Reason number 5,000,000 why I hate Mexican soccer. Oswaldo Sanchez attempted a sliding tackle on Johnson after Donovan scored. Dirty and classless doesn't even begin to explain it.
2-0 GOoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooal! GOooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooal! AMERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICAA!
What do you the Mexicans are refusing to shake hands after getting their asses handed to them yet again.
WOW, Mexico is one sore loser. Seriously. Late pointless tackles. THat last one might bring some kind of punishment from FIFA. Oh, and Mex doesn't want to shake their daddy's hands! ROFL USA! USA! USA!
Come explain this crap, Swoly. Another classless performance by Mexico. Great win for the USA. Great win for Bob Bradley.
2-0. Dos a cero. They should really just print the score in the paper ahead of time. It'd save time, I bet.
I continue to man-crush on Jimmy Conrad. I'm just about sold on Bornstein. You wouldn't necessarily have him over Pearce, Dunivant or Boca if the World Cup was right now, but you could really see the potential. I want to see how Landon plays up front with Kenny Cooper. Two things Mexico was clearly better at, to me - accuracy on long balls and play in tight spaces. The latter is particularly interesting to me because it didn't look like their first touches were any better, on average, than the US's. Might be a speed-of-thought thing, I don't know.
I agree. I'd also like to see us push Dempsey into central midfield, I think playing him out wide takes away some of his strengths. I just think Mastroeni and Clark are too defensive to play together.
U.S. continues to dominate Mexico on home soil GLENDALE, Ariz. -- Jimmy Conrad scored his first international goal and Landon Donovan converted a late breakaway, leading the United States to a 2-0 exhibition victory over Mexico on Wednesday night that kept up the Americans' dominance of their regional rival. Conrad headed home a corner kick by Donovan in the 52nd minute, beating goalkeeper Oswaldo Sanchez inside the left post. It was the first international goal for Conrad, playing in his 19th game for the Americans, and the 24th career assist for Donovan, the U.S. career leader. Donovan added the clincher in the 90th minute off a pass by Ricardo Clark. It was the 27th goal in 86 international appearances for Donovan, who scored in his second straight game after going scoreless in 18 consecutive national team appearances over 1½ years. Playing in front of a heavily pro-Mexican sellout crowd of 64,462, the Americans improved to 8-2-1 against Mexico since 2000. The United States is 7-0-1 against Mexico on home soil in that stretch, outscoring its southern neighbor 13-0. ''I think we showed what we're made of,'' said Conrad, who played an outstanding two-way game. But Mexico didn't go quietly in the first game under coach Hugo Sanchez. The Mexicans had nine shots, seven in the second half, and pressured the Americans relentlessly after Conrad's goal. But Tim Howard, bidding to take over from Kasey Keller as the top American goalkeeper, shut out the Mexicans in his first national team appearance since last May. http://soccernet.espn.go.com/report?id=213283&cc=5901
My Grades... Howard - B+ Wasn't really challenged. Was shakey early but got the shutout. Bornstein - A Speed kills and the Mexican players couldn't get by him. He was very solid in the back. Still needs expierence and needs some work on his passing Conrad - A+ Player of the game, period. Even w/o the goal, he played a fantastic game Bocanegra - C Was solid, but made some mistakes that almost cost them. Stupid yellow card. Albright - C He's still learning the position and was better than against Denmark. Still has trouble with positioning and knowing when to attack the ball. Dempsey - C Pretty much a non-factor. I'm guessing he's a bit tired and he played like it. Masteroni - B Played well and gave the young team some expierence. Did well to slow the play. Passing was not great, as usual. He's not really one that should be holding the ball in the midfield Clark - D Looked lost all night. Was constantly out of position and did nothing to help bring the ball out of the back Convey - C Looked good at times. Looked completely lost in others. He needs to do better to make quicker decisions. Rust was showing. Should have finished the 1 on 1. Donovan - B+ Great finish on the breakaway. Bad first half. Was too tentative. He turned it up in the 2nd half and started to attack and demand the ball. Rolfe - F Absolutely terrible. Had no clue what he was doing. Played scared. I'd be suprised to see him back in camp any time soon. Johnson - D Didn't really get a chance to do anything. Whatever he had when he first came in is gone. Gros - INC Kind of had the deer-in-the-headlights look Carroll - INC Well, he did get a yellow card.
With you there, but who do you like on the right wing then? Mapp with license to cut inside? We all saw what happened with Beasley on the right in the World Cup...
I actually thought Clark had a very nice second half. Then again Bruce Arena agreed with me which means I'm probably wrong.
