Wednesday, February 6, 2008

U.S. Mexico running blog

Anthems. The Mexican fans in the stadium sing along. Now it's the U.S. - I hear a few fiesty voices singing.

--------Altidore-----Dempsey-----------
Convey---------------------------Donovan
------------Bradley----Clark-----------------

Corrales------------------------------Moor
----------Bocanegra---Onyewu------------
-----------------Howard-------------------
BENCH- Guzan, Parkhurst, Edu, Feilhaber, Lewis, Adu, Noonan

Mexico
-------------Bautista----De Nigris-----------
Vela--------Pardo-----Torrado---------Arce
Castro------Marquez--Magallon----Salcido
------------------Ochoa----------------------
BENCH- Michel, Rojas, Pinto, Cacho, Dos Santos, Naelson, Villaluz

I'm happy to see Vela and Altidore start. Hope to see Gio and Freddy before this finishes.

I'm also watching Univision, so if the U.S. commentators say anything lame, I won't know it. Right now, the Spanish announcers are calling the teams "the eternal rivals". Huh, I don't think eternal counts the 50 years or so Mexico racked up tons of wins.

Kickoff.

2- Ricardo Clark from long-range. Ugh. He took too long for that shot, and the rebound fell to Mexico.

4- Bofo with a chance, or would have had he been able to reach the ball, Gooch, shoulders him off.

6- Mexico is drawing fouls, the U.S. lack rhythm.
Mexico tries to build an attack - ball is out for a goal kick.

8- Castro breaks up a good US attack taking the ball off the foot of Convey.

9- They're making fun of Landon's shoes on the freekick. Donovan then lays the ball off for Dempsey, but his shot bounces out to Vela for a counter. The defense manages to scramble back and cover.

11- The U.S. is breaking up the Mexico attack, but not generating any of its own.

13- The announcers are discussing Rafa Marquez. Apparently he's more mature and composed these days. Clint with a tricky, scrappy play. The announcers get confused and call him Convey.

14- Rico with a nice attack, but loses the ball on the cross.

15- In honor of Taylor Twelman, who strained his groin and can't play, Vela is wearing his jersey kinda tight.

16- Jozy runs over Rafa Marquez. He's such a big kid. A great threat up top. The foul negates the breakaway.

17- Long ball over the top for De Nigres. Bocanegra is defending and Tim Howard cleans him out making the grab. Ouch.

20- Ramiro Corrales fouls Bofo - FK about ten yards from the box. Chance for Mexico. Howard was pissed - the wall of Rico and Jozy didn't move for the longest time, though he was yelling at them. The crowd noise might have drowned him out.

22- Nice shot from near the top of the box - Salcido, but Howard saves. De Nigris takes a shot soon after, slips his defender and shoots, but another save by Howard.

24- Vela slips in, gets the ball right in front of goal to Bofo, who tries a cheeky backheel shot that rebounds from Bocanegra to DeNigris, who shoots, hits a defender and the ball goes over the goal. Corner for Mexico. Cleared.

25- No one in the middle of the field is holding the ball for the U.S. Mexico is running the game right now.

27- From a Donovan free throw, Dempsey (I think) takes a shot from a tough angle. Memo saves with confidence.

28 Donovan sends a pass in that Jozy strains his head, but can't quite reach. Corner for U.S. Cleared.

29- GOAL! FT taken by Gooch. He heaves it toward Jozy, but the ball bounces out to Landon, he turns and serves it high back into the box, where Gooch arrives to send a looping header into the goal off the post. Memo didn't have a chance there.

32- Vela into the box before he gets stoped and rolls around for a while. The U.S. counter fizzles.


34- GOAL! Another off a set piece. Corrales gets called for another foul outside the box. Pardo serves a good ball and Jonny Magallon beats his defender, Drew Moor, to the shot, sending it to the roof of the net.

This is like watching the primaries last night. Tit for tat. Round by round.

38- Fernando Arce with a shot after good buildup by Mexico. Howard saves well, full stretch.

