Although this is the fifth time the US has beaten Mexico in their last six matches (the US outscored Mexico 10-1 in these six games), this was a stunning, amazing upset. Mexico had been playing their very best and the US had come off a very weak performance against Poland. The US played a much smarter game than against Poland, taking on a defensive approach until they could launch the counter that gave them the early goal from McBride.
Mexico was then forced to attack at an even more vigorous pace to get back into the game. The US wisely stayed back and didn’t allow Mexico to tire them out chasing the ball. The US defense allowed the Mexicans only a few dangerous shots on goal, and then Friedel cleaned up anything that got through.
In the second half, the US continued to mostly wait for counter-attack opportunities, but also began to pressure Mexico. Eventually, another counter-attack paid off and in the 65th minute O’Brien played a ball out wide to Lewis, who ran clear of his defender on the left wing and served up a perfect cross that Donovan clinically headed past Perez at the far post.
Mexico stepped up the attacks, although they held even less possession as the US took over from the tiring Mexicans.
Unfortunately, as the Mexican players came to the realization that they were beaten, they switched to ugly, dirty tactics and began to kick, knee, and head butt the US players at every opportunity. Not only did Marquez violently smash the top of his head into the side of Cobi’s head, as part of his leap he intentionally stuck his left leg straight out and raked the cleats of his boot across Cobi’s backside. Marquez had no chance of heading the ball.
Although Marquez was the only player to be red carded, several other Mexicans could have easily received additional yellow cards or been sent off for tackles from behind in which they applied their cleats to the calves of Americans. Just a few minutes after Marquez’s assault on Cobi, Mercado stomped on the back of Cobi’s right calf while Arellano kneed Cobi from behind. Amazingly, a foul was called on Cobi for playing the ball while on the ground. Of course, he was on the ground because Arellano had just shoved him to the ground.
Although I think Blanco is a great player, his verbal assaults and threats on Mastroeni and the knee he applied to Mastro while play was stopped should have earned him a red card, not just a yellow. Beckham was sent off in France for much less.
While the game was already rough and tumble up to the point of the second US goal, there had been no obvious attempts to injure opposing players. Mexico tarnished what had been a mostly excellent performance at the World Cup with a final 25 minutes of poor, dirty play.