Ouch!

The US took it on the chin on Sunday in Mexico City, losing to Mexico 2-1, and the match wasn't that close. US Coach Bruce Arena chose to go with a mostly European-based squad that hadn't had a lot of altitude training, and it showed. The US was seriously gassed after the first 30 minutes of play, and gave up 2 goals in a 3 minute span. The first Mexican goal (Borgetti) was a thing of beauty, but the second saw Mexico's Naelson all alone in front of US keeper Kasey Keller with no defenders in sight. Eddie Lewis got the US on the board in the 59th minute, but there was never a sense that the Yanks would come back to tie. With the loss, the Yanks' 16 match unbeaten streak overall and 31-match CONCACAF unbeaten streak came to an end. They better get their act cleaned up for Guatemala on Wednesday in Birmingham, AL. The Chapines routed Trinidad 5-1 on Saturday.

Game Reports from:
Stephen Goff (Washington Post)
Grahame Jones (LA Times)
Filip Bondy (NY Daily News)

Current CONCACAF Standings
Top 3 qualify directly to WC 2006, the fourth placed team plays the Asian 5th place team for a berth
After 2 rounds of 10 (W-L-T, Pts, GD)
1. Mexico 2-0-0, 6, +2
2. Guatemala 1-0-1, 4, +4
t3. USA 1-1-0, 3, +0
t3. Costa Rica 1-1-0, 3, +0
5. Panama 0-1-1, 1 -1
6. Trinidad 0-2-0, 0, -5

Schedule for Wed, March 30th
Guatemala at USA (Birmingham, AL), espn2, 8pm
Mexico at Panama
Costa Rica at Trinidad