40- The action is fierce. Houston is getting compensated in spades for that scoreless match years ago, even if the game remains tied. Mexico is laying seige on Howard's goal. Finally cleared for a counter.

GOAL! Convey passes to Drew Moor, who crosses the ball in and Jozy levitates, heck, he nearly clears out his own teammate, Dempsey, going for the ball. He heads it in past a helpless Memo.

2-1

41- Arce with a shot, Howard full stretch saves.

42- Dempsey! But the goal is waved off, the flag is up.

43- Corrales gives up another FK in the same spot. Howard catches, but I'd bet he's unhappy about those fouls.

45+- Jozy with a sweet turn on the right, but not much of a cross. Just before the whistle, Michael gets called for a foul - drawing yellow.

The Univision reporter is struggling - no one on the Mexican team wants to talk to him.

Halftime - Republica Deportivo's Fernando Fiore is talking about what a great game this is.

Hugo Sanchez isn't making any changes - he says his team is playing well.

2nd Half

46- Like they did in the first half, Mexico comes on on fire early, advancing the ball. Vela takes a shot from near the top of the box. It's wide, though.

47- GOAL! Another attack from Mexico leads to a corner, even as it looks like Bofa put his hand on the ball. The corner is served in and deja-vu. Moor lets Magallon through and he sidefoots it into the goal.

50- I just switched to the ESPN broadcast and the emotion and excitement of the game dropped by 88 percent.

52- Howard catches a long cross, though De Nigris tries to rattle him.

53 - Donovan in the corner, lays the ball back for Moor to cross, Altidore elevates, and it's wide.

54- Howard and De Nigris tangle up, and shove each other. Either the ref doesn't see it, or he lets it go because both players got hits in.

56- Arce with a shot gets Howard diving, but it's wide.

58- De Nigris is providing Mexico with some muscle. He just shoved Gooch, and not a lot of players do that.

60- Bradley with a poor pass, though he wasn't under pressure. Bautista takes advantage, and when Clark comes to help Bradley out, he eludes them, draws a foul. Good place for a FK.
Howard saves it well, though.

62- Vela and Bautista hook up well in the box, but the shot is deflected. Mexico corner. Cleared out.

63- Dempsey and Bradley are out, Freddy and Feilhaber are in.

65- Jozy with a bit of a chance, but the over-the-top pass is too far out and Memo catches it.

68- De Nigris out, Juan Carlos Cacho in.

70- Onyewu tries to tackle the ball away, break up Mexico possession. He gets rung up for a yellow. Convey out for Eddie Lewis. Dangerous FK for Mexico. Bautista out, Zinha in.

71- Marquez gets the free kick through the wall, but the shot is wide.

72- Gio comes on for Vela.

73- Mexico is holding the ball better than the U.S., working the ball around for their chances.

74- Feilhaber holds ball well, draws KF, leads to Landon earning a corner, Adu takes it - gets cleared.

76- Altidore gets a yellow - he's getting frustrated.

77- Mexico with a good run of possession. The U.S. is chasing almost constantly.

78- Bocanegra, last man back, barely gets to a cross to nod it to Howard.

79- Maurice Edu comes in for Rico

80- Onyewu offsides on the free kick.

82- Corrales having a tough game. Landon has also been quiet, but to be fair, he hasn't had much time on the ball on the right.

84- Lewis was offsides, took a tumble, but looks ok. Arce is down now. Feilhaber hurt his hand.

86- Donovan sends in a free kick, it gets cleared for a throw - Onyewu takes it. Lots of scrappy play in the midfield. Arce robs Landon on the wing. More Mexico possession leads to a cross floating out over the goal line.

88- Gio with a great run up the right - Corrales with a hard challenge - gets a yellow. Dangerous FK for Mexico.

90- Onyewu clears it, but Mexico keeps possession.

90+ Villaluz gets a few pity minutes from Sanchez. Watch, I say that, and then he'll score. Gio draws another foul. He's such an exciting player. Great to watch.

Speaking of great to watch. Corrales finally gets a pass up to Freddy, who beats two guys to draw a foul outside the box. Donovan serves the ball in, Magallon, the hero of the night, clears the ball for Mexico, and the final whistle blows.

