Bedoya out of US-Mexico clash

Yeah, Mexico actually won the Confederations Cup in 1999 and they beat the United States to do it.

But for the U.S., the game takes on additional meaning – because the USA Men’s National Team has struggled badly this year, putting pressure on Manager Jurgen Klinsmann to get a win over Mexico on Saturday.

“Around the world, if a player plays poorly and a player has a bad string of results, they get dropped from the team”, Donovan told ESPN.

Fox is using the same production team that covered the Federation Internationale de Football Association Women’s World Cup final this past summer. While the German’s leadership and vision for the USA squad has been questioned repeatedly since he took over in 2011, former US star Landon Donovan ramped up the rhetoric this week, calling for Klinsmann’s job should the US lose, according to ESPN.

When Bradley finally did make his Instagram account public for real, he posted a fitting first photo as the US readies to play Mexico on Saturday in its biggest match since being bounced by Belgium in round-of-16 at the 2014 World Cup. You’ll see that, most probably, in the fiery competitiveness of the 22 players on the field.

The game will be televised in the U.S.by Univision/UDN in Spanish and Fox Sports 1 in English. A loss this weekend likely won’t end his tenure but it could force a drastic change in philosophy and personnel ahead of World Cup qualifying. “In a few ways – based on just pure quality and skill and attacking threat – it’s one of the best Mexican teams I can remember”.

Not many holdovers are left from that day’s squad – Dempsey, Tim Howard, Michael Bradley, Jermaine Jones and Alejandro Bedoya are the only ones who played then and could play Saturday – but the experience of the US-Mexico rivalry is something each player discovers on his own terms, in due time. Mexico not only dethroned the U.S.as Gold Cup champion last summer, but it hasn’t lost to the U.S.in the Rose Bowl since 1994.

The gloves came off in September when a Mexican TV station turned USA presidential candidate Donald Trump’s controversial views on immigration into a scathing ad, ending the spot with Trump declaring “the American dream is dead” while the Mexican national team hoisted its gleaming Gold Cup trophy in a shower of confetti. It will need all three in Saturday evening’s game, or Klinsmann will wake up Sunday having to dodge calls for his firing. “Playing pickup with your friends, we were always talking trash in high school. I certainly hope I get the chance to do so because this is one of those games that you’ll never forget”. “But they’re going to have a couple players [ready to step in]”. There are all the elements of the rivalry, and also the desire to help the U.S.re-establish itself as the top power in the region. It’s not that American fans expect to waltz through CONCACAF, but far weaker United States sides have managed to navigate the Gold Cup successfully. But because Mexico won, this play-in game exists. He claimed the decisions were merely technical, but it was widely accepted that Dos Santos, his brother Jonathan and goalkeeper Guillermo “Memo” Ochoa were omitted for showing support for Herrera.

The sliver of red-white-and-blue-clad fans stood no chance as the iconic American stadium suddenly turned into hostile territory for the US men’s national team fighting its rival for regional supremacy.