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| Mexico's Jesus Zavala, left, collides with United States goalkeeper Brad Guzan, center, during the qualifying match. |
MEXICO CITY — It is one thing to defeat Mexico at Estadio Azteca in a friendly match, as the United States did last summer. It is something much more vital and rewarding to forge a tie in a World Cup qualifying match, as the Americans did with a 0-0 draw on Tuesday night.
A United States team that faced a raft of injuries and criticism of its coach both internally and externally only a week ago, repelled withering pressure from Mexico while being outshot by 17-1. The Americans are now 1-1-1 in qualifying and in an inviting position to reach the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
With Costa Rica defeating Jamaica by 2-0 on Tuesday and Panama winning by the same score over Honduras, the United States sits in third place on goal differential in the North American, Central American and Caribbean region with four of its seven remaining matches to be played at home. The top three teams in Concacaf will automatically qualify for the World Cup, while the fourth-place team will enter a playoff against New Zealand.
The Americans will take heart from a composed, relentless and gutsy defensive performance on Tuesday with yet another makeshift lineup. This one included Matt Besler, making only his second international appearance in central defense after Clarence Goodson was scratched with a strained hamstring.
Besler was playing his first World Cup qualifying match, while Omar Gonzalez was playing only in his third. But they are the two most recent defenders of the year in Major League Soccer, Besler with Sporting Kansas City and Gonzalez with the defending champion Los Angeles Galaxy. On Tuesday, they settled in with calm professionalism, impeccable communication and timely interventions, cutting out passes, heading balls to safety, frustrating both the darting craftiness of the Manchester United striker Javier Hernández, known as Chicharito, and the 100,000 fans who jammed into the Azteca.
Suddenly, no one was complaining about the absence from the United States roster of the longtime American captain, Carlos Bocanegra.
“They were great,” the steady goalkeeper Brad Guzan said of Besler and Gonzalez. “I think they were getting a lot of unfair criticism coming into the game, saying they were too young, they weren’t going to be able to cope. I think they proved a lot of doubters wrong. Especially Matt stepping in at Azteca. You would have thought he had 50 caps under his belt.”
The Americans have played 15 World Cup qualifying matches in Mexico, losing 13 and drawing twice. The only other tie came in 1997, when the Americans played a man down for the final 58 minutes after Jeff Agoos drew a red card.
“We’re very pleased with this result,” Coach Jurgen Klinsmann said. “The way our team was organized, was connected, was committed, was an unbelievable team effort.”
Mexico (0-0-3) could have won the match with sharper finishing. But it did not. And now El Tri has failed to win for a third consecutive match in this qualifying round. It sits in fifth place among the six teams in the group. Afterward, some exasperated fans chanted for the firing of Coach José Manuel de la Torre.
Mexico’s players and fans will not soon forget or forgive the lack of penalty kicks awarded by the referee, Walter Lopez of Guatemala, in two critical moments. The first came when Hernández went down in a collision with Michael Bradley in the penalty area in the 12th minute. The second came on a clattering tackle by Maurice Edu on Javier Aquino in the 76th.
As Hernández tumbled to the ground, the assistant referee on the sideline waived his flag, but Lopez let play continue, perhaps believing the striker had taken a dive. Bradley said of Hernández: “He ran offsides and as he kind of tried to come back, I put my hands out to brace the contact a little bit. Look, the game is made up of hundreds of these little moments. I think we did a great job not getting sucked into any of the nonsense with the referee. We kept a really strong focus throughout the 90 minutes.”
The conditions at Estadio Azteca on Tuesday were about as favorable as the United States could expect playing a match 7,200 feet above sea level. Kickoff came at 8:30 p.m. instead of midafternoon. The temperature was mild, dropping through the 60s. The smog was not what it has been in the past. And the Americans had trained for nearly a week at altitude in Colorado.
For the 25th time in 25 matches, Klinsmann used a different lineup, inserting Edu in midfield for Jermaine Jones, who was out with an ankle injury. Even with a depleted roster missing nine regulars, Klinsmann appeared confident, even defiant before Tuesday’s match, with the United States having defeated Costa Rica, 1-0, in a snowstorm on Friday and having won for the first time here, 1-0, in a friendly last August.
Asked yet again about a recent story in The Sporting News in which some players anonymously questioned his tactics and leadership, Klinsmann said: “My job is to help them to reach the next level and to challenge them. I’m not here to pamper anybody. So maybe we have a little argument down the road. But in order to hopefully elevate the program — we want to break into the best 10-12 nations in the world one day down the road — I have to challenge them, and maybe some players are not always complimentary.”
As the match opened, DaMarcus Beasley struggled at left back with Aquino’s runs down the flank. In the eighth minute, Beasley pushed Aquino down from behind and drew a yellow card. In the 20th minute, Besler also drew a caution for taking Giovani dos Santos down near midfield. But Edu edged over to help Beasley, who recovered from his early vexation. And at halftime, Besler assured Klinsmann of his own equanimity.
“In a place like this against Chicharito, it’s a tricky situation,” Klinsmann said of Besler. “He said: ‘Coach, don’t worry, nothing else will happen. I will get through it.”
As could be expected, Hernández had his chances, twice heading the ball over the goal. But his opportunities were limited. And he seemed to grow annoyed by the jostling of the American defenders, at one time pushing Gonzalez away and grabbing his ear in pain.
The United States played a high line and compacted its defense, leaving only about 30 yards between the forwards and the back four. At times, the wingers Graham Zusi and Herculez Gomez tracked back and essentially became fifth defenders. In the 72nd minute, as Angel Reyna waited free for a cross from Andres Guardado, Zusi made a long, desperate sprint to head the ball to safety.
The only shot for the United States came on a feeble, wide attempt by Clint Dempsey early in the second half. But the American defense remained persistent and unyielding. The aim was not to allow Mexico to play out of the back and to deny combination play through the midfield. Instead, the United States wanted to force Mexico into making long, diagonal passes, believing it held an advantage in the air.
Besler and Gonzalez had worked together for a month in a January training camp. And on Tuesday, they seemed assured and connected.
“I think anyone is going to feel a little nervous at the start of the game,” said Besler, who learned at lunchtime Tuesday that he would be starting. “But once it started, I just tried to treat it like another game, stay focused. My teammates helped me out a lot. Me and Omar have a good understanding.”
The January camp was crucial, Gonzalez said.
“Obviously, it felt really comfortable,” he said of Tuesday’s match. “We were on the same page. Getting that shutout was great. Going down the line, I think that could be a good pairing.”
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