Mexico plays well and sometimes beat the Brasilians and the Argentinians, they have also have made the second round of all but one WC since 1986.
Long term ... no doubt that mexico has been the better team and I am not disputing that. But over recent years, the US has been every bit as good as the Mexican team.
This is true. But we need to start beating some of the teams that Mexico beats not just Mexico. The U.S. has only won three WC games since 1990, beating Colombia 2-1 in 1994 (with the help of an own goal), Portugal and Mexico in 2002. That's 3W-3D-11L for those keeping score.
I just want to say one more time what a d*** Oswaldo Sanchez is. I enjoyed nothing more than seeing him go through his idiotic spasms before Landon's pk, only to get caught mid-stupidity when the ball was struck. Any good keeper will tell you that this kind of crap never works. Just be ready, watch the hips and make your move. Then for him to blame his defenders on the beautiful winning goal. I truly cannot stand this moron and love nothing more that to see him get beat time and time again.
Here are three points I would like to make: Landon Donovan ties Eric Wynalda on FOUR, count 'em, FOUR penalty kicks. He only worked for one of them. Sort of CHEAP for tying a record, no? I hope he doesn't win the "record" over Eric on another cheap score in La Copa America. The United States of America's impressive wins and accolades against the Mexican National team, save for the World Cup in 2002, have been mostly in the United States, a place where Mexico continuously displays their disparity in their counterattack game... it seems like Mexico enjoys coming in here to get paid to lose. Guardado's score comes after 796 minutes of not scoring against the U.S. north of the border. Does U.S.A. play its *ss off? Yes, they do. Does Mexico? Yes, they do, but they can't stop the counterattack... that's dumb. Whereas U.S.A. plays their best game against Mexico, the thing that makes most of us Mexicans hate and lose respect towards the U.S., is that they never represent us, as in AMERICA or "North" America when they're a lone competitor in their group in the WORLD CUP. Further explaining the fact is their record in the WC, which plcmts17 cited, that brings us to believe that they can beat the big one here in the U.S. but not in the big stage. In this last one, the only goal that the U.S. scored was a nice volley by Dempsey. No other goal was scored by the U.S. in the tournament. I won't remind you about the 0-3 shows in 90 and 98. Yeah, I'm pissed. No, Mexico won't beat the U.S. in the U.S. soon. I agree, RocketFan007, I am a former goalkeeper and I didn't do all that crap before a free kick like that.
well i am 1st generation and the funny thing is my 7 year old son(big soccer fan) ask me before the game started, who do you like mexico or usa. I tell him mexico is my team. So then he says, so you want mexico to win this championship? I say yes. He looked at me funny and said why?, you live in usa. So i tell him hey!, you favorite team is brazil and you've never been there. He just smiled. He is 2nd generation and I think he will grow up to be a Nads fan.
What, that the U.S. can represent CONCACAF well and get past the first round in another World Cup ? Yeah. I agree. 2010 seems unlikely, too .
To be fair the US has really only been a decent team expected to do anything at all for the past 2 world cups. In 2002 the US team hardly embarassed themselves and came extremely close to going to the quarterfinals match (especially considering the hand ball, but thats the way the cookie crumbles). In 2006, you are right. They were flat out embarassing and did not represent this region well with that passive style of play.
Congratulations to the US team! But is going to put a * in this championship only because the canada goal that was legal, nobody knows what would it be, if that game go to overtime. So, the Copa America begins. GO MEXICO
Because none of Wynalda's goals were ever on penalties that other members of the team earned, right? Your hate for Donovan is starting to get out of control. If we can find a solid striker in the next 3 years, I really believe this team will be very dangerous in South Africa. The central midfield is young and only going to get better with Feilhaber, Clark and Bradley. Donovan looks to have finally found his niche on the right wing, a place where he can't be marked out of the game by a destroyer (ie 2006 World Cup). With Beasley, Convey and Mapp left wing is a strength. The defense is young and deep as well, with the exception of LB. Goalkeeping is still a strength with Howard. If Altidore, or another kid, can mature in the next few years, we could make another QF run.
I can tell you that his last 4 scores weren't Penalty Kicks. It only seems that Landon was getting freebies and I could hear Bradley saying "Let Landon shoot it... he needs to pass Wynalda". I'd love to see what Eric says about that. You can't say "maybe in the next three years we'll be dangerous"... Mexico doesn't think like that but is always coming out with at least one win and advancing...
