Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Historic Win

The United States pulled off a historic win tonight in Mexico City, winning the first game by the men's national team at the Azteca Stadium.  A goal by Michael Orozco Fiscal in the 79th minute, set up by a great run from Brek Shea and a back heal from Terrance Boyd gave the US a 1-0 win.  As a whole it wasn't really a game the US deserved as they showed very little going forward for much of the game.  Quite a bit of it was spent in their own half.  Goalkeeper Tim Howard had a fantastic game in goal for the US, especially late as he twice denied Javier Hernandez with some fantastic saves.  The biggest came after the US were up.  The first off a deflection that caught Howard going the wrong way.  Howard though came back across and saved the ball on the line to keep it 1-0.  Then a little later he made a great reaction save on Hernandez again palming a shot off the line and the US defense cleared it away. 

While Howard was definitely the man of the match, the defense in front of him did an extremely good job of limiting Mexico's chances during the game as Mexico ended the game with 66% of possession.  Sporting KC players, Graham Zusi and Matt Besler started the game on the bench.  Zusi came on in the 60th minute as a sub for Daniel Williams.  He was quiet for the most part but did help lead to one decent chance for the US off a free kick that was cleared and then Kyle Beckerman hit just over the bar.  Besler though did not win his first camp, but he did make it onto the game day roster ahead of a few other players.  Even with limited minutes for Zusi and just being on the bench for Besler, the experience in Mexico in the environment there will do nothing but help those two, especially come next year in the CCL.

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