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.
No one cares, your taking about nations who have ten Silva’s and Mata’s. Its an U-23 team, get over it.
From the land where friendly results mean less than nothing.
What do you think about the fact that the US Olympic team beat Mexico in a pre tournament warm up but couldn’t replicate that performance when it counted during the group stages of Olympic qualifying?
What does it say about Mexico losing to the US Olympic squad in that friendly and then turning it on when it counts by winning the entire tournament in dominating fashion?
You think the Japanese feel better about themselves after beating Mexico in Birmingham shortly before the start of the Olympic tournament only to lose to them when it mattered the most?
This is the same myopic thinking that holds the US back. As much as people complain about the lack of technique in our players, it’s people easily dismissing failure and holding onto meaningless friendlies as some sort of safety blanket that will prevent us from moving forward.
It really has little to do with Mexico’s success at all youth levels, it’s their change of mentality and ability to adapt to adverse circumstances that has them on the up.
I mean, Mexico’s youth teams were as disorganized as the US youth set up (if not more given the fact that they have superior scouting and infrastructure) and it wasn’t until 2009 that they seriously became interested in developing their youth players. By the time their U17 or U20 teams reach the CONCACAF WC Qualifying stages, their players have over 100 international matches under the belt…..and that is with the national team, not even counting the preparation they undertake with their clubs.
No but they do dev. by losing. They can learn from mistakes, by learning making them better players.
Jonathan Spector, Landon Donovan, Kenny Cooper, Frank Simek, Zak Whitbread all were on the youth teams of elite clubs. So us having juniors at big clubs wasn’t a pipe dream. Hopefully we starting having a few breakthrough.
Asi es.
Si mon.
Yes sir, yes indeed.
Qualifyed first in CONCACAF, won our group in the WC, we are making progress. Most importantly we are producing more and more players who are being sought after in Europe.
We have juniors at Barcelona, Boca and Liverpool..5 years ago that would have been a pipe dream.
I think being a country our size with players spread all over the world hinders us in Junior tournaments but will make our NT better
It was a friendly that Tena was using to try out players. The US did outplay Mexico in that friendly but so did Japan in the friendly right before the olympics started. Mexico’s senior team just recently beat Brazil 2-0, does that make Mexico better than Brazil? Mexico is starting to separate itself from the rest of Concacaf again.
I admit it does hurt as a US fan to see not only Mexico, but Japan and S. Korea do so well, while we didn’t even qualify. We like to think of ourselves in that group of up and coming teams like the three above, but results in really all competitions since 2010 indicate that the US is not improving as quickly as our “peers”.
On the other hand, I do enjoy seeing countries from outside of the group of perennial powers challenging for titles.
Easy cowboy. I’m El Tri and don’t appreciate your comments. Stupidity exists on all sides.
That’s why the U-23 slammed this same Mexican side before qualifying. Where do you guys come from.
If no one takes it seriously how come the likes of Thiago Silva, Cavani, Mata, etc were risked here?
They are our biggest rival so offcourse we are going to talk about US. I think the Brazil thread won’t have much USA talk.
Yes look for then to win they haven’t played a real powerhouse yet.It’s just a glorified U 23 world cup that even FIFA doesn’t care about. the women have the best players in their sport playing period the men…not even close.
OMG! Olympic history has no bearing and the U championships don’t either on winning a real Wc. Cameroon, Nigeria, Russia, and even the recent Arg wins did not lead to WC success.
They have a golden generation for kiddy tournaments that’s it. Gio is the Adu of Mex.Gio is a star in the kiddy tournaments and a benchwarmer on a middle level premiership team so we have to keep it real.
But the US does new to he better. 15 years of MLS and 2 years of jr MLS teams and we haven’t developed a star since Landon. Don’t say Dempsey cause thy are the same age. The athletes are here the technical ability and coaching isn’t.
I can’t understand why, when this is an article/update about a result by Mexico, that 70 percent of the comments here are about a side that didn’t even play in the match. Can we please stop being so insular?
yep. there will be just no living with el tri fans after this. they are worse than English fans…
Look for Mexico to win Gold.. they are clearly focused and I think they beat Brazil in dominating fashion
As a fan of the Mexico team … I’ll take it. At least you’re not like those guys with unrelenting hate.
Neymer..dude is a punk through and through
Really? The Olympics mean nothing to you? Excuse me when I disagree with the notion that no one cares. The world is watching.
Greg, please tell me about the “new look” that JK has installed.
The u20’s are definitely taking your advice. They have won 1 game in 3 foreign trips.
Those “clear plans” could not ba a bigger fantasy.
I totally get that. I have a hard time being happy for the U.S. There was that one time though, when Dempsey scored against England in the last World Cup.
As a US fan I’m rooting for Mexico. Unless they play South Korea. Something about that brazil team bugs the hell out of me.
Players don’t develop sitting a home watching international competitions on TV.
IDK Greg, I think you have the wrong attitude here. Think about it, CONCACAF was no walk in the park for Mexico or Honduras. Who’s to say other CONCACAF teams wouldn’t have taken it to the other Olympic teams?
No one takes this seriously, it’s a youth competition. This is what Jurgen was talking about, that american fans value winning to much. Do Germany care about youth competitions?no, because it’s about dev. that player.
Uruaguay sent Suarez and Cavani. Brazil sent Hulk, Marcelo and Thiago Silva, Spain sent Juan Mata, Javi Martinez and Jordi Alba. Plenty of countries took this seriously.
