Twenty four times over the course of 75 years.
That is how many times, and over how long a period of time, the U.S. Men's National Team had traveled south of the border looking for a win against Mexico. Twenty four times they tried and 24 times they failed to win, and 23 of those times they lost.
It is that record of futility, and all those decades of frustrating defeats, that made Wednesday night's 1-0 victory against Mexico as meaningful a win as you will ever see in an exhibition match. It is that long-standing drought and all those years of Mexican dominance that made finally beating them in their most sacred of homes all the more significant and gratifying.
No, ultimately the victory doesn't mean anything toward World Cup qualifying, and it doesn't give the CONCACAF Gold Cup back to the USA. What the victory does do is give U.S. national team players, both the ones on the field Wednesday night and those watching around the world, the belief and understanding that winning in Mexico City isn't some unimaginable and unreachable dream of a goal.
That is something you can't put a value on, and something we may not see the clear dividends of until the U.S. returns to Azteca and wins a World Cup qualifier there.
Until that time comes, Wednesday's victory will serve to inspire U.S. national team players to believe that they can win in Mexico, and after beating Italy in Italy earlier this year, this U.S. team is starting to believe that it can beat anybody, anywhere.
Here are some more thoughts on Wednesday night's match:
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Hats off to Jurgen Klinsmann. He made some sharp moves with his lineup, and with some position changes and came up with a game plan that worked. Now the USA has won road games against Italy and Mexico, two places the U.S. had never won before. He has instilled a real belief in his team and, for the time being, has earned the confidence of his players. This should bode well for the rest of World Cup qualifying.
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Geoff Cameron was outstanding. No other way to say it. He played with poise and confidence, showing the physical attributes to handle playing high-level competition as well as the technical quality to be an effective centerback for the national team.
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Maurice Edu had his moments where you could tell he's not used to the position, but his turn at centerback was a solid one. If he goes to a club team that lets him play centerback, then Edu could definitely turn into a strong centerback option going forward. Moving to centerback would also help alleviate the central midfield glut.
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Fabian Johnson was rock solid at right back, and looked like an absolute natural there. Does that mean he's a long-term option there? Not really because he's still too important at left back. Steve Cherundolo is still the starter at right back, and if Tim Chandler never does make up his mind to come back we should expect Eric Lichaj to get a look eventually.
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Edgar Castillo's performance drew mixed reviews. Some thing he was excellent while some thought he was terrible. The truth lied somehwere in between. He started out with a shaky first 10-15 minutes, when he was beaten on separate occasions by Pablo Barrera and Andres Guardado, but he settled down after that and had a solid 30 minutes to finish out the first half. The second half was more shakiness, with Elias Hernandez beating Castillo for pace repeatedly and firing in dangerous crosses seemingly at will. Ultimately none of those crosses bore fruit, but there is no denying Castillo struggled in the second half. Overall though, he faired better on Wednesday than he did a year ago against this same team.
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No matter what any Mexican fan might try and say, the Mexican team that lost on Wednesday night was a strong team very close to being a first-choice squad. Olympic team members Jose Corona, Giovani Dos Santos and Carlos Salcido are players who would normally be starting for the first team, but the absences of Corona and Salcido really didn't factor into the decision. Did Mexico miss Dos Santos, who is a perennial USA killer? Absolutely, especially considering how ineffective Angel Reyna was. That said, there was still enough of a representation of Mexico's first-choice team to make Wednesday's victory an impressive one for the U.S., and not one that Mexican fans should be trying to dismiss.
Make no mistake though, reinforcements are on the way for Mexico. That gold-medal winning Mexican Olympic team is loaded with talented young players who are on the verge of jumping into the senior team mix, and many of them should take over starting jobs by 2014. Players like Marco Fabian, Hector Herrera, Hiram Mier and Jorge Enriquez. Yes, Mexico is still in the midst of a golden era, and are only getting stronger. That doesn't mean the USA won't still be able to make things tough, and it doesn't mean the U.S. won't still find ways to beat them.
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Landon Donovan was largely ineffective before leaving the match at halftime with hamstring tightness. Having just played on Sunday night, it is clear Donovan wasn't 100 percent. I wouldn't start calling for him to be benched from the first team just yet. He will still be key in the upcoming qualifiers against Jamaica.