Come on. If you know anything about playing the game at any level beyond YMCA, you never screw with you pk taker. If he doesn't miss, you don't change it. It's not his fault that his team earned 4 pk's. What's he supposed to do...refuse to take them because the record is more important than winning the game/tournament? I'm sure Eric Wynalda has no problem with his record going down in this fashion. LD is only 25. It was going to happen one way or another. This team is dangerous now. Bradley has instilled a much more aggressive mindset than they've ever had. This team is going to make serious noise over the next few years, including winning CONCACAF and going through in 2010. Any one remember US Soccer's Project 2010? While they won't win it, they will be in the knockout rounds. I can only hope we get to send Mexico home crying again.
They did make the QF's in 2002. Torsten Fringe's left hand and Hugh Dallas kept us from tying that game and possibly going to the semifinals to play Korea. If you ever see Hugh Dallas (ref), do me a favor and kick him in the nuts......Please Swoly and I are making the same points, but of course we have different visions of what they mean. I think he's trying to say that although we can do well in Concacaf, when it comes to the WC we don't cut it. So far with the exception of 2002 he is correct. But I think he believes this about as far as the US is ever going to get internationaly. I don't. In fact my opinion is exactly opposite. I believe that, in my heart of hearts, that one day, hopefully before I'm dead, that the US is going to be lifting that WC trophy. It's the same feeling I had in early 1995 with the Rockets repeating. I just knew it. Technically we have advanced farther than we thought 17 years ago when the USF finally put their money where their mouths where. They started from the bottom with college kids who had no experience playing at that class or even together as a cohesive unit. And part of that product is that we are dominating Concacaf. But now the USF has to put even greater energy in turning this formula into worldwide dominance. And it can be done for two reasons. We have a large population of kids who grow up on sports, more than any other country. I can't think of any other country with such youth potential. Just because we have so many sports to chose from doesn't mean a thing. Who's to say we can't produce world class strikers like we've done with goalkeeprs? But more importantly we have the orginization, the resources and the money to make it happen. You know Brasil soccer federation didn't start until 1914. It took them 44 years to win it all. And they had come close before that. It's funny that the year they did win the WC, they brought in a psychiatrist to help the team with their mental problems. That will be the last hurdle for the US. Do they have the mental toughness. Can they keep it together when they go down a goal or two. If anything good came out of the Gold Cup final, it's that they came back after giving up the first goal. Check their record when the opposition scores first. It's as bad as their WC record. Even Borghetti said before the match that if Mexico score first that that would change the whole face of the game and that they would win. But it didn't happen, they came back and could have won by 2 goals if Ching had placed that ball a foot to the left. I find it hard to believe that Mexico and their fans despise the US because of their lackluster performance in the group stages of the WC. In fact I would think they would take great pleasure in the US being whipped by other teams. But just like we were minnows in Concacaf 17 years ago, things will change for the better in the WC. It's time though for us to stop being content with being the big fish in the small pond. We have to get even tougher and show the rest of the world. There are bigger fish to fry.
Actually, that's not what I meant, but I understand the difficulty; I wasn't explicit, and the ESL thing surely can't help. What I meant was this: it seems unlikely that Mexican fans hate the U.S. team because the U.S. team fails to represent adequately the continent of North America in the World Cup, that being a tournament occurring every four years held ostensibly to determine the best national soccer team on the planet. It seems much more likely that Mexican fans hate the U.S. team because they, by and large, think the U.S. team is not as good as the Mexican team, and those Mexican fans can't figure out why the Mexican team loses to the U.S. team with such clockwork regularity. I hope that clears up any misunderstanding.
doh ... i said quarterfinal because that was the Germany game and meant semifinals. Guess I shouldn't type so fast Over the history of the US, we have not cut it in the WC, but were never expected to do anything prior to 2002. In cups where we've fielded a competitive team, we have 1 good showing and 1 poor showing. Hardly enough for Mexico to show no respect to the US.
You know, it's fairly similar to what I deal with in many of the teams I play against in outdoor and indoor. There are some all-Mexican teams who see that they're playing a bunch of gringos and they get this air of confidence about them. We proceed to kick the living s*** out of them because we are a very good team where they have a few individuals who think they can dribble everyone only to get punked in the end. Then, predictably, they start fouling as the goals against start to mount. In other words, there is simply no respect from south of the border for the leaps and bounds US Soccer has made in the sport. Mexicans believe it's some birthright and just cannot live with the fact that we are right there with them now. It shows in the national team games. Yes, the US still has to become more of a consistent power outside of CONCACAF and outside of the US. That doesn't mean that we don't deserve respect from the fellow nations in CONCACAF seeing as though we've been owning them for the better part of 2 decades now.
Freakin' leroy420... you're stereotyping the sh*t out of us, man... we're not all like that, mo' fo'.
