Ok, let's get the simplified analysis out of the way. For most of the second half, Mexico simply outplayed the United States. It was largely due to a severe mental breakdown by the US team and defense. The team lost their composure after a dubious penalty kick call for Mexico. Mexico just used their speed on the flanks and took advantage of a shaken US defense. It sucks and was very painful to watch for any American soccer fan. It is pretty hard to find any positives from this game, but there are certainly some that we can take.
The first half was almost a completely different story for the United States. They broke through the Mexican defense on several occasions, and nearly gave the US the crucial lead in the first half. Holden of course had the best opportunity to put the US up early in the second half, but he sent it sky high. Dissapointing that he couldn't put that away, but he is a young player and still learning. Mexico looked listless in first half, failing to put anything together and the US defense did a decent job clearing up any danger to the goal.
As far as individual performances, Troy Perkins most certainly kept the United States in the match while the defense was getting run over in the second half. You can't really say Troy Perkins was at fault for any of the five goals, it was largely on the defenses failings. Jay Heaps will never see the US shirt again. He was selected to give the US some age experience and basically started because there was really no other option. Stuart Holden and Kyle Beckerman played well in the first half, and with the defense leaking goals in the second you can't really keep them down too much for their performance. Everyone else was basically average or worse. The subs Santino Quaranta, Kenny Cooper, and Steve Cronin could really do little to change the course of this game. Overall it was a dissapointing and bad performance by this young team. However this is a very young and inexperienced team. For several players on the US roster this was the first international competition they have ever played in.
What about Bob Bradley? Anyone thinking that Bob Bradley was a fault for player selection clearly needs their head checked. He made the right selections in this tournament and gave several players much needed experience on the national team. He had to let players like Charlie Davies and Benny Feilhabler go off to play for the European clubs, and couldn't really call anyone else up after that. Bob Bradley put the best side he could out there and they preformed very well and even surprised me and several other critics until the end. Getting to the final with a truly inexperienced side says a lot about the team. It may be an excuse, but at the end of the tournament US only had one regular U.S. starter, Brian Ching, in the starting lineup.
What about the long term? This in my view does very little to hurt the US's forward momentum, despite what Max Bretos might think (More on him in another blog post). In fact it may even give the US team an added incentive (if they needed any) to give it their all come August 12th in Azteca. Several of the major players have already commented on their Twitters that things will be different. Yeah I know it is Twitter, but I am inclined to believe that this game will give the US players an added incentive to redeem themselves in Azteca. Also I would say several of the players on the Gold Cup squad will most certainly be back and are certainly players to consider for the future U.S. teams. Based on the tournament as a whole the future looks very bright for the United States.
What about the US's view in the American public? This doesn't really hurt the public's view of the game. Some uneducated sports analysis may discuss it, but only real die hard fans probably watched this tournament. Some may see it on the sport's scoreboard and some blow hards may point it as a sign that the US's performance is all smoke in mirrors. However, on the larger scale the US's victory of Spain does a hell of a lot more good for public relations then this Mexico loss does bad. Yes, Mexican fans will probably rub this victory in our faces and create "5-0" T-shirts and bumper stickers to counter our "2-0" memorabilia. Just suck it up and take it. If we beat them in Azteca, Mexican fans and the World will remember that far more than than this match.
Overall, this tournament has been a success of different sense. We didn't win the tournamnet and several Bob Bradley haters will probably say we have developed a habit of finishing second. Hey, if this means that we will finish second in the World Cup, it sounds like a good deal to me. More to the point we found some more added depth all around the field. Troy Perkins looks like a very good third string keeper for the 2010 World Cup, and even showed he could perform in packed 80,000 seat stadium against a quality team. Stuart Holden, Robbie Rogers, and even Santino Quaranta are most certainly players for the future. Even players like Kyle Beckerman and Clarence Goodsen, who were probably never on the national team radar at the beginning of the Gold Cup, may even get some consideration post 2010 World Cup.
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