Updated at 1:50 p.m., Sunday, June 24, 2007
Soccer: U.S. men rally past Mexico for Gold Cup title
By Nancy Armour
Associated Press
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Same game plan, different game plan. When it comes to playing Mexico lately, it doesn't seem to matter.
Landon Donovan scored his 34th career goal, tying Eric Wynalda atop the career list, and Benny Feilhaber connected with a gorgeous volley to rally the United States to a 2-1 victory over Mexico today in the final of the CONCACAF Gold Cup, the championship of North and Central America and the Caribbean.
"Awesome. Awesome," said Donovan, who still wore his champions medal when he left the locker room. "We haven't played that way, haven't played down a goal. Bob said it's going to be a different kind of win and I'm proud of us, because that's not easy."
The victory extended the Americans' dominance over their neighbors to the south and gave the United States a berth in the 2009 Confederations Cup in South Africa, an important tuneup ahead of the 2010 World Cup. The United States is 9-2-1 against Mexico since 2000, including 8-0-1 on U.S. soil.
They've won in cities where they truly were the home team, and places where they may as well have been the guests. Like Sunday, when almost the entire crowd of 60,000 at Soldier Field was wearing green.
Mexico at least managed a goal this time, snapping a streak of eight straight shutouts in the United States. Jose Andres Guardado's goal in the 44th minute was El Tri's first on U.S. soil in 797 minutes.
"They deserve to the No. 1 team in CONCACAF," Mexican striker Cuauhtemoc Blanco said. "They played well, but we had a number of chances. We just didn't take advantage of our opportunities."
Like in the 89th minute, when Adolfo Bautista came up with a loose ball in front of the U.S. goal. He took a shot from close range, but goalkeeper Tim Howard reached up as he was falling and punched the ball free to preserve the win.
After the final whistle, the Americans ran over to Sam's Army _ really more of a platoon _ to salute the small contingent of U.S. fans. Donovan tossed his shirt into the stands, then grabbed a U.S. flag that a fan tossed and wrapped it around his shoulders.
This is the fourth Gold Cup title for the Americans, tying them with Mexico. It also kept Bradley's undefeated record intact at 10-0-1. Bradley took over as interim coach after Bruce Arena was let go after the World Cup, and was given the job permanently May 16.
"Each competition, we talk about what it takes to become a really good team," Bradley said. "We're very excited about the fact we can get stronger as a group and win this. It means a lot to all of us."
His task gets tougher Thursday, when he leads a U.S. team without most of its regular starters against Argentina at the Copa America, South America's championship.
"Once again you saw today ... we did it the hard way," said goalkeeper Kasey Keller, one of the few veterans going to Venezuela. "If we want to beat the teams we're playing against away from home, we need to do these little things. Because against Argentina, I doubt we're going to have two chances to put the game away."
The Americans traditionally jump out to a lead, and then use their aggressive, counterattacking style to brush back any offensive charges. Not Sunday. This time it was the Mexicans who were the aggressors early on, taking the lead and making the Americans look lethargic.
But they got a break in the 60th minute, when Brian Ching was tripped up in the box by Jose Jonny Magallon. Compared to some of the other rough-and-tumble antics Sunday, this was pretty tame.
But it was all Donovan needed.
Donovan, the U.S. player Mexican fans most love to boo, took a slow jog to the ball and gave it a light kick. Mexico goalie Oswaldo Sanchez started to move to his right then hesitated, and that split second was enough to cost him any chance of getting to the ball, which hit the right corner of the net. It was Donovan's fourth goal of the tournament, all on penalty kicks.
As his teammates mobbed him, Donovan wiped his brow as if to say, "That was a relief."
"It's awesome. I'm proud of it, certainly," Donovan said of matching Wynalda. "I'm more happy we won the game."
The goal seemed to loosen up all of the Americans.
Ten minutes later, Donovan took a corner kick that was flicked clear by a Mexican defender. But the ball went right to Feilhaber, who scored on a perfect right-footed volley from 22 yards out for his second goal in eight international appearances.
"I knew it as soon as I hit it it was going in," Feilhaber said. "It's a great goal, at such a stage, against Mexico, in the Gold Cup. Unbelievable."
The score could have been even more lopsided. In the final 15 minutes, Ching, a Kamehameha Schools alum, banged a shot off the post and DaMarcus Beasley hit the crossbar after a perfect cross from Donovan on a breakaway hit him in the shin.
It was Mexico doing the counterattacking early, pushing and shoving and playing the Americans' kind of game. It worked, too. After struggling to finish several early chances, Nery Castillo beat Oguchi Onyewu and crossed to Guardado in front of the box in the 44th minute.
Guardado had been left unmarked and was all alone by the left post. As Howard slipped, Guardado poked the ball into the goal with his left foot, setting off a frenzied celebration on the field and in the stands.
"When you lose doing what we did, you can't be sad," Mexico coach Hugo Sanchez said. "It bothers me, sure. But when you look at how we did in the tournament, we got a lot better and we deserved a better result. Sometimes the team that plays better doesn't always win."
