Behind The Box Score

Same old news for the U.S. Soccer team, as they fall to Mexico, in Mexico 2-1 on an 82nd minute goal by Miguel Sabah. The loss doesn’t hurt the US significantly in the race to get an automatic bid. The US (3-1-2) is still sitting pretty at 10 points, one more than Mexico, whose win today was crucial to their hopes of getting in. Mexico is still on the cut line, having to play another match against a CONMEBOL team if they finish where they stand currently in 4th place.  “Today is a day to celebrate, drink a few tequilas, and then get back to work,” Mexico coach Javier Aguirre said after Miguel Sabah’s goal in the gave them the comeback win. “Everybody will go to bed tonight a bit more relaxed.”

The U.S. started off with a big bang, scoring in the 8th minute on a Charlie Davies goal, fed the assist by an excellent pass by Donovan. “We played well in the opening part of the game and deserved it,” Donovan said. “It was a good goal.” The crazy crowd of 105,000+ (sound familiar Buckeye fans?) quieted down for around ten minutes or so. That was until the 18th minute, when Israel Macias Castro added the equilizer, tying the score at 1.

The game wasn’t decided till the 81st minute, when Miguel Sabah had the go-ahead goal that eventually put the Mexicans in the win column. No one on the US side is concerned. “I said this week I didn’t want people to get carried away,” Donovan said. “This wasn’t a live-or-die game for us; it was for them. Now it puts us in a little more difficult position . . . but we still feel that if we win these two games (El Salvador and at Trinidad and Tobago), we will qualify.”