I honestly can't remember a full day quite like this one for U.S. soccer in my lifetime. Between the U.S. Soccer Hall of Fame Class of 2012 announcement, the U.S. women's 5-0 triumph over Denmark at the Algrave Cup and of course, the U.S. men's 1-0 shocking upset of Italy, who could ask for anything more?
Well the U.S. Under-23 men's team aka what will be most of the Olympic team this summer, capped off this memorable leap day with a 2-0 victory over Mexico.
The friendly was played in Frisco, Texas so there was a pretty even distribution of fans. What makes the win so impressive for the Americans is that they controlled play basically from start to finish. Mexico's Under-23 team is one of the best in the world but they looked frazzled the entire match.
Mexico is the U.S.' biggest rival and at any level, I honestly can never remember a performance like that. Usually the script is the complete opposite with the U.S. men forced to stem the non-stop Mexican attack.
The U.S. scored both of its goals during a wild two-minute span in the first half. Juan Agudelo (rocking a Neymar-esque blonde mohawk) headed in a corner kick from Mix Diskerud for a 1-0 U.S. lead in 35th minute. Less than a minute later, Freddy Adu's hard shot from outside the box was tipped in by Diskerud.
American goalkeeper Bill Hamid took a queue from Hope Solo and Tim Howard before him as he also posted a clean sheet. Collectively, the U.S. teams outscored their opposition 8-0 today between the three matches.
Tonight served as a mere tuneup for CONCACAF Olympic qualifying which begins on March 22. Even though it was broadcast on Telefutura, I was able to brush up on my spanish skills while the U.S. dominated. It was beautiful.
You'll want to pay attention to this squad since it figures to contain many of the United States' brightest young stars (Adu, Diskerud, Agudelo, Hamid, Shea, Bunbury, etc.). This game should serve notice that they are worth watching and paying attention to this summer for what should be an exciting tournament in London (I'm assuming they'll get there).
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