Youth results mean nothing, Germany knows that, they don’t focus on winning but dev. the player. This is what youth is for. So I don’t care about winning, I care about dev. players that can get the job done at the senior level.
is Mexico going to just bring their Olympic team to the US-Mexico game next week? who are we going to bring?
Well we will see how the USMNT and El Tri compare on Aug 15th. A supposed “amistoso”…
+1 its jealously… i hope Mexico wins and the US never misses another Olympics.
Actually, the current Mexican team runs pretty hard and it is hard to outwork them. In the WC, they struggle when they run into teams that are technically superior as was the case with Argentina in the last WC. Plus, they lose cool when things do not go their way.
A Dark day was when the US failed to qualify. But that has passed. It should be a point of pride that two other CONCACAF teams played well in these games. I thik it’s an illustration of how hard it is to compete at the International Level.
it was a friendly. what happened when the games actually mattered?
U17, U20, U23 results from the last year show that not only is Mexico breaking away from the USA, but that the rest of Concacaf is making huge gains on the USA as well.
i think its funny that that everyone is making a big deal about a glorified u23 tourney that nobody outside the countries competing cares about.
the russians beat the brazilians in 88 wheres their golden generation?
I think what hurts so much for USMNT is that Mexico plays with the style that we want our team to play like, but simply can’t. It’s the way Mexican players view the plays developing in front of them. They are proactive while we are still reactive. They attack even when up, while we covet our precious one goals leads by bunkering and strand one useless forward to fend for himself against 4 defenders.
I give credit to Mexico for playing the game the way we want to see it. Attacking, creative and with high energy.
Any true USMNT fan has every right to be upset and disapointed in our squad failing to qualify. But to think we are now spontaneously light-years behind Mexico is simply false in my book.
Did anyone else watch this match? We didn’t creep out with a win, it was an absolute demolishing of their side and made the failure to qualify all that much worse.
http://www.ussoccer.com/news/u-23-mnt/2012/02/us-u23-mnt-defeats-mexico-2-0.aspx
Bright days are ahead for both USA and Mexico.
I’m with you in rooting for Mexico. They’re a primary rival when playing the US, but otherwise I like their team and style.
USA fans should be more upset at the USMNT not making the Olympics. Instead, you hate on Mexico.
Doesn’t matter to me do. Viva Mexico!
It’s going to be a long 10+ years in Concacaf for the US. Good for Mexico though. You can still only put 11 guys out there for a senior game though, and the quality of those guys is what matters in the end. That said, having a stacked youth system increases the odds of turning those guys into senior team regulars.
Overall, it’s nice to see a major tournament final, and semi-final for that matter, with no European teams.
Vamos Mexico!!! i am a USNT fan till i die but i can’t not root for Mexico as my #2 team. maybe it cuz i grew up and live in a mexican area.. but i hope both sides win gold medals and world cup trophies in my lifetime.
They are defintely superior to US but, I still don’t think they are a legitimate World Cup challenger. While our lack of skill and technique prevents us from being an elite team the adverse prevents Mexico. I still think they are a team that can be completely outwokred and outmuscled by top teams. Look at a player like Giovanni Dos Santos very skilful but, I think Redknapp never favoured him since he doesn’t put any work in defensively. Also when was the last time they had a great ball winning midfielder, box to box midfielder or a striker who relentessly presses?
Also while Brazil will probably get gold and they are the home team I wouldn’t consider them a favorite in the next World Cup. They are over reliant on Neymar, their system is built on having a playmaker yet they really don’t have a great one(they have to hope Oscar or Ganso are elite by 2014) and the midfield is only ok.
Agreed, but that starts with making clear plans going forward. U17, u20 World Cups will be critical evaluators of the “new look” organization Klinsmann has installed. We don’t need to win, but we need to show that this next generation of players can take us to the next level.
Meh. Great day for Mexican soccer and great tournament for concacf teams. They are earning the region more and more respect. It’s always darkest before dawn. The US will he ready for 2014.
I find it hard to be happy for them.
I couldn’t disagree more. Although it does stink that Mexico is sitting there in the finals.
Mexico is a lock to make the final 16 of every World Cup. They were already pretty good, much better than many biased public opinion and FIFA rankings
The US is getting there. If US were getting worse while Mexico better, than I would agree. Inspite of this Olympics, the soccer from the US is getting way better, way faster. Having good competition become great will only help that.
Why is it a dark day for the US soccer? It sucks that our U23 team did not advance to the Olympics, but it’s not like we were humiliated by bad teams. Honduras had a great performance in the Olympics, beating Spain and taking Brazil to the wire despite playing one man down. Mexico is assured of having either gold or silver medal. Don’t forget that our U23 team beat this Mexican team, minus 3 over age players, very convincingly, when they played against each other. It’s too early to predict semifinalists for WC2014.
I disagree. Mexico being better will make the US better. Better competition will make the US a stronger team. Much of CONCACAF is improving and this is a good thing. Eventually we will get a full additional WC spot.
Um, i think they need to just qualify for these touraments….
A dark day for US Soccer we all knew was coming.
Mexico has a golden generation, has to be taken seriously as a World Cup winning side come 2014. Could even be seeing the making of a prelude to a semi-final/final game in 2014 if Brazil advances past South Korea.
It is time for the United States to grow up and not be content to just get out of group, or have a “spunky” performance. It is time to start showing progress. You can’t call the past 3 years as a team moving forward…