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Not sure why there were so many critics of Kyle Beckerman's play. I thought he was steady, moved the ball around well, and aside from one or two untimely turnovers, the RSL mdifielder handled himself very well. He also sent the pass that started the sequence that eventually led to Orozco Fiscal's goal. Does this mean Beckerman should start on a full-strength first team? I won't go that far, but he handled himself well at Azteca and merits more looks
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Danny Williams defends well at right midfield, but provides little else at the position. He's a viable option in games where Jurgen Klinsmann wants to neutralize an opposing left winger, which he wanted to do to Andres Guardado, but there is no getting around the fact that Williams is useless getting forward. In fact, the only attacking play Williams pulled off successfully on Wednesday was a throw-in. Yes, he is hampered by the fact that he is more a true defensive midfielder, and even more a right back, than right midfielder, but he can play the role of right wing destroyer relatively well. That comes in handy against certain opponents, though it comes at the cost of less offense from your midfield.
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Jose Torres had a bad night. There's no getting around it. He was largely invisible and lost the ball half the time he had it. It wasn't as if any attacking players really stood out among the starters, in part because of the U.S. strategy to focus on defending against Mexico's dangerous attack, but Torres clearly struggled to make an impact and he lost the ball to easily when he was able to gain possession. Losing the ball repeatedly can't just be chalked up to teammates not being there for him. It wasn't an issue for Beckerman, who completed 25 of 30 passes (all but one of which were forward passes) so it shouldn't be an excuse for Torres' lackluster night. It might be time to start asking whether Torres will ever be well suited for that kind of attacking role. It's not one he plays for club side Pachuca. He's better suited as a deeper-lying distributor, someone who cleans things up in midfield and circulates the ball to the attack. Unfortunately for Torres, that's a place where better options reside right now for the USMNT.
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Torres wasn't alone in being sloppy in possession. Jermaine Jones coughed up unforced turnovers repeatedly, and gave up the ball in his own half of the field a half dozen times. His work rate is impressive and he ran all over the field on Wednesday night, but he must be more careful with the ball at times because far too often he gets careless with the ball and puts his team in position to be punished for it. That didn't happen on Wednesday night, but it's something Jones needs to clean up.
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Lastly, it wasn't a pretty game by any means, and Mexico did enjoy the bulk of possession and controlled the game for long stretches, but for the U.S. to come away with a victory despite missing so many key starters is a major accomplishment. Yes, when these teams meet again in a year both lineups will look different, but just as Mexico will be stronger, a U.S. lineup with Michael Bradley, Clint Dempsey and Jozy Altidore (and a healthy Landon Donovan) will be much stronger. Mexico will probably still control possession, but the head-to-head match-up when the sides meet at full strength will be much closer than some realize.
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What did you think of the match? Who, aside from obvious selections Cameron and Howard, impresed you on Wednesday night? Will you be planning to take the trip to Mexico City when the U.S. returns in 2013?
Share your thoughts below.
Seeing Shea last night makes me wonder if Adu should beta call up. Perhaps he is still torn up about Olympic qualifying disaster. Maybe he would jump at the chance to do what we would like Torres to do?
No he is a RB
no
Roger Bannister breaks the 4 minute mile and then people all over the world start doing it. Just like that, I think US players that weren’t at Azteca will believe they can win. That is huge. Even though Mexico is a more talented team, I have confidence the US could pull off the upset in Azteca next time.
sorry to disagree, but I thought DMB was bad last night. His touch was not good, he failed to provide defensive cover, and failed to mark Herrera who missed a volley from 12 yards. I thought he was the worst of the subs last night.
Big credit goes to players, coach, and staff for a magical result. I do disagreement with your assessment about the difference in belief between four years ago in qualifiers and now. Then, we played our game in Mexico with four attacking players in the lineup. We lost, and we didn’t have the possession/dominance that we showed in Columbus, but we went at them. This time, it was 10 men behind the ball always and it wasn’t a qualifier.
If there is any difference we have seen between last cycle and this one it is that Klinsmann commits numbers to defense. I’m not saying that this is bad, and last night it was exactly right, but with this system you will upset some better teams and under perform against teams that you should normally beat, like we have seen with the US since Slovenia.
He plays for Aston Villa…so no, I don’t watch him.
Fair enough. I had seen it before and figured it was for a less cynical purpose. I stand corrected.
If his new high pressing, slick passing strategy doesn’t work, which I think it will eventually. It’s good to know we can still win in big games by reverting back to our old ‘American’ ways.
