USA 0 - 5 Mexico

July 26, 2009

Mexico snapped a decade victory drought against the Americans in the United States on Sunday with a 5-0 rout for its fifth CONCACAF regional championship. Captain Gerardo Torrado scored on a penalty kick in the 56th minute, then the inexperienced U.S. squad came unglued.
As an overwhelmingly pro-Mexico sellout crowd of 79,156 rocked Giants Stadium, Giovani Dos Santos and Carlos Vela scored 5 minutes apart despite several brilliant saves by Troy Perkins. Indeed, it seemed the goalkeeper was the only American on the field during the 11-minute blitz in which Mexico's attackers could have sprinted all the way back to Azteca Stadium without being touched.

Jose Antonio Castro and Guillermo Franco put the finishing touches on Mexico's first win at the United States since March 1989. Castro scored off a great through-pass from Vela, a substitute who energized Mexico when he entered the game after halftime.
The United States, fielding an inexperienced squad after the top team finished second in the Confederations Cup last month, could not maintain American dominance of its continental rival.

Mexico was 0-9-2 at the United States since its last win, and fell 2-0 in February in a World Cup qualifier. The nations meet again in Mexico City on Aug. 12, but then the full American roster will be on hand, along with several of the players who carried El Tri to this Gold Cup crown.
But that is another story. For now, after a 10-year wait, there was sweet victory in commanding style.
At the final whistle, the green-clad Mexican players stormed onto the field in jubilation, mobbing Dos Santos, who was voted the game's most valuable player. Then they saluted the crowd that made the Meadowlands sound more like Mexico City, making a tour of the pitch with the trophy in hand.
For the Americans, it was a return to reality. After Bob Bradley coached them to a runner-up finish in the Confederations Cup in South Africa, he gave most of the players a pass for the Gold Cup. Still, the untested fill-ins showed versatility and fortitude -- at least until Mexico ran over them in a spectacular 45-minute offensive onslaught.

U.S. Men's National Team Head Coach Bob Bradley
On seeing a lot of younger players during this tournament: “I think we’ve had a good chance to see so many different players. I think we’ve got a good, solid nucleus, but we’re always looking for players that we believe are going to move forward and help our team.”
On allowing goals in the second half:
“The second half for us is not what we’re all about. It’s important we can look hard at ourselves and learn from a half like that and use it the right way.”
On if the inexperience of the U.S. players factored into the result:
“The area where we didn’t do well enough was our response to the first goal. I think the first half we played pretty well, and now when the second half starts you obviously want to build on that. We had one very good chance at the start of the second half when Robbie Rogers hit one over. But now, when we get down, your ability to make sure that the game doesn’t become a free-for-all where the other team has all sorts of space and opportunities, where your numbers aren’t good enough in the back when the ball turns over, where you lose bad balls, so there’s a lot of different things there that obviously came into play. I think it’s most important that we can look at those things.”
On how this loss may impact the qualifying match in Mexico City on Aug. 12:
“There’s no doubt that you want competitors and we are competitors. When you have a game that feels like this at the end you don’t forget it. It’s something that we will always on the inside talk about, be honest about, and hopefully we can use it in a way that we’re better from it today.”
On the play of Carlos Vela and Giovani Dos Santos:
“Both are good players. When the game opens up in the second half, they’re the kind of players that can take advantage of the space and in that regard they did very well today.”
On finishing second in the Gold Cup:
“Today was their day. When you have to stand there, whether it’s in the Confederations Cup in South Africa and it’s Brazil, or whether it’s in Giants Stadium and it’s the Gold Cup and it’s Mexico, when you finish second you have to stand there – which is the right thing to do – see the other team get their medals, hold up the trophy, that’s a feeling that as athletes, as competitors it’s a feeling that you don’t like. You hope those are things that help you grow in the future on an individual basis and on a team basis. Like I said, today is their day, they can celebrate. It’s our job to make sure we’re ready for what we already knew was a challenge to play in Azetca. We’ll be ready. It’s 90 minutes and it starts over.”
On if this result is a set-back for the team:
“Everyone reads into it their own way. We know the work going on. We’re honest about every step of the way. People will read into it in different ways, but once again when we go to Azetca, we start over on that day and have a chance to do something the U.S. hasn’t done before.”
On what changed the game:
“The change was the goal. When a goal is scored, now all of a sudden things change in the game. We didn’t do well at that point in terms of our response, our ability to keep control while we pushed for the equalizer. We opened ourselves up. I said it earlier, these are talented players, you open yourself up, you start to give away balls in bad spots, you start to get caught where again you’re all over the field and not solid enough in the back when you lose bad balls, good players make you pay and that’s what happened in the second half.”

U.S. Men’s National Team captain and forward Brian Ching On giving up five goals:
“When it comes down to it we just lost our composure. They're a good team and they punished us. We're a young team and guys played a lot of minutes, but we have no real excuses. They moved the ball around a lot, we were chasing the ball a lot in the second half and it tired us out. I think it was a combination of things but we're not going to sit here and make excuses. We're going to hold our hands up and I'll be the first one to say I didn't do enough.”
On what they’ll take from the game:
You look at anybody in the United States and this loss will anger you. We have to channel that, use it and bring it with us on August 12.
U.S. Men's National Team midfielder Stuart Holden On the loss and how the team moves forward: “I think we just put this behind us. Maybe this will give them a little bit of confidence but it will be a different group come August 12. Over the course of the tournament guys have shown well and stated a case to be considered going forward. Today was just not one of those days and we're very disappointed with our efforts. You never like getting beat 5-0.”


http://www.exonline.com.mx/diario/noticia/adrenalina/futbolsoccer/mexico,_campeon_de_la_copa_oro/672476