Columbus Blue Jackets 2005 Draft

U.S. National Team Qualifies For 2006 World Cup
2-0 Victory over Mexico Seals Reservation
By Dave Weissman, Columbus Wired

The U.S. Men’s National Team stamped their tickets to the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany with a 2-0 victory against Mexico in front of a loud, sold-out crowd of 24,685 fans at Columbus Crew Stadium. This was the second time that Crew Stadium has hosted U.S. vs. Mexico.

After a scoreless, but feeling out period in the first half, Steve Ralston and DaMarcus Beasley scored within a five-minute span early in the second half to give the U.S. squad the victory.

Defensivly, the U.S. was very strong allowing 7 total shots and only 2 shots on goal. U.S. defender Oguchi Onyewu was clearly beaten last March in Mexico City by the Mexican forwards (Mexico won 2-1). This time he came to play with a chip on his shoulder, beating their forwards to the ball and thoroughly making them invisible.

"We learned a lot from the first game. I think we gave the forwards a lot more space in the first game and today we just suffocated them all around the field," Onyenu said. "We didn’t really give them much of a chance of a goal."

Mexico was well represented at Crew Stadium, but it did not help the team who has not won on American soil since 1999. “Whenever we can play Mexico in America (and we got a little nervous there at the beginning as there were a few Mexicans out there) but by the time everyone came in from their tailgating parties it was obviously a very pro-American crowd,” said U.S. goalkeeper Kasey Keller.

Keller only had to make two saves, but one of them, just at the end of the first half clearly helped to set the tone for the second half. Ramon Morales hit a free kick at the corner, but Keller stretched out just enough to knock the ball out of the way.

At halftime, U.S. head coach Bruce Arena stressed to his team to continue to be aggressive on home soil. "One of the things we said to our guys at halftime was that not enough of our players getting forward in the attack were taking fouls. That's a big part of the game, and we wanted to at least take some fouls and be able to have set pieces and that type of thing,” he said.

Both U.S. goals were scored from set plays. The first one being the free kick, while Beasley’s begin as a corner kick.

In the 53rd minute, Mexico’s Ramon Morales was called for a foul and given a subsequent yellow card. On the ensuing free kick, Carlos Reyna’s kick sailed into the box. Onyewu got enough of his head on the ball that the shot did a ricochet into the post and on it’s way back out, met the head of USA midfielder Ralston who was there to slam the ball into the goal.

“It hit the post and there were tons of bodies and I thought, ‘Ah, no one’s there.’ Then, all the sudden, from behind comes Raly (Steve Ralston), heading it in,” said U.S. forward Brian McBride.

This seemed to ignite the pro-USA crowd while frustrating the Mexican’s. Mexico knew it only had to tie this match in order to qualify, so started pushing a bit more, but to no avail.

“After we got that first one, they were never in the game,” said forward Landon Donovan. “At least for three or four more years they’ll shut up. They can’t say anything and I love it.”

The win gave Keller his 44th shutout in Intenational play and extended his shutout streak to 507 minutes. The last goal he allowed was in the 2-1 loss to Mexico last March.

The win qualified the U.S. for their fifth consecutive World Cup. It is the first time since 1934 that the U.S. was the first team from the CONCACAF region to qualify for the World Cup. With a Mexico win, the tricolors would have clinched first.

It also means that most of the regular starters will get the next qualifying game off. The U.S. plays Guatamala on Wednesday and Bruce Arena promises to give more of his other players the opportunity to get some playing time. Arena said he will be allowing McBride, Beasley and captain Reyna to re-join their club teams in Europe. "The goal now is to make our team better for the World Cup," he said.

The U.S. will join host Germany, Japan, Iran, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Argentina and Ukraine, which also qualified on Saturday. The 32-team draw for the 2006 FIFA World Cup will be held on December 9 in Germany.