Greatest World Cup matches: Mexico-USA (2002)

North and Central America had until the end of the 20th century been the most backward footballing region in the world, barring Oceania and Antarctica. The game had been totally dominated by Mexico, who was the only one to qualify again and again from the region (except in 1982 when Honduras and El Salvador qualified), but generally did rather poorly, except for when they hosted it in 1970 and 1986. The USA on the other hand had been totally absent from the world football stage from 1950 to 1990, but then started improving since the successful 1994 World Cup. In 1998 they had nevertheless been the worse team of the tournament, but had in 2002 under coach Bruce Arena built up a strong, disciplined and experienced side. Among these players were the Blackburn goalkeeper Brad Friedel, Ajax Amsterdam’s talented John O’Brien, the Columbus Crew striker Brian McBride and the hugely talented 20-year old Landon Donovan, playing for San José Earthquakes on a loan from Bayer Leverkusen. The team was captained by the veteran Claudio Reyna, with a long career in Europe and at the time in Sunderland.
As the US entered the tournament, everyone knew that they should not be underestimated, except perhaps Portugal, who played as if the match was decided beforehand when opening against the USA: the north Americans were ahead 3-0 after 40 minutes, and won the match 3-2. A tie against the South Corean hosts was enough to give the US the second spot in the group, in spite of losing their last match against Poland.
Mexico had qualified to the second round of every tournament since 1994, and had a solid team, with powerful strikers such as Jared Borghetti from Santos (who is the all-time leading goalscorer of the Mexican national team), the blond veteran Luis Hernández from América, and Real Valladolid’s Cuahtemoc Blanco. In midfield they had Sevilla’s Gerardo Torrado and in defense they had the strong Monaco defender Rafael Márquez, who was also the captain of the team.
Mexico had impressed in the first round: they had opened by defeating the always’strong Croatians 1-0 and Ecuador 2-1. In their last match against Italy, 1-1 had been enough for them to win the group ahead of the Italians.
The two neighbours with the love-hate relations, and strongest nations in the CONCACAF region were now to face one another for the first time ever in a World Cup. Mexico were obviously favourites after their splendid start to the tournament, but the US players were sure to put up a strong fight.
Mexico started well, putting pressure on the US, and getting both a shot and a corner kick within the first five minutes. It seemed Mexico’s match, but after eight minutes the US attacked for the first time: Claudio Reyna made a splendid rush down the right side, outrunning two Mexican defenders. From the backline he passed the ball into the Chicago Fire striker Josh Wolff on the near post. Heavily pressed by a defender, Wolff passed the ball backward to a completely unmarked Brian McBride, who right in front of the goal placed the ball perfectly.
1-0 to the USA was very surprising, and gave the US team comfort in pulling back, letting the Mexicans come forward, and threaten on their quick counterattacks with Reyna and Donovan. The Mexicans were unable to create great chances, except for a powerful header by Jared Borgetti after a Brad Friedel mistake, but the excellent goalkeeper saved the situation himself with an excellent block.
The second half started similarly to how the first half had ended, with Mexico trying to put pressure, but without getting clear chances, and with the Mexican strikers seeming strangely timid in front of goal.
Halfway into the second half the US scored a second goal on another of their rare but deadly counter-attacks: Fulham’s winger, Eddie Lewis got away on the left side and crossed the ball into the Mexican area, where Landon Donovan perfectly headed the ball into goal.
Against all odds the efficient team USA was up 2-0 against their Mexican neighbours, who were getting more and more disillusioned as the match progressed, and it became more and more obvious that they would be unable to open up the efficient US defense. In the last minutes the frustration grew into violence, as the Mexican captain Rafael Márquez was sent off with a direct red card for an outrageous attack on the US striker Cobi Jones.
In the end, Mexico’s disappointed players didn’t even fall with grace in this unexpected defeat to the US, who had shown they were worthy winners. In the quarterfinal they narrowly lost 1-0 to Germany, but with this victory against Mexico they had proven that they were one of the top eight footballing nations in the world, and that they should never be underestimated.

Match Stats:

• 17th June, 2002, Jeonju World Cup Stadium, Jeonju
• Attendance: 36,380
• Referee: Vitor Melo Pereira (Portugal)

Mexico-USA 0-2
Goals: 0-1 McBride (8), 0-2 Donovan (65)

Teams:
Mexico: Pérez; Márquez (RC, 88), Torrado (Garcia Aspe), Vidrio (Mercado), Morales (L. Hernández), Borgetti, Blanco, Luna, Carmona, J. Rodriguez, Arellano
USA: Friedel; Berhalter, Mastroeni (Llamosa), O’Brien, Lewis, Pope, Reyna, Sanneh, Wolff (Stewart), McBride (Jones), Donovan

Greatest World Cup matches: USA-Iran (1998)

