The United States suffered a bump on their Olympic qualification journey Wednesday during a 1-0 loss to archrival Mexico in Guadalajara. But where one side's hopes fall, another side's rises as Mexico put themselves in the driver's seat of being able to compete in the 2021 Tokyo Games. Both teams will still advance from their group and into the semifinals as they'd already won their first two matches. And both would qualify for the Olympics with wins in their respective semifinal matchups
The difference-maker of this game happened at the end of the first half. A loose pass from Sebastian Soto deep in the United States half of the pitch found the feet of Uriel Antuna, who made a slight deke at the top of the penalty box then cut from the left towards the middle to fire a shot past the outstretched arms of American keeper David Ochoa.
Of course, it wouldn't be a true Mexico-USA match without some bad blood that spilled a bit on the pitch. Late in the second half, the Mexican crowd was whipped into a frenzy when Johan Vasquez tried to draw a foul on Ochoa by standing in front of the keeper as he tried to get a break started. Ochoa did give a very light shove but the action would be described more as a block than a charge in basketball, and the official deemed it as such initially giving Vasquez a yellow card for the action. However, Ochoa also received a yellow when he continued to antagonize the Mexican players surrounding him, even giving another a harder shove. It wasn't the brightest moment for the young keeper, but at least he was able to put together one cool highlight.
This does not mean that the tournament hopes are over, per se. The next set of games for the CONCACAF squads trying to get to Tokyo is a semifinal game among the four teams that top the two groups. Mexico is in a more advantageous position for the semifinals in qualification because of this win, but the United States would still head to the Olympics if they win their next match against either Honduras or Canada, depending on who finishes the top of Group B -- which consists of Canada, Honduras, El Salvador and Haiti.
That's still a big if for the United States, who, on an international level, are on a road to trying to gain back respect after missing out on the last World Cup. This under 23 squad is certainly far removed from that senior team that failed to make it to France a few years back, but their performance Wednesday left a lot to be desired, their first disappointing outing of the qualification campaign. If that continues Sunday, there might be another missed major competition in this team's future.
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March 25, 2021 at 05:01PM
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USMNT U-23 vs Mexico score: United States loses 1-0, in Concacaf Olympic qualifying group stage finale - CBS Sports
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