Ouch! That hurts.

I had to leave the television just after Mexico finessed a sweet little combination into their third goal of the match today. I just logged in and saw that the final was 5-0, the worst drubbing the men's side has had in over twenty years. I am tempted to say, 'yeah, but it was a side with ten rookies and one veteran coming back from an injury' but I don't know if that's sufficient to characterize what happened. Several things seemed clear to me. After Mexico scored on the PK they increasingly relaxed into 'their' game and that made a great difference. The mind is the most important muscle in a soccer match. We tell ourselves what we can and can't do...and we're usually closer to right than not. Another clarity: the men's side took yet another red card, perhaps deserved perhaps not. The thing is, in my experience over the years, refs are more likely to pull red on a team they think already has a rep as thugs. You want to watch out for getting a rep.

Item, I thought the US guys did yeoman work, particularly with their backs to goal in the scrums after the PK. It took El Tri three shots to get the ball in on the second goal; it's not like the US guys just folded. So that leads me to another thought. The ostensible reason to put this young side out on the pitch is to broaden the US experience in internationals.

I'm in favor of that, think it's brilliant. At the same time, I hope the eleven or so young men who took the field today don't hang their heads or take the loss too hard. We need them. And we need them to want to 'go to war' to erase the sting of today. We play El Tri in Mexico next month. We have struggled there as they have struggled here. Maybe it's time for a change. Next year we will get no second chances.