[SOUTH AFRICA-MEXICO REPORT CARD] South Africa held Mexico to a 1-1 tie in a thrilling World Cup opener, but Bafana Bafana will rue its failure to pull off theupset. After a shaky first half, South Africa came on strong after the break and had the Tri on the ropes after Siphiwe Tshabalala scored in the55th […]
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Pressure on host South Africa
[SOCCER AMERICA PREDICTIONS] The World Cup begins on Friday when South Africa hosts Mexico and France meets Uruguay in Group A. The pressure will be on BafanaBafana to extend the unbeaten record of the host nation in its opening game at the World Cup. France and Uruguay will try to make amends for an ill-tempered […]
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Toughest World Cup job: opening game ref
By Paul Gardner A week to go for World Cup kickoff. A time of mounting excitement — and a time of mounting anxiety and nervousness. Nowhere can those last twoqualities be more pronounced than among the World Cup referees, the 30 officials selected to take charge of the 64 games. For the moment, 63 of […]
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Big boost to Tri's confidence
[MEXICO] Against defending champion Italy, which was fielding close to what is expected to be its starting lineup at the World Cup, Mexico earned an emphatic2-1 win in Thursday’s friendly played before a pro-Italian crowd of 30,000 fans in Brussels. Giovani dos Santos set up Carlos Vela for the first goal and former MLS star […]
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Jose Torres makes East Texas town proud
[USA 23] On a Wednesday in May, the news arrived that Jose Francisco Torres of the East Texas town of Longview had made the U.S. World Cupteam. On Thursday, when Margaret Wright arrived to teach at Foster Henry Middle School, half her pupils announced they were related to Jose. “This is so huge here,” saidWright […]
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Jonathan dos Santos one of last cuts
[MEXICO] Jonathan dos Santos won’t be joining brother Giovani at the World Cup.The 19-year-old Barcelona midfielder was one of three players dropped to get Mexico’s World Cup squad down to 23 players. Mexico has played three games since heading to Europe. It willplay defending champion Italy on Thursday before heading to South Africa, where it […]
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Chivas stars lead Mexico romp
[WORLD CUP COUNTDOWN] In its third match in seven days, Mexico beat Gambia, 5-1, in Bayreuth, Germany. The Tri got two goals apiece from Guadalajara teammatesJavier Hernandez and Adolfo Bautista. — In Coach Sven-GoranEriksson’s first game in charge, Ivory Coast blew a two-goal lead and had to settle for a 2-2 tie with Paraguay. “We lost […]
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Oranje delight in Van Persie's comeback
[WORLD CUP COUNTDOWN] Who needs Wesley Sneijder, Arjen Robben and Mark van Bommel when you have Robin van Persie? Mexico had played England on Monday, starting most of its first-team players, so Tri coach Javier Aguirre gave many reserves a start against the Dutch, who dominated the first half.
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Stuttering performance answers few questions
[ENGLAND] England looked the less polished but more efficient team Tuesday in beating Mexico, 3-1, at Wembley Stadium, with the word “patchy”cropping up in headlines and match reports. Mexico’s ability to stitch together passes and twice breach the English back line with through balls unnerved a sellout crowd of morethan 88,000 fans during a lively […]
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Tri defense is exposed
[MEXICO] After giving up just one goal in eight friendlies before heading off to Europe to begin final preparations for the World Cup, Mexico finally faced alegitimate contender and conceded three goals to England with remarkable ease. The bad news is Coach Javier Aguirre has only a day to repair things before theTri’s next game […]