If the U.S. used a fit first A team, do you think the score would have been the same?
Are you sure? I’ve always heard he started as a RB, and is naturally right-footed. He learned to play LB because he was good with both feet, and would get more opportunities
it is indeed the fans with the laser. Howard mentioned it post match.
but he is also much more of a left back than a right.
i guess a lot of y’all are homers who only watch the national team and have never seen ‘the lazer’ before? you see ‘the lazer’ in European games all the time. yes it’s annoying but i’ve never seen a ‘keeper miss a ball because of it yet…
Torres didn’t to his job: possess and pass. The reason we stayed in the game was because (as you say) the defensive superbucket provided cover and luck, things that offset Torres poor play in the first half.
Speaking of superbuckets, I thought our tactics were basically Bob Bradley’s on steroids, with (count ’em) four DMs.
Psychology is often overstated, it’s true, but over the last 2 decades, USA has consistently been able to steal results off of Mexican sides that were often far superior technically. I think it is important to continue that tradition, especially given the lopsided nature of the last few matches, and to do it with a B side is a little icing on the cake.
I can’t believe they pitched a shutout with that back line – phenomenal. Cameron was a beast.
*N
It could be but I’ve never seen such a light before. I thought someone had a CD in the stands and was shining a strong light off it…
Winning in Azteca is cool and all, but even the “now we know we can do it in meaningful games there” is a bit overstated in importance.
The U.S. has never needed to win in Azteca to qualify, and probably never will. Beyond that one match that we’ll play there every four years (you can bet there will be no more friendlies there), what do we need to prove?
I know I’m being a scrooge, but this flukey win in a half-full Azteca doesn’t change much from my perspective. It doesn’t change the reality that Mexico is on a great path player-development wise to contend for world cups, and we are in the midst of a lengthy plateau that will likely last another several years.
Thats adorable that you think this was the first time a laser was used at the Azteca.
I think that is tv related. The laser was on the ball a bunch and on chicharito after his misses. I’ve seen it in other games too. Not sure exactly what it’s for, but don’t think it is for cheating.
I still don’t get why folks aren’t more vocal about Beasely. In every JK callup he has played his role to perfection. I know he’s not “the future”, but I think this guy warrants being in the mix as a tactical option/sub option and provides a terrific example of what is expected in the new system.
Not bad, for the most part, but Bradley ought to continue his growth in the regista role, or at least as a box-box player. His talent is stunted as a destroyer.
Also, Jozy’s growth has largely been his gradual embrace of the physical target role. Not that they wouldn’t do well together, but Boyd and Jozy together might be a bit redundant. Better to pair one of them with a mobile finisher who can stretch the defense, like Gomez or even Lando.
I’d like to see:
Jozy/Boyd = Gomez
Clint/Shea = Bradley = Lando
Edu/Jones
Johnson = Boca = Cameron = Dolo/Lichaj
Timmy
Does no one watch Lichaj????? He is more of a “speedster” than Williams and a much better defender while hes also great going forward
subtract the t and I think you got it right.
I thought for certain Mexico was going to hand us our asses again. Congratulations to the team and my hat is off to Klinsman for inspiring these guys. Timmy Howard is the clutchest of clutch players for us. Italy and now Mexico. Wow.
Leave it to a Mexican-American to score the goal too! I think this proves that most of our veteran US players have a block going on and its going to take the younger guys to break through.
Glad to see Shea make a difference.
How about Williams at RB in that formation? That would be 3 speedsters in the backline with a veteran-defender/bruiser.
Jones was also sloppy with the ball, with too may giveaways. I think Bradley’s effectiveness as a disrupter and a distributor would have made a big difference in the midfield.
The Azteca fans have always had a formidable set of “antics,” from the verbal (e.g., whatever it was that they yelled each time Howard kicked the ball) to the indefensible (e.g., cups full of beer and various bodily fluids that Donovan and others have described), but last night they added a new one: trying to shine a green laser light into Howard’s eyes. Shockingly, no one tried to do anything about it.
Ok a win is a win. However did you all forget that Mexico made as many unforced errors, like passing the ball out of bounds, as we usually do? This was not a fit Mexico. Had they used their Olympic team do any of you think the score would have been the same? No, its a win that gets that monkey off our backs and nothing else.
Klinsi is doing a great building job.
+1
Not one mention of Fiscal’s contributions and perfect positioning for the goal. Is there a biased in this article?
