhile we have Brek Shea and J. Agudelo to replace Donovan. We are in trouble.

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  7. I could never root for Mexico, the way they have treat us in and outside the field made them my #1 soccer enemy. I’ll be rooting for Brazil, as I was rooting for Japan but “he who makes mistakes…loses!”

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  8. unfortunately practice/freindly games only go so far to measure our progress,when the games count we need to come through, we didn’t. What troubles me is that our key young players are not doing well or not progressing enough… ADU, MIX, Morales, Shea, Agudelo etc, etc. Until our young ones get better or new players step up, we are falling behind our developement curb.

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  9. Agreed. As much as I hate them during qualifying and gold cup. When we’re not involved why not cheer on concacaf? Plus eff brazil.

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  10. Uuuuuuuh…the federation of the two time defending European and defending world cup champion seemed to care. They fired their coach over the poor showing. A coach who previously won the u-21 euros. So if they care. Why shouldn’t we? Cause we’re not there? JK seemed to care too.

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  11. Everybody on that team (expcet Giovani) is from their domestic league.

    There is very good footbal being played down south.

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  12. Why do people think that this competition isn’t taken seriously lately? Looking back to 1988 for an example to make it seem that this competition isn’t relevant is using a false basis. Primarily because football has improved and changed drastically since the early to mid 90’s. Mexico’s youth system didn’t even really get going in earnest until the late 90’s, and most countries around the world didn’t even have leagues that were anywhere near being considered professional institutions. If you want to start comparing apples to apples, you need to look at the most recent examples of these competitions and the squad of the 2008 winning team should be enough. Does this not look like a team that takes this competition seriously:

    Goalkeepers:
    Oscar Ustari (22) (Getafe, Spain)
    Sergio Romero (21) (AZ Alkmaar, Netherlands)

    Defenders:
    Pablo Zabaleta (23) (Espanyol, Spain)
    Ezequiel Garay (21) (Real Madrid, Spain)
    Federico Fazio (21) (Sevilla, Spain)
    Nicolás Burdisso (24) (Internazionale, Italy)
    Luciano Monzón (21) (Boca Juniors)

    Midfielders:
    Fernando Gago (22) (Real Madrid)
    Ever Banega (20) (Valencia, Spain)
    Javier Mascherano (24) (Liverpool, England)
    Juan Román Riquelme (30) (Boca Juniors)
    Angel Di María (20) (Benfica, Portugal)
    José Sosa (23) (Bayern Munich, Germany)
    Diego Buonanotte (20) (River Plate)

    Forwards:
    Lionel Messi (21) (Barcelona, Spain)
    Ezequiel Lavezzi (23) (Napoli, Italy)
    Sergio Agüero (20) (Atlético de Madrid, Spain)

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  13. “Gio is a star in the kiddy tournaments”

    Thank you for admitting that dismantling a Senior USMNT in the Gold Cup Final is basically starring against Kiddie opponents… we can definitely agree on that one. P.S. does Timmy still enjoy doing the worm dance?

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  14. “Also when was the last time they had a great ball winning midfielder, box to box midfielder or a striker who relentessly presses?”

    Great Ball Winning Midfielder = Jorge Enriquez
    Great Box to Box Midfielder = Hector Herrera
    Relentless Striker = Chicharito

    Mexico currently has the three things it has lacked to be a World Cup contender since 1994:

    1) World Class Finisher (assuming Chico regains form)

    2) #10 That Can Dribble Through Traffic & Make Splitting Passes (Gio Dos Santos)

    3) Mental Fortitude (From U-17 to Senior NT in the last 2 years Mexico has proven to be every bit as mental strong as the great German, Italian & Uruguayan teams who made up talent shortages with unfazed self confidence)

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  15. Idiot MLS just had academies the last two years. MLS struggle for a while before the Don came along. So it will take time. MLS will get better and better, but it will take time.

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  16. Herc Gomez, Danny Williams, Jermaine Jones, and Fabian Johnson did not come up through the us youth system. That’s over 1/3rd of our current starting line up. Some people are born in the US, spotted early by big clubs and develop accordingly. Others don’t and are late bloomers/country transfers. Happens everywhere. Just matters what happens when they reach the big time. Props to mexico though, hopefully CONCACAF gets that fourth WC spot soon.

    Reply

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