U.S. Men’s National Team v. Mexico, Estadio Azteca, Mexico City, 8.15.12

Any impartial viewers watching last night’s friendly between the U.S. and Mexico probably changed the channel before the game’s conclusion. The match was sloppy and one-sided, with the home team dominating possession and chances on goal but unable to finish those chances, seemingly due to cosmic forces beyond the players’ control. The U.S. simply appeared destined to win this one against the run of play, rather as Chelsea seemed destined to beat Bayern Munich in this year’s Champions League final. It is true that U.S. players (not just cosmic forces) had a hand in thwarting Mexico’s attempted finishes. In particular, recent MLS standout (and even more recent Stoke City acquisition) Geoff Cameron had a mostly excellent game at center back. And stunningly consistently solid U.S. goalkeeper Tim Howard was at times magnificent, particularly in the game’s closing minutes.

But again, the match abounded in miscues. To give some examples, Cameron sailed a free kick across the field and out of bounds when trying to play a simple pass back to Maurice Edu in the 65^th minute. In the first half, midfielder Kyle Beckerman played a similarly uncontested back pass over the end line for a Mexico corner kick; ESPN announcer Ian Dark proclaimed it “an awful piece of work by Beckerman in truth.” On the other side of the ball, Javier Hernandez eluded Cameron in the U.S. penalty box in the 76^th minute, received a perfect cross from teammate Elias Hernandez, but couldn’t put the close-range header on goal. Late in the game, Darke’s fellow commentator Taylor Twellman lamented, “How often have we seen that tonight? Just careless giveaways from both teams.”

So the game wasn’t pretty—and it was of course only a friendly—but it was in fact historic. It must be mentioned in any account of this friendly that it ended in the first U.S. victory in Mexico in 75 years and 25 tries. Coming into the match, the U.S. men’s national team’s record in Mexico was an epically poor 0-23-1. That sustained futility bears some consideration. If a fan or commentator wants to comment on one sports team’s total dominance over another, he or she might say, “If these teams played ten times, X would beat Y nine times.” Very few would think to say, “If X played Y 24 times, X would never lose.” It is, in short, mindboggling that it took the U.S. so long to get a single victory south of the border, especially given the fickle nature soccer, a game in which the stronger team so often fails to win.

And it should indeed be admitted that the U.S. was very fortunate to get the win last night. As a smiling Jurgen Klinsmann said afterward: “Eventually, you need a little bit of luck too and in some instances we were a little bit lucky tonight and we had Tim Howard in our goal.” As usual, Klinsmann was spot on. Very few keepers other than Howard could have saved Javier Hernandez’s final two shots on goal (one in the 85^th minute that was deflected and initially wrong-footed Howard, the other a close-range header in the 89^th) during Mexico’s late-game surge. Those saves in particular and the end of the match in general were truly exciting, and that’s rare in a friendly. The climax was reminiscent of the U.S.’s similarly historic 1-0 victory over Italy in February, in which the home crowd nervously urged their troops to avoid the ignominy of losing to the Yanks on home soil.

The Mexico victory was doubly remarkable since Howard was the only one of the U.S.’s “big four” players to make a significant impact on the game. Landon Donovan, who’s been in fine form lately with the L.A. Galaxy, didn’t see much of the ball in the first half (no U.S. player did) and was subbed at halftime, apparently due to hamstring tightness. The U.S.’s other two big-name players—Clint Dempsey and Michael Bradley—were not even summoned from their European club teams to make this strange FIFA date, which occurs immediately before the start of the European leagues’ seasons. As a result, the game was a showcase for players from MLS and from Mexico’s top league, Liga MX. Of the twenty-three players on last night’s U.S. roster, six play in Liga MX and ten (eleven if you count Cameron) play in MLS. Obviously, they acquitted themselves well in the 1-0 victory.

One of those MLS players, Brek Shea, was a surprise call-up by Klinsmann. Shea has had a down year for FC Dallas. He was suspended in May for kicking a ball at an assistant referee, and he had a publicized sideline exchange with head coach Schellas Hyndman during a July match against San Jose. However, given Shea’s recent national team performances, and his youth, I thought he deserved the call.

In any event, Shea justified Klinsmann’s decision during his brief time on the field against Mexico. Shea didn’t come on until the 78^th minute, but he had a near-immediate impact. In the 80^th, he received a good pass from Beckerman on the left wing and immediately ran at Mexico defender Severo Meza, nutmegging Meza and driving hard to the end line. The run wasn’t especially pretty; one of Shea’s right-footed touches was too heavy and almost betrayed him. But he ultimately got control and played the ball back across the goal to Terrance Boyd. Boyd, with his back to the goal, back-heeled a no-look pass to another surprise call-up, U.S. defender Michael Orozco Fiscal, who side-footed a shot past the Mexico keeper and into the net. Orozco Fiscal is one of those Liga MX players I mentioned earlier, and he looked ecstatic after the goal, running to the corner flag and pointing to the stunned crowd.

While Donovan did not have a memorable match against Mexico, he made news nonetheless. A couple of days ago, Goal.com reported that Donovan is considering retiring after his Galaxy contract expires at the end of next season. Readers may recall that Donovan, in an interview prior to the Scotland friendly in May, seemed to question his desire to play soccer. I’m not sure if these two mildly controversial interviews—each of which mentioned retirement and occurred just prior to international friendlies—constitute a pattern, but one thing is clear. Klinsmann is building towards the 2014 World Cup finals, and he can’t be happy that one of his star players is suggesting there’s a realistic chance he may retire after 2013. I’m a big Donovan fan and think the U.S. is a much better and more attractive team with him on the field. Judging from Donovan’s age and recent form, he has many more years of good soccer left in him, should he want to play. Here’s to hoping that he isn’t sending hints to Klinsmann that say, in effect: You guys go ahead to Brazil without me in 2014. I’ll be working on my golf game.