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Young Americans Denied Harshly | 
A capacity crowd of more than 78,000 was in attendance at the CONCACAF Gold Cup final on Sunday. At the full time whistle, Giants Stadium appeared to be a sight of gross injustice more than anything else. After resiliently fighting with their third-string side for the entire tournament, the Americans finally fell to their bitter regional rivals, Mexico, albeit very harshly.
Following an extremely well-matched first half, the second period tilted in favor of the visitors, who ironically were completely at home as the crowd was packed with a high majority in attendance being U.S. based Mexican supporters. I will shortly reflect on how the lack of support on this important matchday cost the United States. For now, it is important to clarify why the ”home team” was unlucky despite the emphatic nature of the 5-0 scoreline against Bob Bradley’s men.
As the United States began to look dangerous in the opening stages of the second half, Mexico was awarded a penalty that was as false as it could get. Tottenham’s Giovanni Dos Santos, who is actually supposed to be in England along with Arsenal’s Carlos Vela, elbowed through the U.S. defense and eventually lost his balance. Rather than picking up a booking for his unsportsmanlike actions, however, he was awarded a penalty as around 95 percent of the crowd roared with joy.
It was indeed a shock to see the crowd being almost completely devoid of support for the crestfallen Americans. I strongly believe that the lack of presence on part of U.S. fans led to the disastrous penalty decision in the first place as the opposition fans created the exact atmosphere that is required to capture the occasion. When Gerardo Torrado finally netted the penalty, a sea of green took over Giants Stadium.
Just when it seemed that the Mexican supporters couldn’t get any more vocal, they did exactly that. This went a long way in demoralizing the American youngsters to the point where they shipped four more goals almost way too softly to believe. At that point, I could not help but imagine how different things could have been had the crowd been more loyal, respectful, and most importantly, more supportive towards the United States.
At the end of the day, I know the books will only account for the fact that the United States was comprehensively beaten with the score being 5-0. In addition, most U.S. fans are also showing enough intelligence to create distance with this defeat in order to move on to next month’s crucial World Cup qualifier away to Mexico. While I fully endorse this optimistic philosophy in approaching such a tough away game, I sincerely hope that crowds at the homes games of the United States can offer some more encouragement to our developing team.
How will the United States rebound from this match? Have your say below!
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