Download the 2002 FIFA World Cup Korea/Japan™: 286-page Technical Report in full or by section... http://www.fifa.com/Service/MR_A/43628_E.html
Interesting. Not a really in-depth section on the US, but a different perspective. Some points I liked: Strengths: Solid and well organised defence; balanced team line-up; disciplined in adhering to tactical roles; good heading in attack and defence; counter-attacking play; team spirit and physical commitment. Weaknesses: Central defenders had difficulties against quick strikers; encountered problems changing the pace of the game (always played a high tempo game, leading to fatigue towards the end of matches). Outstanding players: 1-Brad Friedel; 5-John O’Brien; 10-Claudio Reyna; 21-Landon Donovan; 20-Brian McBride.
This was interesting in the "Confederations Analysis": "The Americans played with a lot of selfconfidence and used a number of formations. They were also powerful, full of energy and good on the counter-attack. However, they were unfortunate to lose to Germany in the quarter-finals, missing a golden opportunity to reach the semi-finals. The new young generation, with players such as Donovan, Beasley and McBride, has breathed new life into the American team, and they can now look forward to the future with confidence." Which was then followed with this!: "Mexico employed a tactical formation that was tailored to the team’s abilities, a decision that bore fruit as it led to victories over fancied Italy and Croatia in the group stages. However, despite dominating (??) neighbours USA in their round of 16 duel, they could not take advantage of their many chances and ultimately paid the price."
Hey. Let the Mexicans take pride in something from the outcome of that match. I'll still take the 2-0 score line and be happy.
I was at that game, and I watched the replay on Korean TV, and have since watched a tape of the US feed. I agree with that assessment. We clinically finished on two of the very few opportunities we had, they should have had one PK. They pretty much controlled the run of play, much as we did against Germany. The biggest mistake was the substitution in the 28th minute. Not necessarily in bring El Cuspidor on, but the kid they took off was abusing Reyna on the right side of our defence. The Mexico game was a glorious result, but let's not get too wrapped up in it. We accomplished what we needed to do, but we didn't exactly run them off the pitch. That game could easily have been 2-0 the other way.
THe interesting part is the well organized defense. Remember the angst on this board leading up to WC02 regarding the state of US defense. Questions like Regis on left, slow central defence (Agoos), no visible replacement for injuries to defensive midfield.
No, no, no. The Mexicans had more possession. But supposedly a Big Soccer expert knows that possession does not equal dominance. Mexico had only a few half chances except for the botched penalty kick call, while the US had two goals plus the next best chance on a cross that Donovan blew. The Mexican advantage in possession was tactical, not the result of dominance.
Still, to this day and after viewing this game a few times, I can't figure out what was going through Aguirre's head when he made that subsitition. That guy, Morales?, was very dangerous. Him coming off the field was probably a hell of a relief to Reyna too, as he could head into the attack more freely.
I don't know what game you watched, but I thought that Mexico could've easily won that game. They had 2/3 of the possesion and were in our half most of the time. IMHO the only thing they lacked in that game was finishing. Had they been able to put one in the net, the momentum probably would've went in their direction.
Two thoughts: McBride is part of the youth generation? Mexico played well enough to beat us but for an ability to finish on all their strong possession.
I found it interesting Landonovan was named to the best 23 (one of the 7 players added to the 16 man All Star team). And at least one of the 7 added players was from Japan, which means the "subs," unlike the first 16, were not all from Quarter Finalists... Another honor...
The goal came against the run of play. It was a pretty goal, but let's not kid ourselves. If we had played like we did that day against a team that could actually finish we would not have won.
Wow that is insightful. If Mexico had put one in the net, they would have had a better chance. Thanks, man. Seriously, all Mexico had was possession. Finishing is difficult when you do not create real chances. Sure it is possible to rip a screamer from somewhere, but it just is not likely. In the game I watched, that seemed characteristic of Mexicos efforts. Possession or no (and most of their possession was in our half, but pretty far from our goal).
Agree 100% "Finishing" is the gremlin that gets the blame when a team is not technically proficient enough to score. And oddly enough, soccer is a game which requires you to score in order to win. Being forced to take a ton of lousy low-percentage shots becuase you either haven't got the skills to get it into the box OR the defense is shutting you down DOES NOT mean that you have "finishing" problems. It means that you don't play the game very well.
He wasn't on the '94 team that advanced. I guess that's their criterion. As for the "dominance" debate, I'll come down in the middle. Mexico didn't do much with their possession dominance, but they did something. I won't soon forget that scary sequence that included Brad's sissy punch straight to a Mexie.
So the run of play had been established in the first 7 minutes of the game? Riiight. If Mexico had dominated possession the entire game, and we scored in the final minute, that would be one thing. Instead, we scored early, played solid defense, and humiliated them with a perfect counter attack.
Tech report I have tried the FIFA site and the report opens to a blank page. Is there another place that I can get it? Thanks Bill
The Spanish-language version of our weaknesses also talks about lack of movement off the ball. (BTW I know that McBride was awesome, but I can't believe that they thought we were generally strong in the air.)
USA 2 Mexico 0 Biggest stage Win or go home "A" teams present No excuses You can get wrapped up in analytical theories of dominance, possession, missed calls and whatever else. The final score is all I care about. And if anyone has been paying attention for the past 2 years, this result was not a shock at all. We've beat Mexico regularly for 2 years now.
The U.S. dominated Mexico. We let them have the ball until in came into our defensive third of the field. Then we took the ball away from them or forced them into a not to dangerous goal scoring situation. This was the same tactical plan used against Korea. The Koreans played against it much better than the Mexicans. We also couldn't shut the game down vs. Korea like we did vs. Portugal and Mexico because of how Korea never let us control the match. I don't like this system, but it got the result. I just wished we attacked Mexico like we did against Portugal (in the first half). BTW, Germany used the same tactics against us that we used vs. Mexico. We were able to handle it much better - much better - than Mexico did vs. us (or Korea vs. us).
Please. You make it sound like Mexico was far from scoring a goal against us. As mentioned above they had some quality oppertunities that they should have finished (ie. the missed punched save by Friedel). They also didn't get a PK that they should have had. Those are the breaks of the game, but Mexico was very much in the game until Donovan scored the second goal. I remember being very nervous for the entire game, because it seemed like the US didn't ever have the ball.
Don't kid yourself. If we would've played this game 10 times I think we'd split the series down the middle with 3 wins for us, 3 wins for them, and 4 draws. I really think that our national teams are very close. Afterall, these regular wins that you're talking about ALL happened on US soil. When we play in Azteca we have lots of problems. This was neutral ground, but as I said before I think if we played Mexico more times on neutral ground it'd be almost even.
Re: Tech report The file is a PDF file.You need Adobe Acrobat reader 4.0 or higher. It's free on the Adobe website.Go to www.adobe.com and click Download Acrobat reader.