Geoff Cameron scored the first goal for the United States, heading in a free kick from Michael Bradley in the first half to even the game 1-1. Photo by Will Lester // Daily Bulletin
On playing in this game: It’s an honor. You represent your country, put on the national team jersey and get to play in a stadium like this. In fron to f90,000 people, whether they’re Mexican fans or American fans, it’s an amazing feeling. Every day that you get to represent your country, you walk out in front of 90,000 people, whether they’re hating you or cheering for you, it’s an amazing feeling.
Feelings on the game: I’m pretty disappointed. To fight back 1-1 then give up a goal, then tie it 2-2, you feel like you’re going into penalties, a couple minutes left in the game, then the guy scores a good-looking goal. If you’re going to lose, you might as well lose like that. But obviously disappointed because we showed resilience, we showed the effort that we had, never say die attitude and we left it all on the field. It’s a tough one to swallow.
On what his team showed: I think we showed how tough we are to break down, even though they had three goals, 3-2, it’s just disappointing to come so close then the last couple minutes of the game, you can do back through the 90 minutes or 120 minutes and you can break down when we could have been better, but at the end of the day, we showed the resilience we had and we showed the passion. It’s just one of those.
On the stakes that were riding on this game: We’re almost playing an away game, you could say. You can definitely feel it here, our fans supporting us for sure. I’m sure they’re disappointed just as much as we are. With a rivalry like this, you always want America to beat Mexico and I’m sure Mexico wants to beat America. That’s what the rivalry is all about and that’s why it makes it such a special game. To be a part of it, this is a game where you go to extra time, we wish it was a better ending for us, but we gotta move forward. We can’t dwell on this, we got another game Tuesday and we gotta turn this around.
If he though it was going to PKs after Bobby Wood’s goal: Yeah, they changed their formation when they went up 2-1. They kind of dropped back and allowed us to get back into the game. We started getting possession and we started creating some chances. Bobby gets into the back of the net then we’re tied 2-2, it’s going back and forth and all of the sudden a couple of minutes left, a free kick, we clear our lines, the ball pops up and it’s a goal. In my mind, I’m thinking, let’s keep it tight, let’s make it very difficult for them to score like we always try to do. You always want to close out games, take it into penalties. For me, seeing the guys training this week, practicing our penalties, I believe in Brad. I thought we were going to win it, but it’s just one of those you have to swallow and go into the next one.
