You made a grave mistake
Shouldn't of come here, you changed your fate
Your brains'll make the debut on the table when I raise the stakes
The pain is great but only for a second
It starts strong then lessens
Just when you restin the Armaggedon sets in
Left him with so much stress.
Blessed him with no regrets.
Welcome to Hell, son, the threshold of death.

I'll be honest, going into this game I was nervous. Not because of what the U.S. could do, but what Mexico would fail to do. We've known for years that Mexico's worst enemy is themselves. Stepping up on occasion, only to let you down when confidence is at an all time high. So, with that cautious confidence, and the guarded high spirits still lingering from the Gold Cup final, I tuned in yesterday afternoon to watch a pivotal World Cup qualifier against the U.S. national team.

Imagine my surprise when I saw the U.S. actually come out looking to take the game to Mexico, and in the process actually score the first goal of the game only 8 minutes in. "Fuck, here we go", I thought to myself, "This shit is only gonna get worse if that's how we're going to defend". Luckily, this feeling only lasted about 10 minutes and what once was a ballsy offense-minded tactic, reverted back to it's bitch ways of counter + long balls over the top. After the U.S. scored its goal, I can count their offensive pushes on one hand, without having to be Antonio Alfonseca.

With total possession, and a tie score, it was a matter of time before we were able to open the flood gates. Unfortunately, we were playing with 10 men because Guillermo Franco was about as useful in our offensive half as a fucking parking cone. Nonetheless, he was allowed to play deep into the second half. Had someone like Carlos Vela been in there from the start, we wouldn't have had the displeasure of watching Blanco's through balls go without a target, or passes ricochet off his stone feet. The man doesn't even have a team, and yet he gets to start in a qualifier. Go figure. Fortunately, we had the super-sub heroics of Miguel Sabah. An act he perfected coming off the bench at Chivas.

Before that goal, spazzos everywhere were probably already typing up their articles, and posts proclaiming a brave American effort against those mean Mexicans and their classless fans. The reality is the U.S. played 8 minutes and 42 seconds of offensive soccer. The rest was spent on defensive clearances and 3 long balls to Davies - so I guess that makes it about 9 minutes and 26 seconds of offensive soccer. In the past, this has been enough to get the win, especially against Mexico, but it didn't work out that way yesterday.

So after seeing that, you'd think everyone would agree that the U.S. did little to win this game, and admit that Mexico deserved the victory. You thought wrong. Here's what Landon Donovan had to say after the game,

"Look, [Castro] hits an absolute dream goal," he said. "You give that guy 1,000 shots like that, he's not going to score that goal. So it's a little unfortunate for us that he scored that goal, and then at the end maybe they get a little lucky with a bounce in the box. It's frustrating".

I expected nothing less, thank you for that Donovan. Lets play down the importance of a World Cup qualifier and make it seem like a throwaway game. I guess it explains his efforts in yesterdays game since he basically mailed it in after his assist, and got burned by Efrain Juarez' run before Mexico's second goal. What an asshole.

Mexico won, and won well, but it'll take something a little more convincing for others it seems...

It looks like a reminder's in order.