US-Mexico

Me at 45 minutes: "You know, I really can't get worked up by this. It's basically a glorified friendly: it'd be nice if we could come back, but really it's meaningless.

Me at 80 minutes: "YES!!!!!!! USA!!!!!!! WOOOOOO!!!!!"

So against all prior expectations, yesterday's Gold Cup final was quite a match. It was genuinely dramatic, had a simply stunning goal by Feilhaber, an almost equally stunning save by Howard, and a few quite stunning in their own way misses, the jewel of which was Beasley's. I can't find a You Tube clip of his miss but if someone posts it you really must check it out. It was a textbook lesson in how not to score a goal from two meters away.

Ultimately, it was really the only satisfying half of soccer the US played at the Gold Cup. Bradley's substitution of Clark for Mastroeni at half time was a master stroke. Clark stayed deeper in the midfield than Mastroeni, and consequently the US did better at containing Castillo, who was all over them for most of the day. It also allowed Feilhaber to move forward and become more influential.

And of course the best part of all this is that is made the Mexican team unhappy. A small detail from Steve Goff's match report about Mexico's ever-classy coach.

The Mexicans howled in protest at the time of the foul as well as after the match. Coach Hugo Sanchez stalked the officiating crew upon the final whistle and mockingly applauded the trio following the awards ceremony.

That'll show 'em! He told the press that "The team that plays best doesn't always win" To be fair, the Mexicans really did pick up their game today; obviously Castillo and Guardado were excellent. Blanco was very generous in defeat, saying that the US deserved to be the best team in CONCACAF.


All in all, this was a splendid way to finish up a somewhat anemic tournament.

P.S. My idea about switching Dempsey and Donovan turned out to be totally pants. Bradley was quite right to switch them midway through the first half.