Rather than let this wait till morning, I thought I'd just float a single, rambling thought while the game is fresh in the memory...
Great game. Great final. The better team won and the hex is lifted. Old Mexico would have gone down 2-0 and proceeded to self-destruct. New Mexico played their game and deserved to win because of it. The balance of power has shifted (back) in the region.
Congrats to Mexico.
...
Afterthought #1: Though he did a couple of useful things in his minutes at the end, you knew that the insertion of Kljestan meant no more goals were coming for the US, didn't you? I hereby christen "Throwing In the Kljestan" as the US Soccer equivalent of boxing's towel.
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Afterthought #2: To my dying day, I will stand beside that eerie premonitions from the semi-final comment thread and those of Sean's Mexican co-workers mentioned there. In some parallel plane, there's a match where Cherundolo doesn't get hurt and/or Bob doesn't resort to the Bornstein option (a marginally less destructive version of the nuclear option). In this universe, there is no Bornstein-ian gap for the Mexicans to exploit. In this universe, the result happens as intuited.
Fear the Bornstein Effect.
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Afterthought #3: Hmmm. Just noticed my two afterthoughts center on two of "Bob's boys." You know, the ones who keep getting called in and that he relies upon regardless of form, playing time, previous failures, and the goddamn evidence that sits in a steaming pile in front of our collective set of eyes?
...
Couldn't just let it go, could I? Still enjoyed the game, despite the result. A new era for CONCACAF now that the Warner-shaped tumor has been removed from the corpus?
Let's hope.
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