Mexico earns a third by beating Uruguay
Mexico rallied to defeat Uruguay, 3-1, on Saturday at Caracas, Venezuela, in the third-place game of Copa America.
With Uruguay leading, 1-0, Uruguayan captain Diego Lugano was issued a red card in the 38th minute for elbowing Gerardo Torrado.
Cuauhtemoc Blanco converted the penalty kick to tie the score, and Omar Bravo and Andres Guardado scored second-half goals for Mexico, which finished third or better for the fourth time in the last five South American championships.
Sebastian Abreu gave Uruguay the lead in the 22nd minute, heading in Maximiliano Pereira’s cross.
In the 68th minute, Bravo lifted a shot over the hands of goalkeeper Fabian Carini. Eight minutes later, Guardado sealed the victory with a left-foot shot from beyond 25 yards.
Argentina and defending champion Brazil square off in the tournament final today in Maracaibo.
Mexico finished third in 1997 and 1999 and lost to Colombia in the 2001 final.
*
The U.S. was eliminated from the FIFA Under-20 World Cup with a 2-1 overtime loss to Austria in the quarterfinals at Toronto.
Erwin Hoffer scored the go-ahead goal in the 105th minute, only two minutes after he entered the game.
Josmer Altidore of the New York Red Bulls put the U.S. ahead in the 15th minute with his fourth goal of the tournament, scoring on a header off a cross from Freddy Adu.
Rubin Okotie tied the score for the Austrians in the 43rd minute with his second goal, beating a defender to get the rebound of Sebastian Proedl’s shot and putting the ball past goalkeeper Chris Seitz.
The Americans finished a man short after Anthony Wallace was ejected in the 104th minute for getting his second yellow card of the game. The ball bounced to Hoffer off the ensuing free kick, and he poked it in from the near post.
*
Carli Lloyd scored on a diving header in the 66th minute to lift the U.S. women to a 1-0 victory over Norway in an exhibition at Hartford, Conn.
Kristine Lilly had the assist off a corner kick, leading Lloyd perfectly in front of a crowd of players facing the goal. Norway goaltender Christine Nilsen had little chance of getting a hand on the line drive.
The win extended the Americans’ unbeaten streak to 43 consecutive matches, a U.S. record.
*
John Terry and newcomer Florent Malouda scored late second-half goals, leading Chelsea to a 2-1 victory over Mexico’s Club America in the Disney Friendship Cup at Stanford.
Juan Carlos Mosqueda scored in the third minute for America, which put on a strong first-half showing before the Blues of the English Premier League earned a win in their first preseason match of the summer.
*
FIFA authorized Bolivia’s capital of La Paz to host 2010 World Cup qualifying matches, putting to rest a bitter fight over a ban on international matches at altitudes above 8,200 feet proposed by soccer’s governing body.
FIFA President Sepp Blatter said in a statement from Maracaibo, Venezuela, where he’ll attend today’s Copa America final between Brazil and Argentina, that Bolivia’s request for the ban to be waived had received the unanimous support of the South American soccer federation.
