34 arrested at US-Mexico soccer match in Pasadena

What should not be lost, amid all the excitement, is that this was not a particularly close soccer match.

Shortly after the goal, smoke bombs with green and red smoke, the primary colors of the Mexican team, were set off behind the goal Mexico was shooting at. They did, against a tactical version of Mexico we’ll probably never see again. The two came up nose to nose and chest bumping, and all 22 players on the field got involved in the scum.

But this game was a cracker anyway. Mexico was also victorious in that match earning a 1-0 result.

Even in a game without aesthetic perfection, ruggedness can be handsome.

It started with a free kick perhaps 35 yards from the U.S.net, with the serve cleared out of the USA box to Miguel Layun, who sent a ball toward the right side of the area. A significant American Outlaw contingent packed into one end of the stadium on Saturday night – matching a Mexican tifo claiming to still be the king, with one of their own featuring Jürgen Klinsmann as James Bond in a To Russian Federation with Love parody – and generally being a vocal presence within the stadium.

And all that is prior to the extra period. He brought on DeAndre Yedlin late in the second half, then Wood immediately after Peralta made it a 2-1 game.

Both teams slowed down late in the warm conditions, and Mexico steadily controlled possession. “On any given day Clint Dempsey or Jozy Altidore can do something like that”.

As for substitutions and lineup, there is a lot to be desired. (If not for an illness to Alejandro Bedoya, it probably would have been 10 of 10.) The team was old, too: Six of the starting 11 were over 30, and another three will be by the 2018 World Cup. No alternative has been found to improve upon the group’s limitations, and a rapidly aging core is greating ever greater limitations each day. “It’s bad and we’re not happy, but we have to put our hands up and keep going”.

I agree with Bradley’s assessment. Mexico won’t have Giovani Dos Santos due to injury, but Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez and Carlos Vela will cause enough headaches in attack.

“It appeared to be a wide open gaming so that the incredibly, notably end”. A one-striker formation with a double-pivot would’ve been a much more appropriate response. “Everybody can express his opinion and not everybody likes you”.

The CONCACAF Cup did not go the way that Gyasi Zardes and the rest of the U.S. National Team wanted, but the upbeat LA Galaxy forward believes better days are ahead for him and the USA squad.

At that point, it seemed like America had a legit shot.

To be fair, Tuca Ferreti was a worthy advesary. This being U.S.-Mexico, the pair became entangled on the ground, Guzan taking offense to something Peralta said or did and charged the El Tri forward touching off an NHL-style scrum on the endline.

That’s fine. He’s not any more or less successful than the last two USMNT coaches and he’s done a solid job with his duties outside of being the senior head coach. U.S. Soccer still seems committed to Klinsmann and given the amount of resources and relative success that he has had that is understandable. He is ultimately responsible for the performance of the national team program and his teams have fallen short on major occasions over the past few months.

“When you are then on a losing side, it hurts, that’s normal”, he continued continued. That means in order to get to Brazil next summer, they’ll have to beat Canada for third place and then, much more dauntingly, beat Colombia in a playoff.

But in terms of man management, of in-game play, Klinsmann has not been the man to implement it. Many of his big wins have come by last-minute heroics more than 90-minute control.