Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Another Loss at Azteca

They took an early lead, but then played a little too defensive, and the United States ended up with another loss in Mexico City to the Mexican soccer squad. The 2-1 loss dropped the States' record against Mexico in Mexico to 0-23-1, as playing south of the border has become an impossible situation at best. Maybe some things just aren't meant to be.

The U.S. had a chance to take a 2-1 lead near the 73rd minute, but a controversial offsides call eliminated a chance at a goal for the Americans. On further review, it did look like the call was a correct one, but that blown chance almost directly lead to the game winning goal for Mexico, who keep their World Cup hopes alive with the victory.

This was a game that Mexico needed a lot more than the U.S. did, but it would have been nice to get the victory down there nonetheless. Either way, America should have no problem finishing in the top three of this group of six and advancing to South Africa next summer.

The real injustice with this game had nothing to do with what happened on the field, but rather how it was broadcast. ESPN covered this game like it was an NFL Playoff game, yet the game was nowhere to be found on any one of their networks. To watch the game, you had to somehow find Telemundo 2, or settle for the game in Spanish on Telemundo.

I'm baffled by this, because the build-up for the World Cup has been fairly strong, and the interest in international soccer has been growing. Yet, in what is arguably the biggest game of their World Cup Qualifying experience, we are left to physically hunt through our televisions to watch the game. Let's work on that next time, soccer world.

So in review: Would have liked to win, not a big deal we didn't. In the end, a great game. If you got to see it.

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