Well, stick this in your guacamole and give it a good stir:
Mexico now holds every single men’s crown available in CONCACAF (the peculiar acronym for North and Central American and Caribbean).
That’s never happened before, according to Jonah Freedman, the MLSSoccer.com writer who put the pieces together in his weekly column, pointing a laser light at this thorny little burr in the U.S. Soccer backside.
After clinching the under-23 tournament on Monday, Mexico now holds that one, the Gold Cup (for senior men’s teams), the regional under-20 title and the regional under-17 title. Mexico is the world under-17 champion, in fact.
“The challenge is now squarely on the US to respond,” Freedman writes. “If American youth teams are losing to their Mexican counterparts, they need to be restocked and re-educated in some way. That’s what [Jurgen] Klinsmann is trying to do, according to [Sunil] Gulati. That’s why the USSF has overhauled the Development Academy program. It’s why Klinsmann is adamant about players getting minutes at the highest level. It’s why he wants to re-create the American player from the ground up.”
It wasn’t so long ago, don’t forget, where everything was rosebuds and lollipops on our side of the border – relatively speaking, anyway – while Mexico was pinned to the mat.
Mexico won only once in the border series between 2001 and 2009. (El Tri was 1-7-2 during that span against the United States, a maddening state that had El Tri changing out coaches like a bored kid changes TV channels.)
Plus, Mexico didn’t qualify for the 2008 Olympics. It was all quite humbling.
Clearly, the Mexican federation responded. Now it’s U.S. Soccer’s turn.
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- d214tx - Apr 5, 2012 at 9:24 PM
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Right now mexico and its football program is ahead of the us. What happens after the US looses landon and Clint Dempsey. It seems like the youngsters are always hyped but never really develop into the players they should. Mexico finds a way to mix their youth and veterans and it’s worked. And to be fair they have a lot of great youngsters coming up that if developed right they in my opinion will be a pretty good team in the 2014 world cup
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- nikesparq - Apr 6, 2012 at 9:27 PM
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Mexico will be a power house for a long time I project. Many US people would be quick to be negative about this, but it should inspire the United States team to motivate them to play at the same level/ intensity.
The amount of El Tri fans here in the States is simply incredible. We need those fans to convert to the US now and cheer for both.