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Mexico defeats Italy in final World Cup warm-up

MexicoItaly

By TRAVIS CLARK

Mexico wrapped up its pre-World Cup friendly schedule with a confident 2-1 win over defending champions Italy in Belgium on Thursday.

Goals from Carlos Vela and Alberto Medina were enough as Mexico trotted out a starting XI that will most likely take the field during next Friday's World Cup opener against South Africa. On the other side, Italy was playing only its second friendly of 2010, and could only grab a late consolation goal through Leonardo Bonucci in the game's dying minutes.

The Italians had spent the past week doing high altitude training in the Alps, and will have one more friendly on June 5 against Switzerland before taking off for South Africa.

Take a look at the goals after the jump:

What do you think about the result? Is it a sign of good things to come for Mexico?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. I,m surprized that ‘x is doing this good, they did’nt bring the best players to the cup… I think Aguirre is a morron for that. He left out kikin fonseca, zinha, jared borgetti, omar bravo and the greatest scorwr Mexico has ever produced sabah as well as neri Castillo… I thinlk aguirre should get down on his knees and suck neri’s balls and beg hom to play woith Mexico… Nery and Zionha were the reason Mx beated the US both times and defeated Brazil…

    Again I’m just amazed @ how the team is doing… another of aguirre’s blonders… taking out jonathan dos santos and keeping “el bofo” that move took out a great player, demoralized a star player and kept a mediocre player in the field… so many blunders…. Mx vs England was goood but without our best players Mx couldn’t convert the goals.

    Mx vs holand a complete disaster, played wiothout the best players… did not bring the “A” game to the court… and thus the result.

    The US is not looking so good either, they have some tough competitors in the group, they might not make it to the final 16… hope they do but they have a lot of jhard work ahead… I would love to see the final MX vs US that would be sweet

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  2. must have eaten 1 too many tamales and the Italians wanted nothing to do with the game.

    Congrats to Mexico for finnally winning 1 friendly

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  3. I’ll respectfully disagree with (1) your ‘95%’ stat that you pulled out of the air, and (2) that Mexico fans think we are the best in the world.

    (1) Among my group of friends (all from Mexico), only 1 of like 15 proactively roots against the US. Most of them don’t follow the USMNT, but cheer for them occasionally. We were ecstatic when the US humbled Spain in the ConfeCup, for example.

    (2) I don’t know where this perception comes from, but it’s not true. We think we have a decent team, but obviously not at the level of powerhouses like Brazil, Argentina, Germany, Italy, etc. We don’t expect to win it all, or even to make it to the semis – if we get to the quarterfinals we’ll be happy. That being said, we do believe that we can play anyone close and pull out a win every now and then.

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  4. I live near Victoria, Texas and I am Hispanic but I am also a huge supporter of the USMT and I have a strong dislike for the Mexico squad. I like their beautiful country and visit Monterrey (6 hrs from me) often to visit friends. I respect them because they’re pretty good, but you must understand this, THEY HATE US! They think that they are among the best in the world (which is not the case). I would say 95% of the Mexican Fans would never, ever root for the USA, no matter what the case.

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  5. I live near victoria, texas and I am hispanic but I am a huge supporter of my country and i absolutely hate the mexico squad. i like there beautiful country and visit monterrey (6 hrs from me) often to visit friends. I respect them because they’re pretty good, but I also understand this,THEY HATE US! They think they are the among the best in the world which is not the case. i would say 95% of mexicans would never, ever root for the USA, no matter what the case.

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  6. I agree Nick. I’m a bit confused as to why some US fans are so upbeat after the Turkey game. We pretty much played what amounted to 45 minutes of good soccer, but we’ve somehow elevated our chances at the World Cup based on these 45 minutes, when in the last few friendlies, including the first half of the Turkey game we looked not so great. And the way people are talking up Findley, he played a good game and the pass to Donovan was nice, but come on, it’s Findley. It would take more than one game to convince me he’s the real deal. If the US played the way Mexico has the past three games, I’d be more upbeat.

