Mexico wins 3-2 late in extra time

The USA competed on equal footing from start to finish in cauldron of pressure without losing either its cool, energy to run or will to fight until the final whistle.

U.S. Coach Jurgen Klinsmann is typically unpredictable with lineup decisions, but on this night, he didn’t cause any alarm.

Bradley came close on a couple of occasions.

FC’s Taylor Twellman shares his insights after the USMNT’s 3-2 defeat by Mexico in the Confederations Cup playoff. In the 10th minute, a well executed dummy from Raul Jiminez fooled the U.S. defense and gave Oribe Peralta and Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez a 2-on-1 against Matt Besler.

They also both praised the winning goal by Aguilar.

“It’s a result that was earned”, Mexico interim coach Ricardo Perretti said.

“We had a phenomenal game”.

The home team created a few chances of their own and the sellout crowd was treated to plenty of end-to end action before the match went into extra time and Mexico sealed the win. Klinsmann’s solution was to push Dempsey and Bradley higher up the field and further away from their natural positions. Unlike the late spot kicks that saved Mexico’s progress in the Gold Cup, however, the referee on Saturday wasn’t interested, and the game went into extra time.

Aguilar got the nod in that regard.

Skipper Michael Bradley was the architect, his pinpoint inswinging free-kick from wide on the left picking out unmarked Stoke City defender Geoff Cameron, who thumped his header past Munoz.

And how dramatic extra time proved to be, with two wonderfully opportunistic finishes from both sides looking to send us into a penalty shootout, only for Aguilar to meet a spinning, dropping ball with the sweetest of volleys across Brad Guzan to win the game.

But the sight of the U.S. U-23 team failing to lock up an Olympic berth last weekend gives one pause. What kind of fan bashes the player pool, expanded as it’s been in recent years, as insufficient to compete against the same competition we’ve been dominating when the bright lights come on for more than a decade? “We put everything in it, but credit to Mexico, they scored a great goal in the end”.

All of the above suggests that Klinsmann was a flawless candidate to be this country’s technical director, one of his two jobs for U.S. Soccer. He was huge in the second half, a highlight his snuffing out an Andres Guardado threat.

Bobby Wood (7.5) – The Union Berlin forward ratified his super-sub badge by placing the flawless croquet shot for what looked to be an all-important equalizer. “I played him into space and he finished it well”. It was Klinsmann who resurrected the Real Salt Lake midfielder’s global career, but the World Cup isn’t often a place for 36-year-olds center-midfielders, which is what Beckerman will be when the festivities kick off in Russian Federation a little less than three years hence.

“A loss is always hard to swallow, there is no doubt about that, especially when there is a lot at stake”, Klinsmann said in his post-match press conference.

“We’re going to go into World Cup qualifying in November and we have to sit together and discuss things”, Klinsmann said. Maybe if Klinsmann is a better coach, the USA could have held off Mexico’s return to the top of CONCACAF.

“I think we had enough chances to score the second or third goal”.

Yet the momentum built by the USA evaporated in the second half, with Mexico s superior technicians spending long periods camped in American territory, readily taking advantage of a U.S. tendency to surrender possession cheaply.

And then Aguilar scored a goal for the ages.