The history of football goes parallel to the history of the world, and sometimes football matches have been more noted for their political significance than for their footballing importance. The USA against Iran in the first round of the 1998 World Cup in France was such a match.
Since the 1979 revolution in Iran, the two countries had no diplomatic relations and relations had been (and continue to be) quite tense. In that regard, it raised some eyebrows then the two countries drew each other in the first round, together with Yugoslavia and Germany. Undoubtedly, Germany and Yugoslavia were considered the favourites in a group where Iran and USA were nothing but footballing dwarfs. Still, the match drew a lot of attention, in particular in the football-crazed Iran, where a victory against the USA apparently meant more than even progressing to the next round.
In the USA, football (or soccer) remained a small sport, although it was growing after the successful 1994 World Cup. A Major Soccer League had been started in the country, and many of its players were getting experience playing in Europe. Although still a minor player in footballing terms, there was no doubt that it was a growing power. In spite of this, the team had before the tournament and been full of internal intrigues that was truly affecting the team on the pitch.
The team had started the tournament by losing 2-0 to a strong German side.
Football in Iran is immensely popular, and in the 1970s Iran dominated the Asian championships and in 1978 also qualified for their first World Cup. However, the political turmoil and war with Iraq also influenced the national football side, that throughout the 1980s was absent from international football (they did not even play qualifiers for the 1982 and 1986 World Cups). But in the 1990s Iranian football began to recover, something that culminated in 1997: in a close 2-game play-off against Australia, Iran qualified for the World Cup in France, and the country celebrated wildly.
Iran’s team was without doubt very talented. The star was Arminia Bielefeld’s Ali Daei, who was soon to join Bayern Munich, and is still the player that has scored most goals on international matches ever (109 goals, ahead of Ferenc Puskas and Pelé). But there was also the charismatic and strong midfielder Karim Bagheri, also from Arminia Bielefeld, the FC Cologne striker Khodad Azizi, and the young super talent from Bochum, Mehdi Mahdavikia.
Iran had started the tournament with a narrow 1-0 loss to Yugoslavia. Therefore the second match where the USA and Iran faced one another was crucial: the loser would be definitely out of the tournament even before the last match. However, this circumstance was largely overshadowed by the media attention around the political situation between the two countries.
Before the match, both teams showed some of the greatest sportsmanship, exemplifying to both their hostile governments that football is not politics. The team’s players presented each other with flowers and gifts, and the team picture was taken together.
Nonetheless, in sporting terms, both teams needed a victory, and both started out carefully, seeing off each other, with sporadic chances and fighting strongly. In particular the Iranians were motivated by the largely Iranian crowd cheering them on, and they increasingly dominated the match. Only five minutes from halftime, a cross from Javad Zarincheh into the US area was beautifully headed into goal by a completely unmarked Hamid Esteli, from the Iranian club Bahman F.C. Esteli’s euphoric celebration was reminiscent of Tardelli’s when he scored in the 1982 World Cup final.
In the second half the North Americans had to put more pressure to get an equalizer as the match grew in intensity. The Iranians fought hard, stood well in defence, and were increasingly dangerous on their counter-attacks with their quick strikers. It was in one of these counter-attacks that Iran went ahead 2-0: Ali Daei elegantly got between three US players and made a deep pass to Mahdavikia. The US defence was completely torn apart and Mahdavikia had the option to pass to a team-mate who was alone in the centre, but instead he rushed straight towards the North American goal and shot hard in the low corner.
The last eight minutes of the match were perhaps much more dramatic that they should have been. Instinctively the Iranians pulled back to defend, while the US pushed all forward. Soon after the Iranian goal, the first warning came when the French-American defender David Regis hit the post in an open position. And only three minutes before time the Columbus Crew striker, Brian McBride scored on a diving header. At the score 2-1 the Iranians were very nervous, and the Americans had some good chances. But the score held to the end of the match.
The victory was very important for Iran, as it also represented their first World Cup victory ever. But after losing their final match 2-0 to Germany, they were out of the tournament. The US also lost 1-0 to Yugoslavia in their last match, and thus exited the tournament with three loses as the worse team together with Japan.
This match was the most important ever between footballing midgets.
The US has continued with huge advances in football, qualifying for every world cup since, and even making it to the quarter-finals in 2002.
Iran participated in the 2006 World Cup, but lost to Mexico and Portugal and tied Angola.

Match Stats:

• 21st June 1998, Estade Gerland, Lyon
• Attendance: 39,100
• Referee: Urs Meier (Switzerland)

USA-Iran 1-2
Goals: 0-1 Estili (40), 0-2 Mahdavikia (84), 1-2 McBride (87)

Teams:
USA: Keller; Hejduk, Pope, Dooley (Maisonneuve), Regis, Wegerle (Radosavljevic), Moore, Ramos (Stewart), Jones, McBride, Reyna
Iran: Abedzadeh; Mahdavikia, Khakpour, Bagheri, Estili, Daei, Azizi (Mansourian), Mohammadkhani (Peyrovani), Zarincheh (Sadavi Sad), Pashazadeh, Minavand