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  7. I thought that Mexico looked quite good against Italy and England (despite 3-1 loss). They did not look as good against the Dutch, who controlled the flow of the game. If I were a Mexico’s fan, I would be excited about possession and crisp passing, but would be very concerned about their inability to defend corner kicks. This could be a big problem if they play European teams. If Mexico improves their defense, they could do really well this year.

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  8. I do live in the US right now (going to college), but most of my life I’ve lived in Mexico.

    Why I hated the USMNT? That loss in Korea-Japan hurt a lot man… think about it: You wake up very early in the morning already thinking about Germany, excited about finally making it past the round of 16. Then, out of nowhere, the neighbors up north who don’t even care that much about soccer kick your team out of the WC with solid defense and nice finishing. I’ve come around tho.

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  9. This is like saying that England should support Germany because they are both in Europe and it will only make their region look stronger! Or how about Brazil supporting Argentina? My goodness, why would I support our most bitter rival just because they are in our region? That is really silly logic. Everyone knows that Concacaf is a way stronger region than Asia.

    Do you think Mexico is supporting us?

    If you want to get into specifics, I would say that Mexico has looked good in their warm ups, but they have many flaws in their play, too. They are absolutely horrible in the air and their goalkeeping is at most suspect. They didn’t outplay England in the air. Just because a team possesses the ball and slows the game way down doesn’t mean they are better than their opponent. They do that against us and we can beat them.

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  10. 1. There are undoubtedly lots of trashy Mexican fans. I’m not sure what your point is though. There are lots of great ones. And it’s up to us as Americans to decide how we want our rivalry to be. Let it be a source of hatred or something to bring us together. I mean, it’s totally up to you how you want to be about it, but it’s fairly obvious to me how I’d rather have it.

    2. As to your question re: WCQ. Actually I did. That would be my next story. I watched the USA v. Mexico World Cup qualifier in Mexico. (In La Paz). With a bunch of Mexican univeristy students (a few years younger than me). They were super interested in watching with an American who actually knew and cared about the game. They complained about how trashy many Mexican fans were and said they were ashamed. I could imagine if soccer were more mainstream in the US, I might be ashamed of US fans.

    Anyhow, like I said, it’s what we choose to focus on and what we decide to make it. We could make it about hatred and the throwing of piss. We could be better than that and focus on how soccer could be one thing that unites with our neighbors to the South, who are in general quite friendly and generous people.

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  11. Thanks for the heads up! I’ll start looking upon the three baseball teams and the Packers more fondly from now on. And you don’t have any Mexican friends, at least not anyone that knows of the vitriol, the sniping and the pseudo-threats you make against Mexico, Mexicans and the MNT. Suit yourself, we’ve been here for thirty centuries and are not going anywhere soon!
    Your love for futbol picante is sophomoric and shows the level of education you have. You are obviously in diapers still, but I’ve been exposed to Jose Ramon Fernandez ever since he started DeporTV back in the mis 70’s. I know his brother, who by the way is a good pianist. Jose Ramon is a ‘know it all’ (like you) and NO ONE not even his brother can stand him. He sometimes hits upon the truth as if he had invented the concept and sometimes (more often than not) he puts his foot in his mouth:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVRdeQhLlfk

    Mexican NT supporters are funny? Let me give you a tip, the ones on the other side of the Northern Border are the funny ones!

    And after yesterdays win vs. Italy, it’s not ‘si se puede’ anymore…it’s ‘YA SE PUDO’!!!

    Go Mexico, USA, Honduras!!!

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  12. Let’s be honest if the US beat Italy in a friendly we would be spouting off about how great we are and how we have a chance to win the WC. I love how easily we in the US can belittle or prop up a result in a friendly depending how it goes for us or our rivals. We lost to Denmark, Slovakia, Netherlands, and Czech and we write off as our “B” team (ignoring the fact that the it was their B teams to). But then we beat Turkey in a come from behind victory after they already played two other matches and all of a sudden we are world beaters…please people get a grip. If I was a Mexico fan I’d be pleased with what I’m seeing. Doesn’t mean they are going to do well necessarily but u would have to say they will be competitive.

