Finally! It was 75 years in the making, but the United States Men's National Team finally won a game on Mexican soil. They came into the game 0-23-1 all-time against El Tri in Mexico. Moreover, the win came at the Azteca, Mexican soccer's 100,000+ person capacity fortress.
And to think, all it took was former Union player Michael Orozco Fiscal scoring his first international goal by redirecting a speculative back-heeled pass/shot from Terrence Boyd past Mexican keeper Guillermo Ochoa. It's just how Jurgen Klinsmann drew it up. Oh, and it helped that US goalkeeper Tim Howard was the best player on the field.
Video of the historic goal after the Jump...
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It's not often that three substitutes combine to score a goal, but that's what happened on Wednesday night. Brek Shea took on and beat his defender, got to the end line and played a dangerous ball across the six yard box. Terrence Boyd held off his mark and manged to back-heel the ball to an unmarked Orozco Fiscal, who was able to push the ball into the Mexico goal. From there, despite a nervy moment or two, the US was able to kill off the game.
Yes, it was only friendly. And yes, the ability to make six substitutions instead of the normal three helped too, but make no mistake about it, this was a historic win. Truth be told, Mexico outplayed the US all night. Were it not for Tim Howard's performance the US could have just as easily conceded two or three goals. But, and this a big but, the US is able to rely on the world-class goalkeeping of Timmay!
Howard robbed Chicharito on a deflected shot that wrong-footed the New Jersey native. He somehow managed to regather and shift his weight and momentum to get a hand on the ball. Later he absolutely robbed Chicharito again by parrying a header away and then pushing it out of harms way with his feet while prone on the ground. Quite simply, Howard was immense.
Without question, even more so than the US win against Italy in Italy, the victory over Mexico at the Azteca is the signature win of Jurgen Klinsmann's brief USMNT coaching career.