Quite a game this evening and although the Mexicans had many chances to score Tim Howard was too much and held a clean sheet. I know we caught a few lucky breaks but the first win ever at Mexico and the first loss they've had there in a long time is something to be proud of.
I haven't watched the DVR yet, but it sounds like a few guys played out of position actually looked good where they ended up. They still can't pass in the middle without MB. Its shockingly bad. Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk 2
Couldn't agree more. He really makes what ever offensive threat we have click. I never thought he would emerge as one of our key players but he sure has. Love Shea as well. It's nice to see some actually attack for a change.
I'll take the win, of course, but it certainly wasn't a game that showed any sort of formula for success. Z was right - we couldn't connect with our passes in the midfield at all, never mind in the final third. Our central midfield was a shambles. Even the goal wasn't anything to hang our hat on. Shea had one really good (if perhaps somewhat lucky) touch to push the ball by a defender, then had a lousy touch to go too far to the end line, and we ended up with a blind back heel-toe poke combo off a scramble. In a tournament or qualifier, you score any way you can get it and get outta dodge. In a typical friendly (and yeah, in many ways this wasn't a typical friendly), you'd almost rather get shut out and see a lot of creative attacking resulting in saves or near-misses than winning 1-0 with a scramble goal on the only chance you had in 90 minutes. Shea had a great cross after setting up the goal, so he was a legit bright spot and, until dodging some bullets late with Chicharito not finishing, the back four was solid. Sent from my BlackBerry 9930 using Tapatalk
It's a very fair analysis but I'd much rather take a sloppy 1-0 win versus a moral victory. At the end of the day the score is all that matters in any sport and this one should mean much more to us considering our history in Mexico and also the fact that they are our harsh rival. Once again, I completely see your point and there isn't too much positive to take away other than...a Win! The most important thing of all.
Oh - I agree with you. Since we've never won there, it was important to get that psychological hurdle behind us, and it also helped squelch a little of the talk about the gap between them and us. Perhaps the statute on "dos a cero" is wearing off. I know I sort of analyzed it as if it was a normal friendly when it really wasn't in many ways. If that was a 1-0 win over Belgium, it would have had little value. But this win has some tangible value to it, even though it didn't count for anything tangible. Sent from my BlackBerry 9930 using Tapatalk