2-2 A fair result. Mexico looked better much of the game, but they got very lucky that Dempsey's goal was called back.

Jonny Magallon is being interviewed on ESPN. That's cool.

21 comments:

JT Soccer said...

Looks like Univision consulted the exit polls when they posted the halftime score: Mexico 2 USA 1.

A.C. said...

Ha! I didn't even see that. Wishful thinking on their part.

JT Soccer said...

WWHD?
Does Hugo make any changes to the attack, or does he just try to find a 6'4" central defender to stop the US air attack?

Anonymous said...

Bradley needs to make some adjustments. Corrales and Moore need to come out the back 4 is being torn apart but its still in the midfield. I would like to see Adu and Edu come. What is Bradley waiting for? He kills me when he waits like this.

Anonymous said...

Ref has got to get control of this. Plus Sanchez is making his move.

Anonymous said...

Sometimes I wonder is Jozy playing the lone forward?

JT Soccer said...

Good. Cacho is in now. Need to bring in Gio for Bofo too.

Anonymous said...

Boy what luxury one has to be able to pull Cacho off the bench. And we bring in old man Lewis.Ugh

Anonymous said...

This is getting scary Dos Santos comes on. Sanchez has set this up nicely. What will Bradley do? Some many yanks pulled up lame before this one.

Anonymous said...

The US is really holding on here but at the 31st minute it will be a miracle to hold till the end. Yellow cards becoming an issue for the US as well. Bradley still makes no more substituions. Edu would be nice here and Parkhurst would be useful as well.

JT Soccer said...

Late free kick.
Hat trick for Jonny maybe?
Already more goals tonight than he's scored in three years for Chivas.

Anonymous said...

Handshakes today between the 2 nice to see finally. The US looked really expose today. Lack of offense for long stretches and the midfield allowed El Tri to control from beginning to end causing the defenders to hang on for dear mercy. Moore has to mark better on set pieces.

Is this what its like to kiss one's sister? This is as close as I want to find out.

A.C. said...

Landon had his shirt off at the end. Did anyone see who he traded with?

A.C. said...

How did you guys like the new ESPN team? They just didn't have any spark, in my opinion. Did either say anything interesting the entire night?

Anonymous said...

Sorry AC I have a habit of watching the US in Spanish, thats dispite not knowing much Spanish. From what I heard on ESPN360 they sounded ok, I like that team in that they are solid and know their stuff. But Wynalda would have said some more interesting things thats for sure. This is what happens when you play it safe, you get boring but solid commentators.

I didn't see who LD exchange jerseies with but I wonder if that would have happen if the US had won.

Anonymous said...

I think Benny F, Adu, and Edu really calmed things down out there in the 2nd half. But the defending on set pieces from Moore exposed the faults in playing MLS in that situation. Bradley should have worked out how the teams communicates with one another in lound environments when people can not hear each other.

I thought it was interesting that Donovan said in post game that he believed the young ones learned how to not mess around on the ball in games like this. But Donovan barely saw the ball and even got it striped in the second half, he did have an assist of sorts. The youngsters handles today's game well. But really wish Bradley would play Parkhurst in sometimes, the guy only has like one or two caps and that ashame.

Anonymous said...

Oh and the ESPN post game has been excellant with alot of indepth interviews, replays, and analysis. The only thing is all this post game is on ESPN360, their internet channel. Meaning many US fans want have the pleasure of seeing this post game stuff.

Andy said...

Magallon got LD's jersey. You could see the inside out 10 during his ESPN interview.

Anonymous said...

Er, why do you say "free throw" for a "throw in"?

A.C. said...

Lakers on the brain.

Anonymous said...

That Dempsey goal sunk my heart because I knew that Mexico would probably not recover from that but it was a great call by the ref, Demps was offside when the original pass was made and the replay was shown after the game. Overall a good game, leaves me feeling that maybe Mexico deserved the W but USA held on pretty well and stuck to their game plan, that's admirable.