That’s how it transpired this time, with the USA winning the 2013 Gold Cup and Mexico lifting the trophy earlier this summer. On the pitch, he’s the best player the US men’s national team (USMNT) has, capable of delivering brilliant passes and runs that wouldn’t look out of place in any match anywhere in the world.
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After two months of hype, and four years of recollecting the images of the last time the US national team played Mexico at the Rose Bowl, the biggest game of the year in CONCACAF in finally ready to happen.
It was so much a home game for El Tri that U.S. Soccer stopped using it for games against Mexico, friendlies or otherwise, and weren’t particularly happy CONCACAF made a decision to employ it for this game. “We don’t know the extent of how long he will be out”. So on our end, there’s no worry there. The appointment of the German was met with fanfare, and came at a time of rapid growth of the sport across the country; he inevitably became the face of the movement. “And that’s something that I’m personally very proud of, so when it means in a footballing sense that every now and then we play with a few less fans, we deal with it”. The United States has just one win over its past four matches, and Klinsmann’s team has seemingly regressed from the progress that occurred last summer. There would also be momentum to take into the World Cup qualifying campaign that begins later this year.
The Rose Bowl is the sight of one of the most painful losses the USA has suffered in recent years, to Mexico. The USMNT’s performance in the Gold Cup and lackluster efforts against Brazil and Peru have been the worst of the Klinsmann era, leading to justified concern over the team’s future.
As World Cup Qualifiers approach, two nations will have to dispute the ticket to the 2017 Federation Internationale de Football Association Confederations Cup in Russia.
“Games against Mexico are just special”, Bradley says. As technical director, Klinsmann’s development of new players has to this point been nothing more than a successful recruiting class, not unlike the work of a college basketball coach.
Additionally, Klinsmann has told his players that if they lose a game, they don’t get to “go to the grocery store the next day”. We want to win over a lot of our Mexican friends. That’s why the CONCACAF Cup exists, and why neither nation takes their trip to the tournament lightly.
“It’s more intense for them”. This is an important game, and he will want to prevent the rivals from getting too close to the Mexican net. The final goal, scored by dos Santos, has become a YouTube favorite (or nightmare, perhaps, for USMNT fans and Tim Howard) as Mexico won that edition of the Gold Cup. In 2014, Klinsmann controversially left Donovan off the roster for the World Cup. He might be Mexico’s most dynamic attacker.
It is an American team on the verge of a considerable transition, with several older players who could be playing in their final big USA match.
As reported on Tuesday, Donovan stated in an interview that Klinsmann should held up the same standards he implies on his players. He has a lot of presence on the field. “Because it shows you the growth of the game in this country that more and more people talk about it and express their expectations”.
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That’s especially true this week, as the San Jose Earthquakes captain and his American teammates try to knock off Mexico in the CONCACAF Cup (9:30 pm ET; FS1, Univision, UDN).
