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World Cup qualifying Recap: USA 2, Mexico 0 [Mon Sep 5th, 2005]
With a 2-0 win over Mexico in front of 24,685 at Crew Stadium in Columbus, the Red, White, and Blue are the first to qualify from CONCACAF for Germany 2006.
Few matches mean more to US fans than when the national team meet Mexico. This was one of the best, when the Red, White, and Blue met the Tri-Colores with the first World Cup birth for CONCACAF on the line.
In a rather hectic first half, neither the US nor Mexico were able set up any sort of offense. Just before half-time, Kasey Keller was called to make the biggest play of the half, as he was able to knock a Mexican free kick that was headed for the lower left hand corner out of bounds.
After the scoreless first half, the US offense began to control possession more. Then in the 55th minute, an Eddie Lewis free kick found the head of defender Oguchi Onyewu. Onyewu’s header hit the left post and bounced back to Steve Ralston, who was alone in front of the net, to head it home for the 1-0 lead.
With the US leading, the Mexican team now needed to be a little more risky if they were expecting to qualify for Germany on the night. A few moments later all their hopes disappeared, as a miscommunication in the back gave the US a corner kick. The corner was played to captain Claudio Reyna outside of the box, and Reyna found a streaking DaMarcus Beasley inside the eighteen. Beasley then bent the ball into the back corner of the net, around a Mexican ‘keeper Oswaldo Sanchez, in the 62nd minute.
With solid defense out of Onyewu and Gregg Berhalter in the middle, Mexican strikers Jared Borguetti and Jose Francisco Fonseca never tested Kasey Keller. Keller’s shutout streak has now reached 507 minutes.
From Columbus, the US head to Guatemala City on Wednesday night. Now that the team have qualified for the World Cup, Bruce Arena is expected to begin using more inexperienced players from the MLS, and possibly some new faces in Europe.
Scoring Summary:
Steve Ralston (55)
DaMarcus Beasley (62)
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