U.S. Loses Gold Cup Final to Mexico in Men's Soccer 4-2

[Phil C]

The USA started good and scored two goals early but Mexico came right back and then tied it up by half time and then scored two more the second half to take it. The US was completely outplayed most of the game. Also the shame of it was that the game was in Los Angeles and there were more Mexican fans than USA. What is discouraging is that we can't even win the Gold Cup so what can we expect in the World Cup because even though Mexico is a good team they are not the power that European and South American teams are.
The US Soccer fans won't like it. :(

[Roughneck93]

They definatly had my hopes up with those two early goals. It will be tough for the U.S. come World Cup time. Don't know if they will ever compete with the big boys.

[icu812]

Who wins a soccer game is insignificant. However, the fact that the US team was booed throughout the game, in the US, isnt.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-0626-plaschke-gold-cup-20110626,0,7072114.column

[Phil C]

They definatly had my hopes up with those two early goals. It will be tough for the U.S. come World Cup time. Don't know if they will ever compete with the big boys.

Also recently Roughneck93 the Boys' US U 17 team played New Zealand to a tie but what was a disgrace (I thought) is the two teams just hit the ball back and forth and settled for the tie since with a tie they both advanced. Maybe it was good strategy but hardly in the intended spirit of the game. Just when we were about to make 66 and others soccer fans these things had to happen!

:(

[Phil C]

The Boys U17 game was a ripoff because both teams just passed the ball back and forth and settled for the tie in the last 15 minutes. The fans were upset and were booing and then left for the exits. A real shame.

[Roughneck93]

Who wins a soccer game is insignificant. However, the fact that the US team was booed throughout the game, in the US, isnt. http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-0626-plaschke-gold-cup-20110626,0,7072114.columnJust goes to show you how much soccer is liked here in the States. If they ever want to be relevant, they should at least win on their home soil.

[Roughneck93]

The Boys U17 game was a ripoff because both teams just passed the ball back and forth and settled for the tie in the last 15 minutes. The fans were upset and were booing and then left for the exits. A real shame.That's not good at all. Didn't know that.

[AP Panther Fan]

[QUOTE=Phil C;1590420]Also the shame of it was that the game was in Los Angeles and there were more Mexican fans than USA./QUOTE]

Geographically speaking, I guess that might make sense.....


(I guess you can't just quote part of someone's post anymore)

[ShortDog68]

If you have not played soccer your comments hold no merit. The game requires lots of cardiovascular endurance, it is very physical ( no pads with full contact) and their are various strategies to utilize.

[trojandad]

If you have not played soccer your comments hold no merit. The game requires lots of cardiovascular endurance, it is very physical ( no pads with full contact) and their are various strategies to utilize.

well, i guess weve been told.....i had no idea it required endurance, i thought they just used golf carts and horses.....ill find my dunce hat and get back in the corner......:stirpot:

[Txbroadcaster]

well, i guess weve been told.....i had no idea it required endurance, i thought they just used golf carts and horses.....ill find my dunce hat and get back in the corner......:stirpot:


LOL i love soccer, but your golf cart comment gave me a funny visual...how would they take dives in the cart? tump it over themself?

[trojandad]

LOL i love soccer, but your golf cart comment gave me a funny visual...how would they take dives in the cart? tump it over themself?

i dont know, i never played so my comments on the matter would hold no merit......

<never was a mom either, sure glad the judge didnt hold that against me when i got custody of my boys>.....

ok, ill quit.....my bad......

[icu812]

Just goes to show you how much soccer is liked here in the States. If they ever want to be relevant, they should at least win on their home soil.

The stadium was full of Americans. If your an American don't you cheer for the US TEAM, relevant or not, win or lose?

[Txbroadcaster]

The stadium was full of Americans. If your an American don't you cheer for the US TEAM, relevant or not, win or lose?

I dont have a problem with Americans who have heritage from other countries( especially if in last couple of generations) rooting for those team

It is spotlighted because it is Mexico and all the immigration issues..but when Ireland, Italy or Scotland play on the east coast there are a ton of "Americans" rooting for those countries, because they grew up ina family that rooted for them.

As intense as the rivalry is..almost every Mexican soccer fan I know consider the UStheir 2nd fav team and do root for them when not playing Mexico

[Roughneck93]

The stadium was full of Americans. If your an American don't you cheer for the US TEAM, relevant or not, win or lose?Oh I agree. Win or lose, if that stadium was filled with US fans, they should been cheering on our boys. But a win are your home turf would have hushed those boos down.

[Old Tiger]

US doesn't have elite strikers.