I wonder what a Parkhurst/Cameron pairing would look like? There will still be times when we’ll need the size of Goodson and Gooch, though…
Punto means “point” in Spanish.
Respectfully disagree. I can remember the last time we played at Azteca (and possibly even the time before that). We had zero belief that we were going to win in that environment – even after Charlie Davies scored in the early going.
I think there’s a definite mental difference between walking into something you’ve done before and trying for a result versus walking into something you’ve failed at for 75 years and hoping to pull of a miracle.
I normally would agree that friendlies are meaningless, but this one was against the biggest rival in a place where we could not win for 75 years. The first ever win at Azteca is huge for the confidence of playing meaningful games in Mexico. Next time they have to play a WC qualifying game there, they will have confidence that they can win because they have done it before. Azteca has fallen! And Mexico pretty much fielded their A team, minus Dos Santos. They missed three starter, but only Dos Santos was a meaningful loss. Their top two keepers are largely a wash and Mexico’s keeper was not at fault on the goal anyway. Mexico’s fans were posting on these boards that Nilo is better than Salcido because he “shut down” Adu in the Gold Cup final after Adu has a field day against Salcido. They missed Dos Santos, but we missed more: Dempsey, Bradley, Altidore, Boca, Dolo (although our D did quite well despite missing two starters). So it was pretty much our B+ team against Mexico’s A team. As for not our failure to qualify for the Olympics it is a big setback, but don’t forget that our U23 team had a dominant win over Mexico’s U23 team on the eve of the Olympic qualifying and had about 70% of possession in the first half. They beat essentially the same team that won the Olympic, minus three overage players.
Great win and some revelation performances in back. However watching Torres struggle in a forward role Williams out wide and knowing what you get with Beckerman I would like to see JK bring in some other faces to deepen the pool and see what he’s got instead of making these three a lock at every camp
I don’t really buy the “both sides not playing full strength” bit. The only player that could have helped Mexico was Dos Santos, and national teams can always expect to be without at least one player. Should the US say they have not had a full strength team since Holden went down with injury?
Altidore—–Boyd
Dempsey
Donovan————————————Gomez
Bradley
Johnson——-Boca——–Cameron—-Dolo/Lichaj
Howard
Its time to stop trying to fit torres into the starting XI, just not good enough
oooooooohhhhhhhhh……..Punto!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That actually sounds great.
Against teams like Jamaica (who we should beat but got some talent) what about Jozy and Boyd up top, Dempsey in the middle, Donovan on the left and Herc on the right where he sometimes plays with Laguna?
Then you would have Bradley play d-mid, plus a back four of Johnson, Boca, Cameron, and Dolo/Lichaj?
Seems like a good attacking lineup, only worry I guess is Shea/Wondo are your only true attacking forces off the bench.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good win for the US and long overdue, but it was an insignificant friendly with both sides not playing full strength teams. Klinsmann deserves credit, but winning meaningless games should not be something to harp on. Win in Mexico or against Mexico when it matters. The fact that the US didn’t even qualify for the Olympics should still be mentioned in the same breath as this win. onward and upward USA! once we do reach the Pinnacle (in the next few decades) there will be no taking us down.
What surprises me is all the criticism the midfield (especially donovan and torres) is getting.
The midfield’s “poor” display and the back line’s outstanding showing are strongly related. We ran a 4321 where the fullbacks almost never overlapped, certainly not in the first half anyway.
That’s a gameplan designed for stout defense at the expense of any possession or attacking. Very smart tactics to employ at azteca, but for some reason ignored when evaluating individual performances.
+1. Though Boca never traditionally had an issue with pace, he is slowing down a bit now. And we all know that Onyewu and Goodson have never been the quickest.
I thought Beckerman did pretty well. But to me the sequence that lead to goal started with an Orozco throw in; and I have to give Beasley credit for releasing the ball while he was trapped by 2 Mexican players.
More than anything else, I think this game shows the advantage of having two mobile, athletic centerbacks. The ability of Edu and Cameron to keep pace with the Mexican front line was nice to see. I can’t remember the last US game I was watching during which I wasn’t terrified of the other team just burning with movement and pace.
Standout performance by Cameron at CB! Fantastic win – achieved without Dempsey, Donovan, Bradley, Cherundulo, Bocanegra on the pitch!
I was the a-hole Klinsy doubter yesterday. Now I’m back on board. The way he tinkered with that lineup was magic.