USA slam Mexico to reach Germany

4 September 2005
by AP

Qualifying for the FIFA World Cup is sweet. Doing it against your archrival is nirvana. The United States is headed to next year's finals in Germany after beating Mexico 2-0 Saturday night thanks to goals by Steve Ralston and DaMarcus Beasley five minutes apart in the second half.

The quick strikes, after a sloppy and chippy first half, lifted the Americans into the 32-team tournament with three games to spare. It was the first time since 1934 that the Americans were the first team into the FIFA World Cup from the North, Central American and the Caribbean zone.

It's also the fifth straight finals appearance for the Americans, who are ranked sixth in the world, one spot behind Mexico.

The win avenged a 2-1 loss in Mexico City in March and gave American goalkeeper Kasey Keller his 50th career victory for the national team. The United States has not lost to Mexico on American soil since 1999, and has not yielded any goals in that span, either.

On both U.S. goals, Mexico seemed confused who should be where on set plays. Eddie Lewis' floating free kick was headed by Oguchi Onyewu, whose 6-foot-4 height came in handy as he soared over the smallish, befuddled defense. His shot hit the goalpost and bounded into the air directly to the unmarked Ralston for his second career international goal.

That woke up the flag-waving, red-white-and-blue clad American fans, who began pounding the bleachers with their feet. The noise seemed to further unnerve the visitors, and they were out of position on a short U.S. corner kick.

The ball came to Claudio Reyna and the unmarked U.S. captain fed an equally wide-open Beasley. His twisting left-footed kick soared over goalie Oswaldo Sanchez, who had no chance.

From there, it was a matter of getting another shutout for Keller, who now has blanked five straight opponents in qualifying and has a scoreless streak of 507 minutes in all. The Americans are 6-1 in the final qualifying round and play at Guatemala on Wednesday, when most of the regulars will be excused.

Mexico (5-1-1) still need another point in its final three games to make Germany 2006.

At the final whistle, most of the 24,685 fans chanted "U-S-A! U-S-A!" as several players ran off the bench wrapped in American flags. All of the Americans were handed flags, which they then draped on their shoulders or waved to the crowd as fireworks lit the sky.