Key events
Last word to Scott Martin: “In the referee’s defense, He has a solid ‘not a foul’ signal, and it would be a shame not to use it.”
I warm up for games by yelling “advantage” a lot. I should probably stop using that as a crutch.
But these games are incredibly difficult to officiate, and it would’ve taken some baffling decisions to give the USA a chance in this one against a superlative Mexican team.
Good night to those in the USA, and happy Monday to those in other time zones.
Topic A for the USA is …
… who took advantage of their teammates’ absences to stake a claim for the World Cup roster?
I don’t know that anyone surprised us with their standout play here except perhaps Alex Freeman. Malik Tillman and Diego Luna already have a decent amount of buzz.
Maybe Matt Freese, with his penalty shootout heroics against Costa Rica?
Still a very long way to go.
Landon Donovan: “Other guys kind of fell apart during the match.”
The USA won the Fair Play Award. It’s presented to Ream, who poses with USSF president Cindy Cone.
Mexico’s Luis Malagon wins the Golden Glove. Honestly, he was a bit lucky on the saves he made tonight, but it’s hard to fault him on the goal.
Edson Alvarez gets the “best player” award.
Tim Ream’s interview is abruptly cut short because the people at the desk apparently needed to say something. He was saying something about calmness. Not sure if he meant Mexico having it or the USA not having it.
The great drummer Neil Peart once said of an album release by his band, Rush, that it’s everything you hate about Rush.
This game was everything you hate about Concacaf. Cynical fouls, with a referee struggling to keep pace. An awkward playing surface – specifically, grass trucked in and put over artificial turf. US supporters being outnumbered in the crowd by their opponents. An opening ceremony that left a thick haze in the stadium through much of the game.
And a dreadful game by the US team. They make take some positives from this tournament, but they can take no positives from this game. They were outplayed in every aspect of the game in nearly every minute.
The absences, of course, were noteworthy. No Christian Pulisic. No Weston McKennie. No Antonee Robinson. But several of these players will be disappointed in their performances tonight, and rightly so.
The Fox Sports crew is spinning it as a way for the younger players to gain experience. To be sure, that’s true for Alex Freeman (age 20), Damion Downs (21) and Diego Luna (21), all of whom had some good moments in this tournament. Malik Tillman is still 23, though a game like this will age someone quickly.
But the 2-1 score flatters the USA. This could’ve been so much worse.
Full credit, however, to Mexico. This is a team that knows how to possess the ball and knows how to win it back. Their lack of finishing acumen will limit their progress in the World Cup, but in Concacaf, they are absolutely the top team of 2025.
Full time: USA 1-2 Mexico
Call it what you like, but don’t call it undeserved.
90 min +7: Aaronson bundles the ball over his own goal line to concede a corner.
90 min +5: In roughly the amount of time it takes a first-time novelist to complete a draft, Mexico take a throw-in.
The USA go off to the races when they get it back, and Montes simply takes the ball away from Freeman.
90 min +4: Freeman tries to switch the point of attack, but Vega sees it all the way and easily picks it off.
90 min +3: Ruiz with a timely step to break up a US attack.
The seams in the grass are plainly visible. Footing has been a problem at times.
90 min +2: Whatever the USA tried to do off that free kick didn’t work.
But Ream knocks it forward, and it’s a CHANCE for the USA. Downs, perhaps thinking he was offside, leaves the ball for Agyebang, who doesn’t make clean contact. That was very close to a stunning equalizer.
90 min: We should have about 800 minutes of stoppage time. We’ll have seven. Actually, that’s probably about right.
But add on to that – Freeman is down after being shoved to the ground. Free kick for the USA near the sideline, 40 yards from goal.
88 min: Aaronson rolls a couple of times after being tripped.
Gimenez, who just came into the game, is down. Seems suspicious, but a closeup shows a finger that bent in a way you do not want fingers to bend.
87 min: After spending a few minutes on the substitutions, play resumes with the USA getting a couple of touches in the Mexican penalty area.
85 min: A brilliant slide tackle from Alvarez stops Agyemang’s promising run.
Raul Jimenez gets a yellow card for time-wasting as he takes an epoch or two to leave the field as he’s subbed out for Gimenez.
Reyes replaces Sanchez. Huerta comes on for Alvarado, who had a tremendous game.
Tolkin replaces Arfsten, which seems a bit unfortunate. Aaronson replaces Luna.
83 min: Alvarado shoots wide, then drops the ground. Possible cramp. Or time-wasting.
Gimenez and Huerta are about to come on Mexico; Aaronson and Tolkin for the USA.
82 min: McGlynn replaces the ineffective Adams, who kicks something on the bench in frustration.
Goooooaaaalll! USA 1-2 Mexico (Alvarez 77)
The VAR decision is that Alvarez barely stayed on.
I suppose, but given the way the freeze-frame technology usually finds some fingernail in an offside position, I don’t know that I buy it.
Gooooooall! No.
At least for now. The ball is played across the area, off one Mexican player’s head and then off Alvarez’s head and into the net.
But he’s offside.
Or …
76 min: Strong defensive play from Berhalter near the top of the penalty area, but Mexico regain possession, and Luna is called for a foul. The ball is near the far sideline.
74 min: Mexico bring in Pineda for the youngster Mora, who certainly made his presence felt in this game.
73 min: Alvarado has a sliver of space, but the US defense swarm to take it away.