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  13. Relax guys, Mexico is in our region so as long as they aren’t playing us….lets support them! Their success only makes Concacaf look stronger and giving all of us a wee bit more respect. Right now, most of Europe think that 3 (or 4) teams from our area is too many to qualify for the WC. Every win in other parts of the World is important. Plus, the Mexican league wants to take Bornstein off our hands! We owe them for that!

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  14. yep. I won’t ever root for them in CONCACAF but at the WC I can root for Mexico (as long as they’re not playing us… or SA). The more respect CONCACAF gets the better for all of us!

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  15. mexico makes it out of their group but they will play argentina in the second round. 25 fouls against italy while italy had 5….that is probably the only negative to take away from this game.

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  16. I think the better players you’re thinking of are altidore, bradley, torres, holden, edu, feilhaber, and bedoya.

    Mexico aren’t the only young sqaud in south africa.

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  17. DingDong,

    Do you think you could pull that off IN Mexico during a US-Mexico world cup qualifier? They throw piss on our players down there, not to mention on their own people when it goes flying.

    Dude, they shut down the US Embassy in fear of riots when the US knocked out Mexico in 2002.

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  18. Lippi had an old team last World Cup and won it all. You need more than Speedy wingers like Ronaldo to win tourneys.

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  19. Crispy,

    Rooting for Mexico when they play a European team would make no sense to me as I am half Danish and my wife is English. My roots are more European and that would apply to much of America.

    Spot on about Italy… you can add Portugal to that list.

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  20. Spot on. A rival is a rival but we live in a politically correct world now don’t we? We live in a liberal fantasy land where everyone should get along and money grows from trees.

    Mexico is our rival – they kicked our butt for 50 years straight without thinking twice or saying they should go easy. Never root for Mexico as a US fan… unless they are playing France. Oh wait….

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  21. I agree totally with this, but the way people think and act these days, you will be called a racist.

    We have a mind numbingly dumb population and it’s getting worse.

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  22. Mexico can be a fun team to watch, but they are too small to compete this go round. I hope they represent the region well also, but I can never root for them.

    I don’t think they get out of the group…

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  23. rick, i know lots of citizens who “route/root/rude” for anyone BUT the home team!

    part of our country and it’s makeup of a variety of heritages means that most soccer fans I know use a nats team to express their ethnic heritage. i for one came to the world cup as a west germany fan because that’s where my mom is from and that’s who my grandfather rooted for. it was only once I started playing soccer that i even was aware that we had our own nats squad and began to follow the program. as the program improves so will the quality and quantity of it’s fans.

    in typical bandwagon fashion i expect once the USMNT starts making bigger waves(read winning bigger matches like last summer) you’ll see a lot of those folks start rooting for the Yanks first and their heritage team second. this might make a from the beginning die hard such as yourself groan, but that’s usually how fan bases are built isn’t it?

    so don’t semi-hate on folks who are coming around, you just give them second thoughts about doing so!

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  24. Mexico is not out group stage rival; if Mexico does reasonably in the Cup it is good for CONACAF and hence the US.

    Get it?

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  25. Did you guys watch their matches? They dominated the first half against England, but gave up goals on set pieces. Then the score yesterday easily could have been 4-1. Hernandez had a Kamara-esque miss at the 6.

    Sure these are friendlies, but it is absurb to think a 4-2 loss to the Czech second team is the same as a 2-1 win versus Italy.

    With Dos Santos and Vela hitting their stride (two players that WON a youth WC together), Mexico looks very dangerous.

    Favorite to win the thing, No. Primed to win their group and get into the quarters? Yes.

