USMNT fall 3-2 to Mexico in CONCACAF Cup

The game was perfectly poised at 2-2 when Paul Aguilar thumped a superb, controlled volley right across Brad Guzan to the far corner. It isn’t likely that the USMNT fails to qualify – they’re still the second best team in CONCACAF by a pretty good margin – and a close loss to a strong Mexico team on what equated to a neutral field does not create a crisis.

“What we didn’t do well was simply to keep the ball”, he said.

With the match tied at 1-1 as regulation time expired all the exciting action came in the 30 minutes of extra time. It’s time for a complete overhaul of the USMNT player pool.

FC’s Alejandro Moreno rates the US national team players in their match against Mexico, awarding Cameron a 7, with no one else scoring above a 5.

A brawl almost broke out in the 33rd minute, after Hernandez delivered a spectacular crossover to Peralta, who collided with Guzan just feet in front of the US goal. Tempers flared in the 34th minute when Peralta slid into Guzan, sparking an exchange of shoves and words.

If Klinsmann had done a better job since the World Cup of getting his team to play consistently well, and produce results more regularly, then maybe Saturday’s loss wouldn’t have triggered so much angst.

Mexico made two substitutions directly after the 75th-minute, and the USA made one. In the second half in particular Bradley’s attempts to set a tempo to counter the Mexican pressure were thwarted by bad giveaways from his team.

“I feel good for having accomplished what [Mexican Federation President] Decio [De Maria] and [General Secretary] Memo [Cantu] entrusted me to do along with the players, which was to obtain the pass to the Confederations Cup in Russia“. “You get to spend time in the country a year before, you play in the stadiums, you stay in the hotels, you get a feel for what the weather is like and the way things work”.

Fans of the USA team watch the CONCACAF Cup playoff soccer match against Mexico at the Rose Bowl Stadium, in Pasadena, Calif. Saturday.

Organizers announced on Monday that the game was sold out. “And there’s not much time because the World Cup qualifiers are right on us”.

American fans are still waiting for that higher level, and while they’ve been waiting, the US has actually fallen down a notch. Even though lots of players on this USMNT have played many, many matches with one another, the team looked as if they have never stepped on the pitch together before tonight.

In the past, Klinsmann has explicitly listed winning the Gold Cup and qualifying for the Confederations Cup as goals for his senior team.

“The interest and demand for an event of this magnitude requires a process that allows for an opportunity for a fair and equitable distribution of tickets”.

In April 2013, the split of the region’s berth in the Confederations Cup between two editions of the CONCACAF Gold Cup was announced, assuring both editions of the region’s national team championship in each four-year cycle have the same importance from a competitive perspective.

Klinsmann has set a lofty goal of the US reaching the semi-finals of the 2018 World Cup but that target looked a very distant proposition when the Americans were stunned 2-1 by lowly Jamaica in the Gold Cup semi-final in July.