[Txbroadcaster]

and their back line is old and slow...This is a problem I have with Bradely..the Gold Cup is a small thing..why not let your young guys get some time, especially on the backline..instead he uses the old guys who will not even be a factor in the next world cup cycle

[icu812]

Oh I agree. Win or lose, if that stadium was filled with US fans, they should been cheering on our boys. But a win are your home turf would have hushed those boos down.

Just my opinion but if they would have won they would have booed even louder. Point is the stadium was full of Americans who were not US fans. So much so they booed THEIR county's national team. They have that right but its just wrong. Nothing wrong with supporting a team from the country of your heritage, but not above your own country's team. If I didn't know better I would have thought the game was played in Mexico City. Even the metal ceremony was mostly done in Spanish. Not sure how that promotes the game of soccer in the US.

[Phil C]

I dont have a problem with Americans who have heritage from other countries( especially if in last couple of generations) rooting for those team

It is spotlighted because it is Mexico and all the immigration issues..but when Ireland, Italy or Scotland play on the east coast there are a ton of "Americans" rooting for those countries, because they grew up ina family that rooted for them.

As intense as the rivalry is..almost every Mexican soccer fan I know consider the UStheir 2nd fav team and do root for them when not playing Mexico

DON'T SHOW SO MUCH COMPASSION!!

:flaming:

[Roughneck93]

Just my opinion but if they would have won they would have booed even louder. Point is the stadium was full of Americans who were not US fans. So much so they booed THEIR county's national team. They have that right but its just wrong. Nothing wrong with supporting a team from the country of your heritage, but not above your own country's team. If I didn't know better I would have thought the game was played in Mexico City. Even the metal ceremony was mostly done in Spanish. Not sure how that promotes the game of soccer in the US. Ahh, I gotcha. I just don't know what one can do about that.

[icu812]

Ahh, I gotcha. I just don't know what one can do about that.

I hear Boston is nice this time of year.

[sahen]

I hear Boston is nice this time of year.

this is actually some of the problem with the support for the US...they need to start playing their some of their world cup qualifiers and friendlies somewhere other than the North East with the exception of Mexico...there are several reasons why Mexico is supported as well as it is but one of the reasons is if you live in Texas you normally have 2 chances a year to go see El Tri play while if your a USA fan you have 1 shot every 3 or 4 years to see them play...it is similar in California...when your a young kid and your dad and mom bleed green and red for Mexico and take you to see El Tri every chance they get and your USA team is never around you naturally feel like Mexico is your "home team"...honestly, our culture and massive selection of sports is the main problem with our soccer support...we don't have the best teams here so we dont care about it on a pro/national team level...but the other main problem is the National team has to have some of the worst PR people in the world working for them, its like they are like the EuroSoccer Snobs that just believe the fans will flock to their game because it is awesome...they need to do more promoting in the south and get these younger kids that are used to watching El Tri exposed to the US National team as well...your not going to change the allegiance of Mom and Dad Mexico fan any more than you would change our allegiance if we lived in Mexico, but the kids growing up you can impact...that is who the National Team needs to cater towards....that and they need to win (obvious)

[Txbroadcaster]

They have that right but its just wrong. Nothing wrong with supporting a team from the country of your heritage, but not above your own country's team. .


If I moved to Mexico and the US played down there I would be 100% behind US..just because I would now live in Mexico would not mean I would throw away my past allegiance..just like If I moved tp Philly I would still be 100% a Cowboy fan

[Txbroadcaster]

this is actually some of the problem with the support for the US...they need to start playing their some of their world cup qualifiers and friendlies somewhere other than the North East with the exception of Mexico...there are several reasons why Mexico is supported as well as it is but one of the reasons is if you live in Texas you normally have 2 chances a year to go see El Tri play while if your a USA fan you have 1 shot every 3 or 4 years to see them play...it is similar in California...when your a young kid and your dad and mom bleed green and red for Mexico and take you to see El Tri every chance they get and your USA team is never around you naturally feel like Mexico is your "home team"...honestly, our culture and massive selection of sports is the main problem with our soccer support...we don't have the best teams here so we dont care about it on a pro/national team level...but the other main problem is the National team has to have some of the worst PR people in the world working for them, its like they are like the EuroSoccer Snobs that just believe the fans will flock to their game because it is awesome...they need to do more promoting in the south and get these younger kids that are used to watching El Tri exposed to the US National team as well...your not going to change the allegiance of Mom and Dad Mexico fan any more than you would change our allegiance if we lived in Mexico, but the kids growing up you can impact...that is who the National Team needs to cater towards....that and they need to win (obvious)


The 2010 WC qualifying was spread out better than in the past, but I agree they need to spread it out even more... ..as far as the award ceremony that was not the US Soccer Fed but it was concacaf

[big daddy russ]

Although I didn't get to watch this game, I've seen every other friendly and cup game the US has played this year. I consume every international game I can get my hands on.

