U.S. and Mexico U-23 teams will try to qualify for Olympics on Saturday
Mexico’s Alfonso Tamay controls the ball against Honduras’ Joshua Nieto during 2015 CONCACAF Olympic Qualifying on Wednesday.
The Rose Bowl won’t be the only place where U.S. and Mexico national soccer teams will be playing Saturday with more on the line than bragging rights.
The under-23 teams of both countries will compete earlier in the day in the semifinals of the CONCACAF Olympic qualifying tournament in Sandy, Utah. And though they won’t be facing each other, they will be chasing the same prize: a berth in next year’s Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
The U.S., which won all three of its group games in the eight-team competition, will go first, meeting Honduras at noon PDT. Mexico, the unbeaten champion of Group B, will play Canada at 3 p.m. Both games will air live on Telemundo.
Though there will still be a championship game to play Tuesday, a victory Saturday is more important since both finalists automatically advance to the Olympics. The semifinals losers will meet in a third-place game Tuesday with the winner of that match qualifying for a playoff with Colombia to determine the final Olympic entrant from the Americas.
The U.S., which has played in just one of the last three Olympics, has dominated the qualifying event, outscoring opponents, 13-2. The Americans, who have gotten three goals apiece from German-born forward Jerome Kiesewetter and Stanford junior Jordan Morris, have never trailed in the tournament.
Mexico, the defending Olympic champion, has had a tougher time, needing Raul Lopez’s 74th-minute penalty kick to beat stubborn Haiti, 1-0, then rallying in the second half for a 2-1 win over Honduras.
The U-23 teams from the U.S. and Mexico did face off once this year, with the Americans scoring a lackluster 3-0 win in April at StubHub Center.
