To be fair, Cameron is solid and I think Edu is a very good defensive player. Castillo is junk and he was getting abused the entire second half before we sent Johnson over there to clean up his mess. Orozco Fiscal is the new Jonathan Bornstein, a terrible player who inexplicably scores a critical goal for the USA. I'll take it, however it happened. Winning in Azteca is the final frontier for American sports and it's always wonderful to see the garbage fans of El Tri have to suck on their own arrogance and boorish behavior.
Technically it doesn't count for anythig, but it's not exactly fair to dismiss this as an irrelevant exhibition (not saying you're doing that). American soccer fans have been waiting for this forever, and you can be sure Mexican fans are pissed about this.
And they were easily the best-performing group, if only by default. Though if I had to list the reasons for the clean sheet, it would be 1) Howard 2) wasteful finishing from Mexico and then 3) US defense.
Edu has good defensive instincts, but he's played here how many times before? You don't usually get thrown to the wolves and immediately perform, even if you do have potential. This was Cameron's coming out party on the international level. And Castillo. . . I didn't think he got abused, but I was out for the first 20 minutes of the second half. He outperformed my expectations by about as much as he could've outperformed them.
Howard had two good saves. They were both spectacular, but he didn't have to stand on his head all game like he's had to in the past. Mexico had what? One shit finish (Chicharito in the 75th minute)? They made plenty of mistakes, but I wouldn't chalk it up to their finishing. And Geoff Cameron was immense. US defense didn't do all the work, but they did a hell of a lot more than I expected them to
Castillo was getting lit up in the second half once Mexico subbed for the other Hernandez guy. Cameron was amazing and Edu has always been very good at breaking up plays from the defensive midfield, so I'm not surprised he could do the same from CB. Chicharito, on the other hand, just doesn't look like the same player as he was two years ago and I don't know how much time he'll get with Van Persie now at Old Trafford. He's now the fourth best forwards on that squad. Just a weird game, though. Mexico looked like the Mexico of old. Pass themselves silly with not much purpose and then give up a random USA goal. We just parked the bus and had like 30 seconds of possession. Still, it's Azteca and winning is all that matters.
I liked Edu in defense, we've had all kinds of trouble at CB and even if it's not his normal spot he's generally a competent player. If he can be a depth guy there when Bocanegra is available that'll be excellent. Hopefully Cameron will get a lot of PT at Stoke City, that ought to make a man out of him.
Definitely agree with that last bit. As far as Edu. . . I was there the first time we tried the Edu at CB experiment (East Hartford vs Czech Republic in 2010). It didn't go well. At all. He has good defensive instincts, but the positioning is totally different, and it's impressive that he didn't get caught out.
¡Mexico es el peor! 1) Booing the US National Anthem. 2) Shouting puto for every Howard goal kick/free kick. 3) Laser pointers: they only showed up during dead ball closeups, but I'd venture a guess it was happening during open play as well. 4) Throwing debris on the pitch. 5) Throwing various debris/fluids at the media. Possibly in three different areas, since it was reported by the ESPN analysts, the ESPN PBP announcer, and an SI writer. ESPN's postgame analysis was apparently done with umbrellas. 6) US fans had to be evacuated from the stadium with police protection before the end of the match.
And it is pathetic that they are such. I just can't imagine the outrage if we treated an opponent here like that. Lasers in the eyes, obscenities, booing an anthem... Ridiculous. I'm not "offended," I'm disgusted. It is beneath the dignity of the game and over the top for the relevance of the event.
Mexican national team fans have always been trash, which is odd because I've never actually met a Mexican person who wasn't exceptionally friendly and cool to hang with. I think that Azteca is where they keep all the shitty Mexican people in order to prevent them from contaminating the rest of their society.
We've gotta carry it forward from here. I'm liking some of the things I'm seeing from them now. Seems to be less banging the ball out on long clearances and seem to turn on the break quicker than during the Bradley era. Still don't always get stuff right, but it's better to watch at least.
I went to see Milan and Club America in the GA Dome a couple of years ago, place was packed full of Mexican fans, and I had on my red & black. They were great, just a lot of good-natured stuff. Maybe it's just the national team that brings them out?