Make no mistake, this US squad is playing the worst ball of any team the past decade. And this has been a recent development.

The biggest problem I've seen is an inability to control the ball. Forget the strikers, forget the back line, nobody wants to move the ball. This puts them on the defensive most of the game and they've had largely poor shot selection for a team with a ton of athleticism sitting on the bench.

Nobody's on the same page, passing the ball back has become a lost form on this squad, and they generally spend 90 minutes playing catch up and being completely gassed at the end of it.

For the first time in a long time, we're not losing simply because of lack of talent, we're losing because of coaching. Athletically, we've outmanned every team this Gold Cup. Still, we beat a severely outmanned Guadeloupe squad by 1 goal. That score should've been 4-0...which, by the way, was the score of the game against Spain. As badly as Spain dominated us, that score should've been 7-0.

We hung in with Chile (short teams), Argentina, and Paraguay earlier this year. How in God's name did we lose to Mexico?

[Txbroadcaster]

Although I didn't get to watch this game, I've seen every other friendly and cup game the US has played this year. I consume every international game I can get my hands on.

Make no mistake, this US squad is playing the worst ball of any team the past decade. And this has been a recent development.

The biggest problem I've seen is an inability to control the ball. Forget the strikers, forget the back line, nobody wants to move the ball. This puts them on the defensive most of the game and they've had largely poor shot selection for a team with a ton of athleticism sitting on the bench.

Nobody's on the same page, passing the ball back has become a lost form on this squad, and they generally spend 90 minutes playing catch up and being completely gassed at the end of it.

For the first time in a long time, we're not losing simply because of lack of talent, we're losing because of coaching. Athletically, we've outmanned every team this Gold Cup. Still, we beat a severely outmanned Guadeloupe squad by 1 goal. That score should've been 4-0...which, by the way, was the score of the game against Spain. As badly as Spain dominated us, that score should've been 7-0.

We hung in with Chile (short teams), Argentina, and Paraguay earlier this year. How in God's name did we lose to Mexico?

I disagree about the athletic part..US is not very athletic..Mexico is not only VERY athletic, but very young..their forwards might be the best young talent on the international scene

Yes we hung with Argentina, but we did it by packing in the defense and basically playing a 6-4-0 formation.

I do agree about the passing, but IMO as you said it is the coaching..when your so afraid of your back line and pack everything in the back it makes it hard for the lanes to open up on counter attacks and there is never enough men forward to sustain possesion..we have become a long ball team that cant triangulate on the field

[eagles_victory]

I think the lack of an elite striker is one thing that really holds this team back. Sure the backline is horrible but I think a lot of that is the coaching and who Bradley played in those positions. Freddie Adu was decent on the ball but what kills him is he does nothing off the ball. He still hasnt grasped the concept of doing the little things right that make for a great player.

I read nothing into the Spain freindly we didnt play many of our better players. I read a lot however into what we did against the lesser teams in the Gold Cup. The loss to Panama was embarassing as was the struggles with some of the others. I think it is time for Bradley to go coaches never do as well in the second world cup cycle and many could argue Bradley didnt do a great job the first time. What scares me is Dempsey and Donovan are getting up there in soccer age and I dont see a lot of great potential coming up behind them in the midfield.

[big daddy russ]

I disagree about the athletic part..US is not very athletic..Mexico is not only VERY athletic, but very young..their forwards might be the best young talent on the international scene

Yes we hung with Argentina, but we did it by packing in the defense and basically playing a 6-4-0 formation.

I do agree about the passing, but IMO as you said it is the coaching..when your so afraid of your back line and pack everything in the back it makes it hard for the lanes to open up on counter attacks and there is never enough men forward to sustain possesion..we have become a long ball team that cant triangulate on the field

I didn't get to see this game, but from what I've seen of each team recently, Mexico's faster than we are. Especially on their front line against our defenders. But I wouldn't call them as athletic as we are. Our ball handlers are much more sure-footed and we have a distinct advantage in dexterity.

As far as the passing, how often do we get it back to the keeper? Are we that scared of the ball being in Tim Howard's hands? Our team "compacts" itself out of instinct and fear. That falls on Bradley. The Gold Division team I played on in HS only utilized one forward (we played a 4-5-1), and we did just fine as long as our left and right midfielders had a mentality to attack as soon as the green light went on. The US's midfielders aren't attacking, our forwards spend more time playing defense than offense, and our defenders look slow--both slow-footed and slow to react, and we're not using the length of the field to our advantage. To use football terms, we're playing east to west instead of a north-south game (and in this case, going south is a good...scratch that...GREAT thing).

