Is Landon Donovan coming back to MLS? The chatter is definitely lively because he’s not pushing past Robson Ponte for regular starts at Bayern Leverkusen. If he does return, the destination will be about 400 miles south of Spartan Stadium. The Earthquakes made a deal the other day, sending their allocation that under the arcane MLS rules would have entitled them to Donovan’s services, meaning FC Dallas would have first shot. And Dallas supposedly has made a deal with the Galaxy that will put LD in the green and gold. For now my only hope is that the question doesn’t weigh on our star’s mind as he leads the American team against Mexico in today’s World Cup qualifier. Eek!
In Mexico City, meanwhile, the game is starting out very chippy with the hosts putting two into the net in less than three minutes after a scoreless opening half hour. Claudio Reyna is finally healthy and has reclaimed the captain’s armband from Donovan. Young defender Oguchi Onyewu, who plays for a Belgian club, seems to be struggling a bit in central defense in his second start for us. The US team have yet to put so much as a difficult shot on goal to their credit, passing in the final third definitely a problem for us; meanwhile DaMarcus Beasley picked up a yellow card in the 37th minute and so he is now out of Wednesday’s match at Guatemala.
Wow! Leading 2-0 in the 40th minute, Mexican coach Ricardo La Volpe is tossed with a red card for unacceptable persistent argumentative comments. Not really sure this will change the game in any way though. We have never won in this stadium, managing just a single scoreless draw in 21 tries, and the halftime score and the American effort so far gives no hint of breaking through.
Second half: A little better in the first few minutes culminating with a first strong effort in the 51st. Our defense is still very vulnerable to counterattacks, especially diagonal runs into the box. Then, in the 58th minute, success. Eddie Johnson controls the ball deep on the right and gets it to Landon, who makes a soft pass that Eddie Lewis drives past Mexican keeper Sanchez to get us on the board. Mexico tries to make a couple of substitutions but can’t get communications straight with the officials and the moment passes; a few minutes later they take off the man who scored their first goal, Borghetti, and then soon after they remove feisty striker Blanco and another midfielder. Lots of fresh legs and immediate payoff with two speedy runs into the box which fortunately end with bad passes.
We bring on Steve Ralston for Pablo Matroenni in midfield to add some offense in response, 20 minutes left. Carlos Bocanegra, defense, comes off for Pat Noonan, forward, 15 minutes left. The restart is a Mexican corner which they nearly convert, an eight yard shot barely missing to the right. 78th minute: they get a free kick from inches out of the 18 yard box after a very convincing dive and the blast is deflected by Kasey Keller’s fingertips, inbounds and then cleared up on a counter. Phew!
Still almost all the possession is Mexico’s and when we have the pelota they’re in very tight man marking defense, stifling. Eight minutes left. Brian McBride comes on for Steve Cherundolo, last American sub, another striker for defender switch. Mexico’s Medina is getting deep on the right, a lot, and crossing into the box but all of them are too long or finding an American head. Four minutes left. Tick tock.
JP Dellacamera keeps mentioning that the Americans would love to get a draw, duh, meanwhile they haven’t had a shot on goal in at least 10 minutes. They’re getting corner after corner, killing the clock. Three minutes of injury time left.
Two minutes in, we have the ball in and around their box and then Eddie Johns gambles and handles the ball over on the right. The linesman is yards away unobstructed and raises his flag. And that’s the last touch we get as the final whistles sounds seconds later.
The American team’s 16 game streak without a loss is over. All in all, slightly disappointing but not surprising. Some younger players got experience in a very difficult matchup, especially Onyewu trying to establish a partnership with Berhalter, and we will probably have the upper hand in the return match when Mexico travels to Ohio in September.
BillSaysThis 