From: Hildegaard Beauregard [ljlife@yahoo.com]
Sent: Monday, June 17, 2002 3:11 AM
To: Lee Jerome Life
Subject: Estados Unidos? -- Si!

Reporting from World Cup Watch Central.

The United States got its first quarterfinal berth
since the World Cup elimination stage was expanded to
four rounds and its furthest advance since 1930 with a
2-0 defeat of regional rival Mexico. Once again, the
combination for the U.S. was brilliant striking
flashes despite inability to control possession and
another great performance from goalkeeper Brad
Friedel. This may have been Friedel's best
performance, yet, certainly the result, as he got his
first World Cup clean sheet. The keeper made several
spectacular saves, two on wide open shots by Mexico's
Cuauhtemoc Blanco, one of those and another just at
the top of the goal to knock them over the bar. He got
a yellow card late in the match for protesting a call
by the referee.

The match got pretty nasty, especially after the
second U.S. goal in the second half, when the Mexican
players appeared to lose their cool. Even the
announcer on the Univision broadcast described the
U.S. as "muy practico," and Mexico as "muy loco" in
the late going. Blanco reacted to a tackle from the
U.S.'s Pablo Mastroeni by kneeing him in the back
while he was on the ground and got a yellow card.
Mexican captain Rafael Marquez was expelled in the
88th minute for a brutal mid-air assault on U.S.
substitute Cobi Jones. Jones went up for a header, and
well after the ball, Marquez struck Jones with his
foot, and then the side of Jones's head with his own.
Mexico's Luis Hernandez was given a yellow card for
the most blatant dive of the Cup so far. In the
penalty box, Hernandez lunged and fell, faking a trip,
after he'd passed a defender who had moved away from
him. The U.S. was not idle in tussle, receiving 5
yellow cards of their own.

The U.S. struck early, in the 8th minute, off a great
run by captain Claudio Reyna. Reyna took off down the
right side, flicked the ball to the left to get past
two defenders, then outran another defender towards
the back line and crossed the ball in. Josh Wolf
deflected the pass out towards the top of the penalty
box, where Brian McBride was alone. McBride stepped to
the ball and rifled it into the net. Mexico goalkeeper
Oscar Perez had no chance.

Just as in the matches against Portugal and Korea,
that bit of early firepower seemed to be the U.S.'s
chance to hold up, as Mexico was already dominating
possession and continued to do so after. Again the
U.S. showed, apart from that and a few other flashes,
an alarming lack of fundamental passing skills,
pissing away possesions with aimless passes downfield,
or simply errant passes to the Mexcians. Mexico put
persistent pressure on the U.S. goal, but the U.S.
defense was quicker on the response than in previous
matches. With Jeff Agoos out with injury and Frankie
Hejduk suspended for yellow cards in two previous
matches, U.S. coach Bruce Arena switched to a 3-5-2
formation, using regulars Tony Sanneh and Eddie Pope
and replacement Gregg Berhalter on the back line, and
having midfielders fall back on defense. Reyna and
Mastroeni were particularly effective in this plan.

This time, unlike in the match against Korea, the U.S.
did not have to hold up one goal and risk an
equalizer. There was a flash of scoring brilliance in
the second half, the 65th minute. Eddie Lewis got the
ball with one defender near him and bolted up the left
side. The break, so surprising against the recent run
of play, and Lewis's speed, caught Mexico off guard in
the back. When Lewis approached the corner and sailed
his cross to the front of goal, Landon Donovan was
rushing in with only one defender on him. Just a few
feet way from Perez and the goal towards the post,
Donovan headed in the ball in. The cross and timing
were were so good, Donovan was even behind the
defender -- there was no risk of being off sides.

The U.S. is the only representative of the
Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean
Association Football remaining in the tournament. From
this World Cup qualifying region, Costa Rica was
eliminated in the group stage and Mexico was the other
team. The U.S. faces three-time World Cup winner
Germany next.

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