We're playing like four-year-olds, just bunching up around the ball and following it around. We're not playing the angles, not resetting, and not being very smart with our possessions. We need to reset, slow down, space out, and let the attack breathe.

[big daddy russ]

I think the lack of an elite striker is one thing that really holds this team back. Sure the backline is horrible but I think a lot of that is the coaching and who Bradley played in those positions. Freddie Adu was decent on the ball but what kills him is he does nothing off the ball. He still hasnt grasped the concept of doing the little things right that make for a great player.

I read nothing into the Spain freindly we didnt play many of our better players. I read a lot however into what we did against the lesser teams in the Gold Cup. The loss to Panama was embarassing as was the struggles with some of the others. I think it is time for Bradley to go coaches never do as well in the second world cup cycle and many could argue Bradley didnt do a great job the first time. What scares me is Dempsey and Donovan are getting up there in soccer age and I dont see a lot of great potential coming up behind them in the midfield.
We could definitely use a shot in the arm on offense. But on that note, some German teams of the past didn't have any speed on the frontline, but used ball movement and precision in order to employ their strikers appropriately. I see some talent in our midfield that could be moved to the front of the attack if necessary, but like you I wonder if the instinct is there. We don't have any real killers on this team.

Panama isn't a bad team, but you're right, we should've been able to handle them.

[eagles_victory]

Soccer is getting bigger and bigger in America rather people want to admit it or not. I think this can only do good things for the future of U.S. socer.

[roughneck_2008]

i agree on the ball control, if u watch Spain play they are some of the best passing teams in the world if not the best. they move the ball so well, especially when near the penalty box that opportunity come open and they are able to get decent shots (helps that they have good strikers as well)

[Txbroadcaster]

I didn't get to see this game, but from what I've seen of each team recently, Mexico's faster than we are. Especially on their front line against our defenders. But I wouldn't call them as athletic as we are. Our ball handlers are much more sure-footed and we have a distinct advantage in dexterity.

.


u really need to watch Mexico..they are young, athletic and play the ball really well...as long as injury does not hit them and players continue to develop I think they will be a force in 2014..they were more athletic at every position...yes Dempsey, and Donovan are good soccer players, but I would not call either of them athletic.

[eagles_victory]

u really need to watch Mexico..they are young, athletic and play the ball really well...as long as injury does not hit them and players continue to develop I think they will be a force in 2014..they were more athletic at every position...yes Dempsey, and Donovan are good soccer players, but I would not call either of them athletic.Ill tell Clint you said that.

[big daddy russ]

u really need to watch Mexico..they are young, athletic and play the ball really well...as long as injury does not hit them and players continue to develop I think they will be a force in 2014..they were more athletic at every position...yes Dempsey, and Donovan are good soccer players, but I would not call either of them athletic.

I've seen a few of their games throughout the year. Got to see the Honduras match in the Gold Cup---#14 (don't know his name--babyfaced forward) impressed the hell out of me.

I'd agree somewhat on Dempsey, but I think Donovan's incredibly athletic. More so than most of the American commentators give him credit for. I guess when I look at athleticism, I think of body control more than anything. Not only is Donovan incredibly fast, but he plays under control at full speed. This helps incredibly with his pacing. Dempsey doesn't quite have the footwork of Donovan at full speed (and a lot of that can be attributed to his length), but I'd even rate Dempsey as above average athleticism and a great finisher. He's also a better ball striker than Donovan, so the two make a good pair. Usually.

This whole team's just looked out of whack since that Spain game. They're playing incredibly poor.

[eagles_victory]

Im a Man U fan so I love Chicharito the guy just has in an incredible feel for the game. If two of the best ever werent in their prime right now and in Messis case still very young he might have a chance to get the FIFA player of the year.

[duckhunter]

a few things that are facts

1. Chicharito is on the rise to becoming top 3 in the world in regards to a striker. When its all said and done he will be a futbol legend.
2. Mexico as a team will be a force to reckon with at the next world cup . They are so young and talented and getting better every game.
3. USA missed Stuart Holden bad in this Gold Cup. He is becoming a world class player after transferring to Bolton. Hopefully he can come back from his injury and still continue to develop his game. His play in the midfield is beautiful to watch.
4. Juan Agudelo is looking like he has potential to become the striker that America has desperatly needed. Hopefully he does cause we are desperate for a striker.
5. After this most recent World Cup I thought it was smart to keep Bradley around. Now i'm questioning this. His roster moves and starting XI were questionable to me. Especially leaving Brad Davis off the roster who is playing amazing football right now.
6. Their needs to be a lot of pieces fall together in order to get this American team back to competing at a world class level. We shall see....