U.S. U20s spike Mexico in historic 1-0 win

U.S. U20s spike Mexico in historic 1-0 win
by Will Parchman
February 27, 2017

If U.S. coach Tab Ramos was seeking out a tone-setting win to carry his side through to the U20 World Cup, he got one on Monday.

Thanks to a towering Erik Palmer-Brown headed goal off a Brooks Lennon corner a half hour into the match, the U.S. U20 MNT squeezed past Mexico 1-0 in the first of two games in the second qualification phase for the U20 World Cup. The U.S. has one more match in qualifying against El Salvador, and the win over Mexico puts them in the driver’s seat. All they’ll need is a draw from that match to guarantee advancement, but they could conceivably go through without one.

The U.S. started this tournament with a deflating 1-0 loss against 10-man Panama, but they’ve gradually cranked up the heat in the following matches. They out-scored St. Kitts and Nevis and Haiti a combined 8-1 and carried that rising form into Monday’s match. And this was about as good as it gets for the U.S. U20 MNT. In fact, it was the first U.S. win over Mexico at the U20 level in an official match since 1986.

Mexico was more or less powerless to break through the U.S.’s iron curtain midfield throughout. Erik Palmer-Brown had by far his strongest match as a sitting midfielder, adroitly busting up attacks and cutting off passing angles. That freed the central midfield duo of Tyler Adams and Eryk Williamson to be a collective nuisance higher upfield and buzz around possession. Neither are born creators, and the U.S. struggled to generate much attacking traction up the middle channel. But that ultimately didn’t matter in the end.

The U.S. cultivated almost every single substantive opportunity off the flanks, relying on whipped-in crosses from wide midfielders Luca de la Torre and Lennon. It was the latter who was particularly dangerous, making the right flank a veritable hurricane of motion and sucking defenders to his side. It was largely through his moments of danger that the U.S. troubled Mexico the most.

But the real danger was in the Bermuda Triangle in the middle.

Palmer-Brown sitting in front of Justen Glad and Tommy Redding created a core of three central defenders clogging the middle and sweeping away a Mexico team that wanted desperately to play through the middle. Combined with the dropping help from Adams and Williamson, who played sort of rover roles, and Mexico was playing a losing numbers game throughout.

Hand it to Ramos, his strategy worked in spades on Monday. He matched strength with strength and his group proved to be more capable.

What’s more, the U.S. ultimately took all three points on a header off a well-worked set piece, a hallmark of American soccer teams for years at their best. Lennon’s arcing cross dropped almost directly onto Palmer-Brown’s head, and he used his physicality to muscle off the defender and hit the opposite netting with his chance. And that was that. The U.S. pressed and got out with a few more chances throughout, but it represented its only truly dangerous one. And it’s the only one that mattered.

On Mexico’s end, El Tri had zero chances of note. The U.S.’s high press routinely turned Mexico over inside Mexico’s own half, while Mexico struggled to do the same and had no substantive shots on Jonathan Klinsmann's net. In short, the U.S. imposed the tempo on this game, not the other way around. Mexico wanted slow and plodding, the U.S. wanted brief explosions of light. The latter strategy won.

This was the performance the U.S. was waiting for. And they got it.

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