I didn't see the whole game; saw the first half and the last 10 minutes. Holy crap was that slanted officiating! I don't know that I necessarily buy the "FIFA fixed it" theory espoused above. However, I'm more than willing to buy the "ref wants to leave Azteca Stadium in one piece" theory. I understand that the home team usually gets the lion's share of close calls, but that was at best benignly poor officiating, and at worst, abject cowardice. Just shameful.
Soccer is the most fixed sport in the world, all around the world, at all levels, and its the easiest sport to fix as well. This game WAS fixed. If Mexico would've lost, they would've been 4 points behind Honduras for the 3rd spot and FIFA cant let that happen since it would've pretty much eliminated Mexico as their next game is at Estadio Saprissa(Costa Rica), which is one of the toughest places to play in CONCACAF as they have artificial turf and the fans are really close to the field
I understand soccer quite well as I lived in Germany for two years and Italy for four (Forza Azzuri)....I saw Giorgio Chinaglia and Dina Zoff playing in their prime. Sounds to me like the U.S. team has only scored a couple goals in the last 20 games at Azteca. Both teams have to play in the same altitude and smog, it's just that one team seems to always tighten up there. The problem with the U.S. team is largely due to very poor coaching. Like in the game versus Brazil, the U.S. side comes out very aggressively. Once the U.S. team scores they are happy with this and start playing a defensive game, even if there is still over half a game to be played. You cannot score and sit back and defend for 80 minutes....teams like Mexico, Brazil and Spain will kill you if you use this strategy. Coach Bob Bradley is a joke. Too bad we couldn't have had Jurgen Klinsmann running this team.
