A lot's been made of that last goal the U.S. scored against Mexico. With the U.S. ahead 1-0, Ricardo Clark slipped a perfect ball into Landon Donovan's path and Donovan used his speed and skill to blow by Carlos Salcido, evade Oswaldo Sanchez and score his third-ever goal against Mexico.
Now, no part of that sequence was luck. Clark's pass to Donavon was not luck. Donovan's move on Salcido in the middle of the field was not luck. Donovan's move on Sanchez was not luck.
The ball landed at Clark's feet with some luck - good luck for the Americans, bad luck for Mexico - but the rest of that play was skill, speed and timely finishing.
It's funny how some people are claiming that as a lucky goal.
4 comments:
glad I'm not crazy then. The pass, speed with which Landon recognized the situation he was in, and the breakaway and finish are each a piece that had to be done correctly. It was clinical.
Ricardo Clark is so overlooked for his great heads-up play. The onetimer to Donovan showed he realized the opportunity even before Donovan did, or perhaps he just acted instinctively. Either way, what's amazing is the amount of media and press reports that don't even mention Clark, that act like the ball bounced from the ref directly to Donovan.
Also, it cracked me up when I read a mediotiempo article that said Oswaldo Sanchez had kicked at Bobby Convey - when it was Eddie Johnson. How does anyone confuse the two?
My 10-yr old observed, even as Donovan was dribbling into the penalty area how Donovan made O. Sanchez's dilemma more acute by signalling to EJ, who was making a run to the far post. Clark's lovely one-touch pass, Donovan's superb run, EJ's support + Donovan's signal, and the final nail in rounding the 'keeper up -- it was a delight to watch that goal.
Full credit to the Mexican team, though, for coming out with a very attack-oriented mindset -- if we watch games, say, in La Liga, where there's some prestige at stake, the visitors get extremely conservative, while the home team presses on with attacking soccer. Surprisingly, both coaches of the US-Mexico game did the exact opposite. It was interesting to see that the Mexican players, coach (and the press?) chose to view Bradley's tactical strategy as a sign of technical inferiority.
Personally, though, I was a bit disappointed that we played with two defensive-minded central midfielders, rather than start with Mapp in the hole (and LD and EJ as speedy forwards). However, as they say in American football -- offense entertains, defense wins.
I'm glad your 10-year old noticed that signal from Donovan for what it was - it was heads-up play to keep the keeper guessing. It's amazing the number of people (Mexican press) who are saying Donovan was taunting the Mexican defenders with that gesture. Unbelievable.
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