The Fox TV coverage of USA v Mexico featured several desks emblazoned with the slogan, “The Road to Russia”. But that road is now full of potholes.
The bad news for the US seemed to be piling up before kick off. As fans picked their way across the golf course turned car park next to the Rose Bowl, through impromptu mariachi sessions and Donald Trump piñatas, news was filtering through of a familiar narrative in Sandy, Utah, where the US Under-23 team were playing in the Olympic qualifying tournament.
They were losing 2-0 to their Honduras peers, and for the second Olympic qualifying tournament running, Jürgen Klinsmann’s handpicked coach had failed to ease his side into automatic qualification for the Games. For Caleb Porter read Andi Herzog this time around, but the story was the same.
And yes, USA can still qualify for the Games by beating Canada next week, then overcoming Colombia in a playoff in Rio, but with the Olympic squad stumbling, the Confederations Cup now closed off and next year’s Copa América by no means a certainty to even take place, three big dates for Klinsmann’s 2018 World Cup preparations may be ripped off the calendar.
Klinsmann has never shied from getting US Soccer to arrange the highest caliber of opposition for friendlies, so doubtless there’ll be some kind of testing program put in place for the senior team before Russia 2018, assuming they get through qualifying, which starts next month.
Those tournaments were about blooding the next generation in tournament play – yet necessity had already dictated that USA field an experienced line-up against Mexico on Saturday. And Klinsmann made a point in his post-game remarks to acknowledge the likes of Beckerman, Jones, and Beasley. He said there was no need to talk of cutting them loose just because of their age – so with World Cup qualifying starting next month don’t expect a harsh segue into the future after the summer’s failures.
Klinsmann’s relationship with the press is shifting
Klinsmann has always used his personal charisma and optimism to encourage and cajole – the cult of personality around him is, in a lot of ways, part of his mandate. Mainly because it was always going to take a strong personality to implement a structural overhaul of the US system, and to bring all the components of that unwieldy system along for the ride as well.
The press are a big part of that conversation, even if the US soccer press do not form such a significant part of the national sporting conversation as, say, their UK counterparts, so tend to be in a less fraught relationship with the national coach.
And for the most part, the US press have been indulgent of Klinsmann — which made the fatalistic mood in the press box before Saturday’s game all the more telling. Given the significance of the match this was a veritable gathering of the tribes and it was interesting to take the temperature of the room and hear the multiple gloomy predictions of a Mexico victory.
In the event an exciting game, even a loss, diverted some of the conversation, but not all of it. Klinsmann may soon be consistently enjoying the type of pressure he feels it is good for his players to experience.
The USA-Mexico dynamic is shifting again
Never mind the end of Klinsmann’s unbeaten record against Mexico, this game marked a fascinating evolution of the Mexico v USA rivalry — returning to the scene of Mexico’s Gold Cup triumph of 2011, but with a very different spectacle.
For one, these are two teams going through a moment of vulnerability on the field and both are well aware of the abilities of the other to expose their national sporting neuroses (and maybe a few non-sporting ones). Yet at this stage both have enjoyed modern periods of domination over the other and hold a grudging but genuine respect for each other.
For another the crowd is evolving – Mexico fan still dominated the attendance, as they had done in the 2011 Gold Cup final, but the numbers were less emphatic. A significant American Outlaw contingent packed into one end of the stadium on Saturday night — matching a Mexican tifo claiming to still be the king, with one of their own featuring Jürgen Klinsmann as James Bond in a To Russia with Love parody — and generally being a vocal presence within the stadium. The atmosphere created one of the best North American soccer atmospheres in recent memory.
Michael Bradley can still drive the US team
Bradley was everywhere for the US. Stepping up to break up play, sprinting back 50 yards to avert danger, and of course delivering the free kick for Geoff Cameron to score the first equalizer. He had one poor giveaway towards the end of normal time, but otherwise his performance was chiefly memorable for his energy and was a welcome return to the kind of metronomic passing that’s his hallmark.
The problem on the night was that while this was a familiar set of players their sense of familiarity with each other has been dulled by Klinsmann’s serial line up experiments. 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.
And with Clint Dempsey consistently losing the ball as he tried to dribble through the Mexican defense, and Jozy Altidore doing little all game, the sure touch of Bradley is needed more than ever.
This was the right result
Towards the end of normal time there was a moment familiar to viewers of Mexico this summer – a big shout for a handball in the US penalty area. Unlike the late spot kicks that saved Mexico’s progress in the Gold Cup, however, the referee on Saturday wasn’t interested, and the game went into extra time.
What's better? Aguilar's goal or his whacky celebration? #USAvMEX https://t.co/NnXWRtyndy
— Cristian Nyari (@Cnyari) October 11, 2015
And how dramatic extra time proved to be, with two wonderfully opportunistic finishes from both sides looking to send us into a penalty shootout, only for Aguilar to meet a spinning, dropping ball with the sweetest of volleys across Brad Guzan to win the game. It was Aguilar too who had stretched to touch the ball back for Oribe Peralta to make it 2-1 moments earlier.
Mexico deserved the win, even if by the end USA had played their part, and even if the Mexicans themselves had been wasteful at times, or thwarted by a resolute if not always pretty rearguard action from the hosts. And with Klinsmann still insistent after the game that the outcome of the Gold Cup had been way too affected by refereeing decisions, it was probably important that this match be determined by a positive scoreline.
It all felt like a fairly realistic representation of where these two teams are – Mexico displayed an abundance of attacking talent, and a frustrating lack of ruthlessness, while USA showed flashes of quality and rather more evidence of being in a rut.
