Depleted Mexico is lifeless in defeat
Bob Bradley had his scouts watching Wednesday night’s soccer friendly between Mexico and Sweden, but it is doubtful that the U.S. national team coach learned much that will trouble him.
Mexico was abysmal in its 1-0 loss in front of an increasingly restless crowd of about 46,000 at the Oakland Coliseum that booed the unimaginative display by “El Tri.”
One fan played taps on a trumpet when the final whistle sounded.
Bradley might not even bother showing the game tape to his players ahead of the U.S. team’s Feb. 11 World Cup qualifier against Mexico in Columbus, Ohio.
There wouldn’t seem to be a point.
Midfielder and captain Pavel Pardo is the fulcrum for Mexico, but Bradley knew that already.
Veteran goalkeeper Oswaldo Sanchez can still make a decent save when called up, but there is nothing new there.
Leandro Augusto shows a bit of flair and has a habit of switching the point of attack with searching passes, but the naturalized Brazilian is not someone the U.S. can’t handle.
Alberto Medina is a lively player on the right wing, with some good moves and a powerful shot, but can’t do it all alone.
When all is said and done, Mexico is struggling these days.
The team, which barely scraped into the final round of qualifying for South Africa 2010, shows little spark and therefore no fire.
It did create a few scoring opportunities Wednesday, but only three chances in 90 minutes.
Medina hit the post with a raking shot in the 18th minute. Second-half substitute Carlos Ochoa had a shot cleared off the goal line by defender Patrik Antonnen.
Another substitute, Antonio “Sinha” Naelson, looped a header over the bar.
But that was about it.
Coach Sven-Goran Eriksson was missing quite a few regular starters, but Mexico failed to produce the depth to overcome those losses.
In fact, the press box could almost have fielded a better team than Mexico put out, what with former South American player of the year Carlos “El Pibe” Valderrama of Colombia, former Mexico World Cup goalkeeper Jorge Campos and former U.S. international attacking midfielder and Hall of Fame member Hugo Perez all doing their bit for television or radio.
Eriksson was well aware the U.S. was keeping tabs on the game and might not have wanted to show his hand ahead of the showdown in Columbus, but his team won no new fans with its performance.
Having survived the miss by Medina, the Swedes gradually took charge and were rewarded with a goal by Alexander Farnerud in the second half.
Eriksson, meanwhile, has less than two weeks to figure out how, if he can’t defeat a third-string Swedish team, he is going to overcome a full-strength American one.
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