    Again, it will come down to defending set pieces for them. They have very quick guys that can attack from a lot of different directions, but are small in the back and cant seem to cleanly win corners.

    Really, it is absurd to try and claim that this team is not playing well right now, or that you dont wish the US had been in camp for 2 months and had played friendlies against all of these top teams.

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  26. The big question from this game is not Mexico. It’s what’s up with Italy?
    They looked really sloppy and lethargic.
    Of course, Italy always starts slow.
    But this time out, they don’t look good.

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  27. France is a mess – talent + a lauhingstock of a coach usually equals 3 and out; Uruguay also has some talent up top but Mexico can run with them as well.

    And then there’s the hometown team South Africa which will have fans (and refs? hey it’s FIFA, so never underestimate Blatter’s sleaze) rooting them on.

    I see this a wide open group, Mexico could finish first, or it could finish last.

    And yeah beating italy even in a friendly is something, give credit where it’s due.

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  28. The arguments on here are ridiculous! Was it a good win for a capable “underdog” side? yes! Does is somehow invert the the make-up of the world soccer hierarchy. no!

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  29. Exactly!! However, add Guatemala to the list of teams we can’t “route” for- they are by far the dirtiest team in our hemisphere. This in no way lessens the degree to which I hate Mexico and their dirty play- just thought I’d add that

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  30. I don’t get the Mexico hate by US Nats fans. Our development as a soccer nation is inextricably linked with theirs. An ENglish commentator, when opining on whom the US had played/beaten, referred to Mexico as a “Minor Footballing nation” WTF? I, for one, will root for Mexico other than versus us and in a few other Concacaf games. I want them to do well on the world stage.

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  31. Yup, these are the 2 teams I despise the most. Italians flopping, Mexicans flopping, both sides take cheap shots- rooting for either team was damn near impossible. I suppose I prefer CONCACAF but I still feel dirty. I’m a KU fan so it’s like cheering for MU football in a bowl game- cheer your conference to boost your own legitimacy then take a scalding hot shower and try to wash away the shame

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  32. Hush, read my other posts. I am basically saying what you just said, with the exception of fútbol picante, and I do know my fútbol very well. I stated what the analysts were saying before the Italian game. Yes, I watch fútbol picante all the time (and other Spanish sports shows) and at times the panel blows up the Mexican team a bit while other analysts do not. But in general, the other Spanish networks do hype up the mexican team. That is agreed. Do not know why you are arguing with me. Take care

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  33. The whole reason Mexico has had so many games this year, and a long camp is to get their team in form well before the WC starts. They look good in most games as of late, and can compete with some of the best in the world. Look for them to make a good showing in the group stage, and possibly advance. If they do advance however, they have trouble scoring. That has always been their problem. Teams will find their shape by the second round. They will be tested.

    That being said, they played well against Italy. It will help team morale going into the WC. I’m not sure if anybody else noticed; they dominated the game, but only scored two goals. They will need to be sharper up top to have any type of success.

    I am a USMNT fan, but i also respect the game and what other teams bring to the table. Don’t lose focus (Mexico haters). They didn’t beat us yesterday…they beat Italy. Give them the credit they deserve (as hard as it may be for some). They beat an out of form and tired Italy team. They will need to do better than that in the group stage to advance.

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  34. Your crazy. Telivisa, TV azteca,Univision, blow the Mex team as if they were BRAZIL or Argentina. C’mon man. Who are you kidding? Only Futbol Picante puts things in perspective for the Mex NT. Jose Ramon & Carlos Albert have said it numerous times on how TV Azteca wouldn’t let them express their true opinions in regards to the NT. Why? Because is not good for business. This is why they left to ESPN Deportes. Watch those clowns on FSE every night and see for yourself on how they extremely overate the Mex NT day in day out. Blanco’s show does the same! Sorry bro, but there’s a lot of Latin Americans on this site who know their futbol espanol programs. Who are you kidding? 🙂

    VIVA LOS YANKEEEESS!!

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