72 min: Pochettino sent Downs into the game with instructions to be relayed to his teammates, and it appears they were not correctly relayed. The team are in disarray.
71 min: Against all odds and all stats, this game is still 1-1.
Mexico gets their 11th corner kick. The USA have none.
69 min: US sub: Downs for de la Torre. Today is Downs’ 21st birthday, so if the USA were to somehow win this, he’d be allowed to taste the champagne.
67 min: Vega’s cross sails across the front of the net, and Richards chests it out for a corner.
Replay shows the defender certainly put a hand on the ball while it was sitting on the ground. From a common-sense point of view, I can understand why that wasn’t called, but from a Laws of the Game perspective, I don’t.
67 min: Arfsten beats one defender but not the next, but the defender puts a hand down to the ground and … maybe handles the ball?
65 min: Mexico’s eighth corner kick is deflected for Mexico’s ninth corner kick. But we’ll pause as the ref notices the two Mexican players once again giving Berhalter a noogie.
64 min: Adams slams into Alvarado and is surprised to be called for a foul.
Joe Pearson: “According to the ELO rankings (not the band), Mexico are 22, USA are 40. Seems about right.”
Speaking of Elo ratings, congratulations to Magnus Carlsen for breaking the 2900 mark.
61 min: Tillman slides through two Mexican players and is called for fouling at least one of them.
Before that, a half-chance for the USA as a through ball pops into space, but Malagon alertly races out of his goal to play the ball. He was probably getting bored.
58 min: As a referee myself (very, very low level), I hate to criticize the people with the whistles, but after a sound decision to establish control early by blowing the whistle often, he seems to have misplaced it. Tillman is just getting clobbered out there.
“His threshold for a foul is insanely high,” says one person on the refereeing forum I peruse.
Hey – foul called as Agyemang is held like a long-lost brother at midfield.
56 min: Just an embarrassing sequence for the US defense there, as Alvarado goes 1-on-2 and arguably wins. Then a desperate lunge masquerading as a slide tackle fails to do the task, and in the end, it’s a deflected shot/cross that Freese awkwardly punches out for a corner.
Then no one is marking Vega, and his cross slams into Freese and, to the US keeper’s relief, stays under him.
55 min: Tillman is mauled at midfield, and while our intermittently attentive referee blows the whistle, he still takes the time to let everyone know he doesn’t appreciate that.
54 min: CHANCE for the USA, with Arfsten getting into the attack, faking out one defender and launching a shot that goes just over the far upper corner.
53 min: Presumably, the US will have another touch on the ball before the game ends.
51 min: CHANCE for Mexico, and that was so close. Alvarado, from near one corner of the penalty area, just misses the far post.
50 min: The Turf Monster causes a Mexican attacker to trip. About time the USA’s most consistent defender made an appearance.
49 min: Jiménez lofts a cross from the right flank, and this time it’s Freeman doing just enough to disrupt the attack.
Mexico attack again, and Richards has to scramble back to knock it out for a corner.
48 min: Ream wins a header to stop a promising Mexican attack. It still looks too easy for Mexico to make incisive passes, while the USA have had … one? Maybe?
47 min: The USA start by stringing a few passes together, which is an improvement.
Second half is underway … and it’s still hazy.
Kurt Perleberg asks how far a full-strength US team can go in the World Cup next year.
I’ll say Seattle.
Stat time
Concacaf has some intriguing stats, including the aforementioned “touchmap” that was, until now, more or less devoid of US touches in the Mexican penalty area.
The Jimenez goal was graded at 0.149 “expected goals.” I’d have expected more. Freeman’s shot was actually higher – 0.152.
Mexico has a 5-0 edge in corner kicks, a 10-2 advantage in interceptions, and 298 passes to the USA’s 162. They completed 85.9% of their passing attempts; the USA clocked in at 76.5%.
The USA have an edge in something they probably don’t want – clearances (27-7).
Good news – the foul count has slowed. Just six a side at halftime, though the referee made several correct advantage calls and several possibly incorrect no-calls.
Halftime: USA 1-1 Mexico
Mexico have dominated, and yet the USA should consider themselves unlucky not to be up 2-1 right now.
45 min +1: A minute ago, the US had exactly one touch on the ball in the Mexican penalty area. They nearly made it two goals on two touches, as the onrushing Freeman heads the ball straight into the face of the fortunate Malagon. The ball stays in the area, and the USA have a couple of potential shouts for a penalty, though they don’t make a big deal of it. It ends up with Luna blasting the ball high.
44 min: YELLOW to Montes for banging into Agyemang as the US forward was about to get past the defender. It’s not a red card because Agyemang was too far to the side for it to be a “last man” situation (or “DOGSO” in ref speak).
43 min: Winston Smith takes me to task for neglecting to mention Jimenez’s tribute to Diogo Jota after his goal. The soccer world is a small one in many ways, and Diogo Jota clearly touched so many people. Jimenez played with him at Wolves.
42 min: Another corner, and two Mexican players are giving Berhalter a noogie. Not sure why our referee is allowing it to continue.
40 min: Mora shoots from 22 yards, and Freese probably should’ve held that ball rather than palming it wide and conceding a corner.
39 min: Berhalter has dropped to right back, with Freeman pushing forward. It’s working in the sense that the USA still have possession, but it’s not going anywhere.
