Sports
The Battalion
nil
Page 5 • Tuesday, June 18,
U.S. beats Mexico, advances to quarterfinals
JEONJU, South Korea (AP) - Brian
McBride and Landon Donovan scored on
counterattacks to lead the United States to a
2-0 upset of Mexico on Monday and into the
World Cup quarterfinals.
It is the best showing for the U.S. team
since the first World Cup in 1930.
The United States next plays on Friday
against Germany, which easily pushed around
the Americans during a 2-0 victory in the first
round of the 1998 World Cup, when the U.S.
team finished last in the 32-nation field.
It was a shattering loss for Mexico,
which dominated its North American neigh
bor on the soccer field until recent years.
While Mexico held the ball for much of
the game, it could not get the ball past
U.S. goalkeeper Brad Friedel, who had
another brilliant game and got his first
World Cup shutout.
McBride connected from 12 yards out in
the eighth minute off a pass .from Josh Wolff
after a fine run upfield by U.S. captain
Claudio Reyna.
With Mexico maintaining the ball nearly
70 percent of the time and pressing for the
tying goal, Donovan scored in the 65th
minute on a header from just inside the 6-
yard box off a cross from Eddie Lewis, who
had sped upfield.
The Americans, playing on just two days'
rest, bounced back from Friday's 3-1 loss to
Poland, their final first-round game. They
only advanced to the second round because
South Korea upset Portugal 1-0, allowing the
United States to finish second in its group.
These Americans are far different from
the U.S. teams of the past, in talent and tem
perament. Even the fans showed a marked
difference, taunting Mexico with chants of
“Adios, amigos.”
While the Mexicans usually have the
home-field advantage, even in the United
States where Mexican-Americans dominate
the stands, there were several thousands
Americans at Jeonju World Cup Stadium, a
half-world from home.
The last time the United States did this
well was in the first World Cup, when it beat
Belgium and Paraguay in the first round,
then lost to Argentina 6-1 in the semifinals.
The first goal was the work of Reyna, who
2002 WORLD CUP HIGHLIGHTS
Match 53 - June 17
at Jeonju, South Korea
Round of 16
United States 2, Mexico 0
Goals
First half
United States
Brian McBride
(2), 8th minute
Second half
United States
Landon
Donovan (2),
65th
SOURCE: Associated Press
made a long run up the right side of the field
faking out a defender along the way and
Wolff, who was near the goal and flicked the
ball back to a wide-open McBride.
Goalkeeper Oscar Perez had virtually
no chance on McBride's hard drive into
the left side of the net, his second goal of
the tournament.
He became the first American to score
twice in one World Cup since Bert Patenaude
had four goals in the first tournament in 1930.
Friedel, meanwhile, made a pair of point-
blank saves on Cuauhtemoc Blanco in the
35th minute. Ramon Morales had an open
net to shoot at from the middle in the 15th
minute, but hooked the shot just wide.
Morales left in the 28th minute after hurting
his right leg on a tackle by John O'Brien.
The other good U.S. chance of the first
half came in the 37th minute, when
Donovan flicked a pass to Wolff, whose shot
was stopped by a diving Perez.
Donovan's goal, which seemed to break
the spirit of the Mexicans, also was his second
of the tournament. The game got scrappy, and
Mexican captain Rafael Marquez was ejected
in the 88th minute for banging his head into
Stats
Mexico
U.S.
Shots at goal
12
10
Shots on goal
6
6
Fouls
17
18
Offsides
5
1
Summary
The United States beat cross-
border rival Mexico to reach the
quarterfinals and face Germany
on Friday in Ulsan, South
Korea.
AP
Cobi Jones. There were 10 yellow cards, five
for each team.
President Bush telephoned U.S. coach
Bruce Arena about 4 1/2 hours before kick
off for a pregame pep talk, and the players
listened on a speaker phone.
“The country is really proud of the
team,” Bush said. “A lot of people that don't
know anything about soccer, like me, are all
excited and pulling for you.”
Earlier, Bush and Mexico President
Vicente Fox wished each other luck.
“I just hung up the phone a little earlier
with the president of Mexico,” Bush told
Arena. “He was very gracious. I didn’t declare
victory yet, but I feel pretty confident.”
Mexico, in the first World Cup meeting
between the neighboring nations, controlled
the ball for most of the first half and pressed
at the start of the second, with Friedel
knocking Braulio Luna's tough angled shot
off the crossbar and over. Mexico had four
corner kicks in one three-minute span,
including one that appeared to have been
punched out by O'Brien.
See Quarterfinals on page 6
McBride
Reactions mixed along
U.S.-Mexico border
McALLEN, Texas (AP) - German Garcia, a photographer
from Mexico City, was clearly disgusted with the United States'
2-0 victory over Mexico in a World Cup soccer match that he
stayed up late to watch.
Garcia, wearing an autographed Mexican soccer jersey, joined
other soccer fans in bars for televised cable coverage of the game
in Jeonju, South Korea, that didn't begin until 1:30 a.m. CDT.
“This is the worst thing in the world that could happen,” he
said. “You don't understand. Mexico's not supposed to lose
with the U.S.”
Garcia said he could understand if Mexico lost to anyone
else, he said, but not the United States.
Soccer, he said, “is one of the few things that Mexico can feel
superior with the U.S.”
Along the Texas-Mexico border, where population is more
than 85 percent Hispanic, World Cup allegiances were tilted
toward Mexico.
“I don't think anybody's in a quandary down here,” Cameron
County Judge Gilberto Hinojosa of Brownsville chuckled before
the match. “Everybody's going to be supporting Mexico. For
them, it's ‘those are my mother's and father's countrymen.”’
Like other cities in the four-county Rio Grande Valley,
McAllen is a place where sentences are begun in English and
finished in Spanish. Red lights present a blur of music - Tejano
here, country and western there. Families have some children
that are U.S. citizens, others Mexican.
“This is a pretty important game here, this being a border
town,” said David Lozano, 44, who drove around frantically in
McAllen after the bars closed while the soccer game was still in
progress. He finally found a television set at a 24-hour taqueria.
“There's a lot of rivalry around here,” Lozano said.
Lozano supported the United States, saying he was a U.S. cit
izen and a veteran.
His sympathies put him in the minority.
Mexican team jerseys sold out at the sports stores while U.S.
jerseys went untouched. Cars sported Mexican flags. Some fam
ilies made plans to watch the match with relatives on the other
side of the border, where victory parties were sure to be spilling
out into the streets.
“Tradition, I guess, the roots ...” said Ana Flores, who was
watching the game before beginning her shift in a hospital lab at
See Reaction on page 6
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