Final Group Game against Mexico, July 23, 2013

Good afternoon to all who are following this journey of ours here in Israel. I hope everyone is doing well. Today was a very important day in the journey of our team. We had to win today against a very tough Mexico team in order to advance to the knock-out round or Quarter Finals. Before I go into the details of the game, I must first congratulate the Mexican Team and coaching staff. This game was what soccer is all about. What I mean is, Mexico played with great honor and integrity, the way the game was meant to be played. I thoroughly enjoyed this game, as it is what all players and coaches should want to be involved in. That is, everything rides on the outcome of the game. It is why we play and coach "the beautiful game"!

Now let's see how everything unfolded. We played once again on the smallest field in these games and going into this game, I was afraid Mexico would pack the box and play for a tie, as that was all they needed to go through. But, to their credit, as I said above, they played to win. It was an extremely clean and fair game for 90 minutes. It went back and forth, but I believe we had the better of the possession throughout the game. That's not to say they weren't dangerous on the attack, as they were very organized in their attack and caused us difficulties on their counters, epecially there number 10 up top and number 8 in the midfield. Number 10 is as good a player as I have seen in a very long time and he was a true gentleman. In the 10th minute, we had a one on one in the box, that we missed. In he 29th minute we attacked down the right flank to our attacking mid, David Abidor, who played a perfect ball across to one of our strikers, Jake Pace, who finished it first time in the back of the net, making it 1:0 for the USA. Unfortunately, 5 minutes later, we had a poor pass in the middle of the field and our defender left his man and number 10 finished it for Mexico, to tie the game 1:1. Now, a tie will send us home, so we kept pressing the game and in the 41st minute, Kovi Konowiecki, finished a great goal unassisted, to make it 2:1 for the USA at half time.

We stayed in our current tactical formation to open the second half, but We were somewhat lethargic to begin the half and it showed, as we made a bad foul in the 60h minute, on the top of the 18 yard box, to give them a direct free kick. Who else woukd take it for them, but number 10 and he hit a perfect ball upper 90 to tie the score again, at 2:2! Now, we really had to press the game, as time was running out on us and our future in this tournament. Well, we continued to show that there was no quit in this team. Our left back, Ryan Jones came forward with the ball and from 40 yards out he hit a left footed bomb in the upper 90 of the right side of the goal to put us up 3:2 in the 70th minute. It has to be the best goal of the tournament. His shot came 5 yards inside our half, as you remember, we are playing on 90 yard long field. We made some changes to bring in fresh legs to finish the last 20 minutes of game. We played 3 minutes of extra time for the first in any of our games and when the final whistle blew, we knew we had qualified to the final 8! There was great relief on our players faces! We deserved to win and be in the final 8 .

In wrapping up this report, I must tell you, I did not make the same mistake again, that I made against Uruguay in not playing the right tactical formation on this small field. I am so very proud of our entire team and my assistant coach, Warren Russ. They have believed in what we are trying to do and they have made me look good and for that I am most appreciative. I have been saying all long, that ths is a great group of guys and today they have made me even prouder to be their coach! It is my privilegevand honor to be coaching these fine young men!

Now we will play Germany on Thursday at 4:00 pm, on a regulation size field for the first time in this tournament and it should suit our style of play perfectly. So, until my next report after the Germany game, I will say it is great to be an American and go USA!

To my wonderful family, I miss and love you all very much, as I do my Goldens!

Coach G from Israel