U.S. Will Try to Stop the Reign
In 1996 when the Gold Cup final was played in Los Angeles, it rained most of the day, 88,155 turned up at the Los Angeles Coliseum anyway, and Mexico defeated Brazil, 2-0, to win the championship.
Today, the Gold Cup final again is being played in Los Angeles, rain again is in the forecast, a sellout crowd is expected at the Coliseum anyway, and Mexico needs to defeat the United States in order to retain its championship.
Is that likely?
Not if Kasey Keller plays the way he did in the semifinals against Brazil. The 28-year-old from Lacey, Wash., by way of the University of Portland and Leicester City of the English Premier League, was superb.
“It has to rate as the single-greatest performance of any goalkeeper in the history of U.S. Soccer,” Coach Steve Sampson said.
Keller was more matter-of-fact about his showing.
“We rode our luck a bit,” he said on the afternoon after the 1-0 victory, “but that’s what happens. It’s over now and now it’s time to worry about the next game. You learn that [playing in Europe]. You play Manchester United one week and you win that game and great, everybody’s happy.
“But the next week you have another league game. No one cares [about the previous victory]. If you have a nightmare and lose the next week, they’re still mad at you. So that game [against Brazil] is over. We’re happy. Everything’s good. Now let’s get prepared for the next.”
The only preparation Sampson apparently needs to do is to decide who to play in the center of the defense and who to play as the defensive midfielder. The rest of the team has picked itself by its results.
The United States comes into the 5 p.m. final on a nine-game unbeaten streak, tying a record, and on an unprecedented six-game winning streak. No U.S. men’s team has won six in a row before.
Keller is an obvious starter and Mike Burns and Jeff Agoos have done well at right back and left back, respectively, so they are likely to stay. Eddie Pope is an automatic choice as one of the central defenders--a position he prefers as opposed to playing wide--but Sampson has to choose between Alexi Lalas and Marcelo Balboa as the other central defender.
Lalas has not made enough mistakes to justify being dropped. On the other hand, Balboa has experience playing in Mexico. That and his fluency in Spanish gives him an edge in understanding what Mexican forwards are doing and saying on the field.
Balboa, from Cerritos, has 124 “caps,” the soccer term for international appearances. That not only ranks No. 1 among American players but is fourth on soccer’s all-time list behind only Saudi Arabia’s Majed Abdullah (147), Sweden’s Thomas Ravelli (143) and England’s Peter Shilton (125).
But after being in and out of the lineup lately, Balboa is not thinking about records.
“I was just happy to be the first American to get 100 caps,” he said. “From there, it’s just icing on the cake.”
Cobi Jones earned his 100th cap in the Brazil victory, joining Balboa and Paul Caligiuri as the only U.S. players to reach that mark.
It is possible that Jones could be on the bench today, with John Harkes moving into the left midfield position and Claudio Reyna, listed as probable after suffering a groin strain while playing for VfL Wolfsburg in Germany last weekend, moving into Harkes’ defensive midfield slot.
“It’s something that we have to continue to work on,” Sampson said of Harkes’ role. “Our speed of play through that position has to be faster. Our ability to win the ball defensively has to be a bit more aggressive.
“But again, John Harkes has not played that position a lot for the U.S. national team. Whether or not he stays in that position will be determined. . . . We have some options and we’ll look at those.”
Frankie Hejduk, the former UCLA standout, is making a good case for being the first choice on the right wing, and another former Bruin, Joe-Max Moore, is doing well as the playmaker. Both should keep their starting role today.
Up front, the U.S. has Eric Wynalda and Roy Wegerle, with the former wanting very badly to erase that 4-0 loss to Mexico in the 1993 Gold Cup final in Mexico City.
“It’s a great test to see where we are,” Wynalda said. “They’ve always played us extremely tough, but there’s a great deal of respect on the part of both teams. This game is important for establishing ourselves as the best team in CONCACAF again. . . . We feel like it’s our tournament to win.”
Mexico holds a 29-7-12 advantage in the all-time series, but the U.S. has lost only once in the last eight meetings, going 2-1-5.
Mexico’s coach, Manuel Lapuente, has added motivation to win today. He was Mexico’s coach in 1991 when the American team upset Mexico in the Gold Cup semifinal at the Coliseum. The loss led directly to Lapuente being fired a few days later.
“The United States has improved greatly,” he told the Associated Press on Saturday. “It’s a very well-organized team whose players understand each other well and know how to execute their strategy. It’s difficult to find errors; you have to provoke them.”
That last thought is disturbing. Tempers can get the best of players and fans in this rivalry, so the last thing needed is provocation.
Mexico has two excellent players in Ramon Ramirez and Luis Hernandez, both of whom are capable of testing the U.S. defense.
Another starter up front, Cuauhtemoc Blanco, is known more for his preference for mismatched shoes than for his playing ability. He wore one white shoe and one red one against Honduras and one white shoe and one green one against Jamaica. But it is his temper that is troubling. He has a tendency to commit fouls and to react badly to being fouled.
Gold Cup Notes
The media voted on its all-tournament team, with Kasey Keller (USA) being selected as the goalkeeper; Eddie Pope (USA), Claudio Suarez (Mexico), Ze Maria (Brazil) and Ramon Ramirez (Mexico) were the defenders; the midfield consisted of Preki (USA), Paul Hall (Jamaica) and Cuauhtemoc Blanco. The forwards were Edmundo and Romario (both Brazil) and Paulo Wanchope (Costa Rica). . . . Two players who should have been named but weren’t are the Galaxy’s Mauricio Cienfuegos and Jamaica’s Frank Sinclair. . . . The third-place game between Brazil and Jamaica at 3 p.m. will be televised lived by Telemundo, Channel 52. The same station will televise the U.S.-Mexico championship game on tape delay at 11 p.m., while Fox Sports West will televise the championship game on tape delay at 8 p.m. and Fox Sports West 2 at 10 p.m.
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GOLD CUP FINAL
Mexico vs. United States
When: Sunday
Where: Coliseum
Time: 5 p.m.
Consolation: Jamaica vs. Brazil, 3 p.m.
